{"id":139675,"date":"2020-06-24T13:05:43","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T20:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=139675"},"modified":"2020-06-25T09:51:45","modified_gmt":"2020-06-25T16:51:45","slug":"mgm-hit-with-calls-to-remove-foundation-room-religious-statues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-hit-with-calls-to-remove-foundation-room-religious-statues\/","title":{"rendered":"Mandalay Bay Draws Ire of Religious Leaders Over Foundation Room Statues"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: The Foundation Room issued a statement after publication of this article, saying it will be \u201cremoving the statue Mahavira from our premises\u201d and that it’s \u201c working diligently to ensure such insensitive depictions don\u2019t happen again.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________<\/i><\/p>\n

Religious leaders from five faiths are calling on MGM Resorts (MGM) to pull statues representing Hindu and Jain deities from the Foundation Room nightclub in the Mandalay Bay. They claim the objects’ presence in such a venue could be offensive to followers of those faiths.<\/p>\n

\"MGM
Several leaders are asking MGM to remove religious statues, including this one outside the Blues Foundation Room at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. (Image: KDWN.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The group \u2014 comprised of Buddhist Priest Matthew Fisher, Greek Orthodox Christian Priest Stephen Karcher, Jain leader Sulekh Jain, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, and Rabbi ElizaBeth Webb Beyer \u2014approached MGM interim CEO Bill Hornbuckle and Chairman Paul Salem about having the statues removed from the nightclub. They also demanded an apology from the gaming company for what they called religious \u201cinsensitivity.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Foundation Room nightclub is located on the 63rd<\/sup> floor of Mandalay Bay and also features several Hindu icons.<\/p>\n

“Hindu deities Lord Ganesha, Lord Shiva, goddess Saraswati, and others were meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be thrown around loosely in a casino night club for dramatic effects or mercantile\/other agenda,\u201d said Zed, the president of the Universal Society of Hinduism.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch denigration of sacred deities was hurtful to the devotees,\u201d<\/strong> Zed continued.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A request for comment to MGM by Casino.org was not replied to prior to publication of this article.<\/p>\n

Not Running Away From Karmic Ties<\/h2>\n

The Foundation Room doesn’t avoid its plays on Hindu and Jain culture. The venue’s website encourages club-goers to immerse themselves \u201cin our DEITY dancer experience\u201d while highlighting the goddesses \u201cwho add the perfect touch of high-class debauchery.\u201d<\/p>\n

As was the case with other nightclubs<\/a> and other non-gaming amenities, the Foundation Room was shuttered during the coronavirus closure. But its accompanying restaurant will participate in the Mandalay Bay restart next week.<\/p>\n

If the restaurant does open with the same d\u00e9cor, Jain leader Sulekh Jain \u2014 a leader of the faith of the same name \u2014 is among those that won’t be pleased.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Pratima (statue) of Lord Mahavira belonged in a temple for veneration and not to be misused or mishandled by the patrons of a night club,\u201d he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The faith leader says MGM should donate the statue to a Jain worship center.<\/p>\n

Social Media Sounds Off<\/h2>\n

Though the Foundation Room’s decorating choices aren’t yet making national headlines, there are calls on social media for the club to rid itself of the idols. Recently, several Jain members demanded the statues be removed via the nightclub’s Facebook page.<\/p>\n

\u201cReport foundation room las vegas for hurting Jain and hindu [sic] religion morals,\u201d writes one Facebook user. \u201cGovernment of America should take legal action against them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another said the Jain community would be \u201coverwhelmed\u201d if the pieces were pulled and \u201cnot only remove it, hand it to any Jain temple with all due respect.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: The Foundation Room issued a statement after publication of this article, saying it will be \u201cremoving the statue Mahavira from our premises\u201d and that it’s \u201c working diligently to ensure such insensitive depictions don\u2019t happen again.\u201d __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Religious leaders from five faiths are calling on MGM Resorts (MGM) to pull statues representing Hindu and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":139677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,33810],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMGM Hit With Calls to Remove Foundation Room Religious Statues<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"MGM Resorts is under pressure by faith leaders to remove religious statues from the Foundation Room nightclub in Mandalay Bay.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MGM Hit With Calls to Remove Foundation Room Religious Statues\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MGM Resorts is under pressure by faith leaders to remove religious statues from the Foundation Room nightclub in Mandalay Bay.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-hit-with-calls-to-remove-foundation-room-religious-statues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-24T20:05:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-06-25T16:51:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/fr2-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1818\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@etfgodfather\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-hit-with-calls-to-remove-foundation-room-religious-statues\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-hit-with-calls-to-remove-foundation-room-religious-statues\/\",\"name\":\"MGM Hit With Calls to Remove Foundation Room Religious Statues\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-hit-with-calls-to-remove-foundation-room-religious-statues\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-hit-with-calls-to-remove-foundation-room-religious-statues\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/fr2-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-06-24T20:05:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-06-25T16:51:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\"},\"description\":\"MGM Resorts is under pressure by faith leaders to remove religious statues from the Foundation Room nightclub in Mandalay Bay.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-hit-with-calls-to-remove-foundation-room-religious-statues\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-hit-with-calls-to-remove-foundation-room-religious-statues\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-hit-with-calls-to-remove-foundation-room-religious-statues\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/fr2-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/fr2-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1818,\"caption\":\"Five religious leaders are demanding MGM remove Hindu and Jain statues from the Foundation Room nightclub in the Mandalay Bay. (Image: KDWN.com)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-hit-with-calls-to-remove-foundation-room-religious-statues\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Gaming Business\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gaming-business\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Mandalay Bay Draws Ire of Religious Leaders Over Foundation Room Statues\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\",\"name\":\"Todd Shriber\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Todd Shriber\"},\"description\":\"Todd Shriber is a senior news reporter covering gaming financials, casino business, stocks, and mergers and acquisitions for Casino.org. Todd got his start in financial markets as a reporter with Bloomberg News. Later, he became a trader at a Southern California-based long\/short hedge fund, where he specialized in the trading sector and international ETFs leading up to and during the financial crisis. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Currently, Todd analyzes, researches, and writes on ETFs for various web-based publications and financial services firms. Shriber has been featured and quoted in Barron's, CNBC.com, and The Wall Street Journal. His work can also be found on Benzinga, ETF Daily News, ETF Trends, MarketWatch, Fox Business, and Nasdaq.com. He currently resides in Las Vegas, where he enjoys golf and taking his black lab to the dog park. He's also an avid sports fan and likes to wager on college football and the NBA. You can also find him at the three-card poker and roulette table, even though he knows better. Contact Todd at todd.shriber@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/todd-shriber\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/toddshriber\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/etfgodfather\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/todd-shriber\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"MGM Hit With Calls to Remove Foundation Room Religious Statues","description":"MGM Resorts is under pressure by faith leaders to remove religious statues from the Foundation Room nightclub in Mandalay Bay.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"MGM Hit With Calls to Remove Foundation Room Religious Statues","og_description":"MGM Resorts is under pressure by faith leaders to remove religious statues from the Foundation Room nightclub in Mandalay Bay.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-hit-with-calls-to-remove-foundation-room-religious-statues\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2020-06-24T20:05:43+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-06-25T16:51:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1818,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/fr2-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Todd Shriber","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@etfgodfather","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Todd Shriber","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-hit-with-calls-to-remove-foundation-room-religious-statues\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-hit-with-calls-to-remove-foundation-room-religious-statues\/","name":"MGM Hit With Calls to Remove Foundation Room Religious Statues","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-hit-with-calls-to-remove-foundation-room-religious-statues\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-hit-with-calls-to-remove-foundation-room-religious-statues\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/fr2-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2020-06-24T20:05:43+00:00","dateModified":"2020-06-25T16:51:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85"},"description":"MGM Resorts is under pressure by faith leaders to remove religious statues from the Foundation Room nightclub in Mandalay Bay.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-hit-with-calls-to-remove-foundation-room-religious-statues\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-hit-with-calls-to-remove-foundation-room-religious-statues\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-hit-with-calls-to-remove-foundation-room-religious-statues\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/fr2-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/fr2-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1818,"caption":"Five religious leaders are demanding MGM remove Hindu and Jain statues from the Foundation Room nightclub in the Mandalay Bay. (Image: KDWN.com)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-hit-with-calls-to-remove-foundation-room-religious-statues\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Gaming Business","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gaming-business\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Mandalay Bay Draws Ire of Religious Leaders Over Foundation Room Statues"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85","name":"Todd Shriber","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png","caption":"Todd Shriber"},"description":"Todd Shriber is a senior news reporter covering gaming financials, casino business, stocks, and mergers and acquisitions for Casino.org. Todd got his start in financial markets as a reporter with Bloomberg News. Later, he became a trader at a Southern California-based long\/short hedge fund, where he specialized in the trading sector and international ETFs leading up to and during the financial crisis. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Currently, Todd analyzes, researches, and writes on ETFs for various web-based publications and financial services firms. Shriber has been featured and quoted in Barron's, CNBC.com, and The Wall Street Journal. His work can also be found on Benzinga, ETF Daily News, ETF Trends, MarketWatch, Fox Business, and Nasdaq.com. He currently resides in Las Vegas, where he enjoys golf and taking his black lab to the dog park. He's also an avid sports fan and likes to wager on college football and the NBA. You can also find him at the three-card poker and roulette table, even though he knows better. Contact Todd at todd.shriber@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/todd-shriber","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/toddshriber\/","https:\/\/x.com\/etfgodfather"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/todd-shriber\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139675"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}