Just announced: Fremont Street is becoming the newest entertainment hub of Las Vegas.

There’s old news if I ever heard one. Fremont already is entertaining. I mean, its hookers and dealers look mighty entertaining to me. Apparently, though, the mayor had another kind of Fremont Street Experience in mind.

Fremont Street no longer wants to be the downtown that connotes sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll. Nope, it wants to be the downtown that conjures cosmopolitan bars and street cafés, art galleries, urban chic holes-in-the-wall. Yup: Fremont Street, New York.

Say goodbye to slipping Vegas tips under the table and inside black lacey undies; say hello to getting Vegas tips on three card poker in a fancy gaming table. Not a fair trade but you can’t stop this new development—the city and property owners are shelling out $5.9 million together to give Fremont Street a makeover starting in August.

The Las Vegas city government and business sector are volting in to transform a six-block area of Fremont into a downtown arts and entertainment district. The area, now christened as the Fremont East District, runs from the east side of Las Vegas Boulevard to Eighth Street, and from the north to south stretches of Ogden to Carson avenues.

What’s to be expected? A classier nightlife, it seems. To see if this is true, check out Fremont’s newly opened clubs and bars:  Take 1 Nightclub, Beauty Bar, Hennessey’s Tavern, and Micki Finnz Fish House and Bar. The Griffin on Fremont Street, a cocktail room called Downtown, and a jazz club called Brass are also about to open. Do let us know if we’re missing anything or it’s all baloney.

Property owners are chipping in some $2 million of the total cost. The intention is to offer something other than the mega-nightlife in hotel casinos at the Strip. Among others, bars sitting next to each other, valet parking on the street, and cheaper liquor licenses. Also, Las Vegas has pledged a 10,000-sq.ft. nightclub at 601 E. Fremont Street.

As for those Vegas tips on three card poker, you might actually end up getting them in bed. Someone else’s bed, that is, since the new clubs and bars are being matched by new condominium towers. Streamline Towers on Las Vegas Boulevard will open 278 condominium units in the summer of 2008. Lord knows Tobey Maguire and Nicky Hilton are still on a shopping spree for a new Vegas home.

[Who will entertain us with a horse racing victory at DelMar and Saratoga? Play to win at the Del Mar & Saratoga Horse Racing Contest for the Delmar and Toga  2006 summer race meets.]

[The most entertaining things about Las Vegas style gambling can be had at Paradise Poker, an online poker room with great internet poker games plus online poker freerolls, tournaments, and jackpots.]