MGM Resorts Debuts K-9 Security Officer Trading Cards in Vegas

Posted on: June 3, 2024, 03:58h. 

Last updated on: June 4, 2024, 09:41h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.

Guests of any of MGM Resorts’ 12 Las Vegas Strip properties can now take home more than just the soap and shampoo. K-9 handlers for the hospitality corporation are currently handing out trading cards that spotlight their four-legged security personnel.

Cornella the 7-year-old Belgian Malinois — “Corny” for short — enjoys patrolling and searching, according to her MGM K-9 card. (Image: KTNV-TV/Las Vegas)

And yes, you were always allowed to take home the soap and shampoo, since hotels can’t legally reuse them.

The idea arose because of the thousands of requests each year the corporate K-9 unit at MGM receives from guests to pet their officers, even though they wear harnesses reading “DO NOT PET.”

“That’s something that, unfortunately, we don’t allow,” Danny O’Connell, Senior Manager for the Corporate K-9 Unit at MGM Resorts, told KTVN-TV/Las Vegas.”

An MGM Resorts K-9 Emergency Response Team. (Image: flickr/@tomasdelcoro)

Patrol dogs for private security forces, not unlike K-9 police officers, are trained for several months in searching, tracking, and criminal apprehension.

“By handing out these trading cards, there’s a positive interaction between everybody and they have an understanding that we’re there to try to help and ensure their safety,” O’Connell said.

Each trading card pictures an individual dog with their name on the front, and their stats on the back.

Ollie, for instance, is a 4-year-old Catahoula Leopard Dog who “thoroughly enjoys attending concerts at MGM Grand Arena and the various residencies at Dolby Live at Park MGM.”

It goes without saying, then, how much Ollie must have enjoyed Snoop Dogg’s performance on May 14, 2022, at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob Ultra Arena.

K-9 handlers now carry the cards with them and pass them out to guests who either ask specifically for them or (more commonly) ask for permission to pet the dogs.