Creepy Magician David Copperfield is Done

By Scott Roeben, on May 15 2024
2 min read 9 comments
Las Vegas Las Vegas Shows

Longtime Strip magician David Copperfield is done in Las Vegas, he may just not know it yet.

Chatter about Copperfield has been ongoing for years, but things got worse when he was caught up in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal back in Jaunary. We figured Copperfield’s goose was cooked, but MGM Resorts didn’t budge and Copperfield endured.

Well, Copperfield is definitely fried now as the magician faces allegations of “sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior” with multiple accusers.

His adds have a dinosaur in it. We needed a visual metaphor! Just play along.

Of course this story comes from a publication outside Las Vegas. Our local news organizations are fairly useless, and Copperfield’s link to Jeffrey Epstein was pretty much ignored. Echoes of Steve Wynn much? (Wynn’s story was first published by the Wall Street Journal, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal later admitted it killed a story about Wynn.)

According to reports, 16 women have alleged sexual misconduct by Copperfield. Shocker, given his nickname for years has been “David Cop-a-feel.”

Blah, blah, innocent until proven guilty and all that.

That’s not how things work in the casino world. MGM Resorts is on the hook for this scandal, too, and the company is going to take heat for not acting upon earlier reports of Copperfield’s transgressions.

Casinos are held accountable for anything that happens at their resorts. That’s why MGM Resorts booted Todd English’s restaurants (Olives and Todd English P.U.B.), and Sands closed Mario Batali’s restaurants (CarneVino, B&B Ristorante and Otto Enoteca e Pizzeria). Sex scandals have fallout.

This time, MGM Resorts turned a blind eye despite all the red flags.

David Copperfield
Yes, that’s the Statue of Liberty AND David Copperfield is happy to see you.

Copperfield, naturally, says the allegations against him are “false and entirely without foundation.”

Yes, allegations of sexual misbehavior can be complicated. In some cases, wealthy and famous people are just scoundrels. Having staff wrangle attractive women from the audience for “meet-and-greets” is creepy, but not illegal. Jails would be full of Las Vegas performers.

One longtime associate of Copperfield says while he’s definitely lecherous, underage girls aren’t one of his proclivities. The current slew of allegations tend to say otherwise.

But we’re talking decades of allegations of questionable activity here, and MGM Resorts is going to have to act if David Copperfield doesn’t voluntarily shutter his show. The company could be fined, or its gaming license could even be in jeopardy.

We trust the inevitable end of David Copperfield’s residency at MGM Grand will be treated publicly like an amicable break-up, with Copperfield stepping away to spend more time with family or pursue other opportunities. The general rule is nobody admits to anything and everyone plays nice and signs NDAs. The same thing happened when Eddie Griffin was shown the door at Sahara. Zero questions asked.

We’ll see how all this plays out, but David Copperfield is toast in Las Vegas, despite the town’s shameful pattern of circling the wagons for celebrities and executives and politicians until it’s forced to do otherwise.