Las Vegas always baffles me. Given all the food, money and campy entertainment floating around the place, I don’t understand why aren’t there any gay bars or restaurants located directly on the strip.

In my recent visit there last week, I noticed scads of GLBT folk everywhere — at the casino tables, in buffet lines and, of course, snooping around the box office of the MGM Grand, where Cher’s “farewell concert” keeps repeating itself (two more shows are scheduled there on Dec. 13 and 14). “Believe” me, if a developer ever decides to plop down a few queer-destined bucks on Las Vegas Boulevard, the financial return would equal one of the biggest progressive jackpots that Disneyland-on-steroids has ever seen.

Perhaps the recent opening of the city’s first all-male resort, called Blue Moon, might start the ball rolling. Siegfried and Roy don’t own it, but the 44-room, all-male facility features a clothing optional lagoon-style swimming pool, a Jacuzzi “grotto” with 10-foot waterfalls and a coffee shop that serves sandwiches and salads. It’s located just off the strip, at 2651 Westwood Drive, behind the terminally heterosexual Circus Circus hotel.

In the meantime, here are a few items of interest worth noting if you plan to eat, drink and wager your way through Vegas soon:

The city’s only GLBT restaurant, formerly known as Sasha’s, has changed its name to Tramps. The location remains the same, in what is known as the “fruit loop” district, at 4640 S. Paradise Road, across the street from The Gipsy nightclub and The Buffalo.

The longtime gay watering hole known as Angles (and then Ikon), recently closed because its owner passed away. Sorry.

Forget the cheap buffets at The Frontier. The food is abysmal. But the hotel’s standard-sized rooms are among the biggest on the strip. The Surf Buffet at the Boardwalk Hotel and Casino offers the only 24-hour spread on the strip, and, according to a few cabbies I talked with, the Excalibur and MGM Grand casinos provide gamblers with the fastest wait service for free drinks.

Classic shrimp cocktails served in old-fashioned tulip glasses are still only 99 cents at the San Francisco Deli, located inside downtown’s historic Golden Gate Hotel and Casino (next to the 4 Queens hotel).

As one might expect, the Bellagio’s gourmet buffet ranks among the most expensive and exotic in town. For $25, you’ll stumble upon roasted elk, wild boar ribs, rack of lamb, oysters and lobster salad. The wait to get inside, however, can exceed 90 minutes.

Discerning foodies and restaurant critics are raving about the South American cuisine at Bamboleo, located slightly off the strip in the Rio Suites Hotel at 3700 W. Flamingo Road. Ditto for the trendy Pasta Shop and Ristorante, located three miles east of the strip at 2495 E. Tropicana Ave.

There’s always the Liberace Museum at 1775 East Tropicana Ave. — need more be said? And Steve Wynn is currently building a new $1.83 billion mega-resort on the Desert Inn site that will supposedly make his Bellagio property look like a Holiday Inn. Slated for completion in 2005, it will feature over a dozen restaurants and a “mountain” for skiing.

The nightly Fremont laser show in the heart of downtown kicks off at the top of each hour, between 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 midnight. And in case you didn’t know, pedestrians are allowed to carry “open drinks” along the strip and the streets of downtown.

A hotel “energy fee” is in place throughout the city, costing guests an additional $5 per night above quoted prices. The conservation effort is also apparent inside most casinos, as they have generally cut back a few degrees on their air conditioning.