PALAZZO OPENS; 40/40 WOWS ‘EM

The world’s latest megacasino, Sheldon Adelson’s $1.8 billion Palazzo, welcomed its first guests about 7 p.m. Sunday night, with several thousand of them squeezing in Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club, a sports fans dream.

It’s the first new hotel-casino since April 2005, when the $2.6 billion Wynn Las Vegas opened.

The most popular destination of the night was the 40/40 Club, where music mogul Jay-Z was joined by superstar girlfriend Beyonce Knowles, NBA All-Star LeBron James, and dozens of other celebrities and VIPs.

It is Jay-Z’s third 40/40 Club in four years and it was drawing raves, It features one of the largest TV screens in Las Vegas, and that’s saying something in a city of super-sized sports books. More than 80 plasma screens are set up throughout the club. Hundreds of first-nighters watched from amphitheater-like seating arrangement. Jay-Z said he’s taking the concept to Macau next.

— NORM CLARKE, Vegas Confidential