Alex Constantine - May 16, 2009
Ralph Engelstad, owner of the Imperial Palace casino in Las Vegas, is in a bit of hot water because of a birthday party he threw yesterday evening in a private suite of his hotel. Probably because it was a birthday party for Adolph Hitler.
Englestad is originally from Minnesota, but is a graduate of—and prominent donor to—the University of North Dakota. He moved to Vegas in the 1950s and got in on the (sort of) ground floor of the growing gambling trade and has since become one of the most successful independent hotel owners in the city. Oh, and he also loves him some Nazis. Casino employees say Englestad's primary joy in life is his "War Room, a 3,000-square-foot private suite filled with Nazi memorabilia-heroic murals of Adolph Hitler and staff, swastikas and Nazi daggers, and military cars used by Mussolini and by Hitler and his Third Reich henchmen Himmler and Göring."
Here's the real shocker—he's also a bit of bastard! Employees were afraid to question or blow the whistle on him out of fear of retribution, which may or not have include being shipped out of state in box cars. Lawsuits that have just now become public accuse Englestad of religious discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful termination and, of course, anti-Semitism. This is actually the second Hitler birthday bash that Englestad has thrown in the hotel. But hey, at least there was cake!
Another guest says that during this year's party Engelstad "forced some Jewish employees to come against their wishes. He wanted one Jew to cut the cake, but the person ducked out. Ralph ran around trying to find him."
This guy isn't a Holocaust denier ... he's a Holocaust enjoyer!
http://deadspin.com/5256436/deadspin-classic-north-dakotas-nazi+loving-alumni-donor