{"id":278003,"date":"2024-03-08T07:03:09","date_gmt":"2024-03-08T13:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=278003"},"modified":"2024-03-07T09:52:15","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T15:52:15","slug":"vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/","title":{"rendered":"VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: Hunting for Bambi"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d publishes every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.\u00a0<\/em>Today\u2019s entry in our ongoing series originally ran on June 26, 2023.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

In July 2003, a video producer pulled a fast one on KLAS-TV\/Las Vegas.<\/em> He staged a safari in which attractive young women wearing sneakers, and nothing else, were hunted with paintball guns by men who were said to have paid thousands of dollars for the experience.<\/p>\n

\""Hunting
A still from one of the Hunting For Bambi <\/em>series of videos. (Image: joeartistwriter.wordpress.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Reporter LuAnne Sorrell broadcast an on-scene report of a hunt in progress, taking Michael Burdick for his word that the “Hunting for Bambi”\u00a0 experience was 100% legit. The story was picked up by CNN, MSNBC, FOX News,<\/em> and legitimate newspapers around the world.<\/p>\n

The majority of women have a deep-seated fantasy … to be sought after by a stranger,” Burdick told FOX,<\/em> which also interviewed a \u201cBambi\u201d who gave her name only as Taylor. She claimed, “We’re not getting hurt that bad,\u201d and that potential injuries are irrelevant from a legal standpoint, because “I know what I’m getting into.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The women were supposedly paid $1,000 if they got hit with a paintball pellet and $2,500 if they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A Hunting For Bambi <\/em>DVD cover. (Image: eBay)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If that\u2019s about as much misogyny as you can stomach today, perhaps you should stop reading and check out another recently busted myth instead. (How about this one about Celine Dion helicoptering to and from Caesars Palace?)<\/a><\/p>\n

HuntingForBambi.com advertised that hunters would be flown to Las Vegas and given the opportunity to choose between a menu of 30 naked women to \u201cchase down and shoot like dogs.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the gift for the person who thought he had it all,\u201d the website proclaimed.<\/p>\n

See? Told you. But you didn\u2019t want to read about Celine instead.<\/p>\n

Paying Deerly<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The hoax was a publicity stunt designed to sell the horrifically distasteful softcore videos Burdick produced of his staged hunts. The website perpetuated the myth that these hunts were real, but charged $10K for the experiences to discourage any actual bookings. In case the high price didn’t stop someone, the website couldn’t actually accept credit card charges in that amount.<\/p>\n

\n

The women shown in the videos and news stories were all actresses, and the men who supposedly paid to hunt them were all friends or associates of Burdick\u2019s. One was George Evanthes, owner of a Las Vegas-based adult video manufacturer called Tough Girl Productions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The subsequent stories exposing “Hunting for Bambi” as a hoax didn\u2019t get 1\/100th of the national exposure that the initial reports did. So, most people who saw those reports still vaguely recall it as a Vegas thing that actually happened.<\/p>\n

Hey, only in Vegas, right?<\/p>\n

Brass Eagle, a large paintball product manufacturer, even grew concerned enough to issue a press release stating that they “condemn this irresponsible activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bambi: The Reckoning<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Hoaxing news producers isn\u2019t illegal. However, obstructing justice, giving false information to police officers, and conducting business without a license are all misdemeanors and, a year later, Burdick was dragged into a municipal courtroom by the city of Las Vegas on all these charges. (The only business license Burdick\u2019s company held was for selling videos, not for operating a sexually oriented business or running paintball games.)<\/p>\n

“He was a very convincing con man, and the public has to know about guys like him \u2013 and then, when they\u2019re caught, they become wimps,\u201d Oscar Goodman, the former criminal defense attorney for the mob who was mayor at the time, told the Las Vegas Sun.<\/em><\/p>\n

Burdick accepted a plea deal. He paid a $1,105 fine and officially apologized. In exchange, the city dropped its two obstructing justice charges. Then, Burdick disappeared.<\/strong><\/p>\n

These days, Burdick\u2019s original “Hunting for Bambi” VHS tapes and DVDs sell for about $20 online, with almost no collector\u2019s markup at all. And Burdick? He serves as a producer for WWE, which is also quite fitting.<\/p>\n

Look for \u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d every Monday on\u00a0<\/strong>Casino.org.<\/em>\u00a0<\/b>Click here<\/a> to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0\u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d publishes every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.\u00a0Today\u2019s entry in our ongoing series originally ran on June 26, 2023. In July 2003, a video producer pulled a fast one on KLAS-TV\/Las Vegas. He staged a safari in which attractive young women wearing sneakers, and nothing else, were hunted with paintball […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":278004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,3313,81886,88494,1,84511],"tags":[86735,86734,23,82246,86736],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: Hunting for Bambi - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0\u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d publishes every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.\u00a0Today\u2019s entry in our ongoing series originally ran on\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: Hunting for Bambi - Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0\u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d publishes every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.\u00a0Today\u2019s entry in our ongoing series originally ran on\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/\" \/>\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=\"2024-03-08T13:03:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-07T15:52:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/a-still-from-a-video-joeartistwriter-dot-wordpress-dot-com.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Corey Levitan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Corey Levitan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/\",\"name\":\"VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: Hunting for Bambi - Casino.org\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/a-still-from-a-video-joeartistwriter-dot-wordpress-dot-com.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-08T13:03:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-07T15:52:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/281fd7b5480c9afb75e84ffb75039f09\"},\"description\":\"EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0\u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d publishes every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.\u00a0Today\u2019s entry in our ongoing series originally ran on\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/a-still-from-a-video-joeartistwriter-dot-wordpress-dot-com.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/a-still-from-a-video-joeartistwriter-dot-wordpress-dot-com.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":667},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Las Vegas Myths\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-myths\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: Hunting for Bambi\"}]},{\"@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\/281fd7b5480c9afb75e84ffb75039f09\",\"name\":\"Corey Levitan\",\"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-3-3-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-3-3-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Corey Levitan\"},\"description\":\"Corey Levitan joined Casino.org in 2022 after a long career covering Las Vegas. He currently covers gaming news on the US West Coast, including Las Vegas. Corey spent six years covering the Vegas Strip for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he also wrote the most popular humor column in the city\u2019s history. (For \u201cFear and Loafing,\u201d he tried out 176 Vegas jobs, including poker player, blackjack dealer and Follie Bergere dancer.) Corey has won more than 100 local, state and national awards for his journalism, which has also appeared in Rolling Stone, New York Magazine and the New York Post. Corey is a New York native whose hobbies include playing guitar, trying to be a better husband, and arguing with strangers on Facebook. Contact Corey at corey@casino.org.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/corey-levitan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: Hunting for Bambi - Casino.org","description":"EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0\u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d publishes every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.\u00a0Today\u2019s entry in our ongoing series originally ran on","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: Hunting for Bambi - Casino.org","og_description":"EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0\u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d publishes every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.\u00a0Today\u2019s entry in our ongoing series originally ran on","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2024-03-08T13:03:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-03-07T15:52:15+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":667,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/a-still-from-a-video-joeartistwriter-dot-wordpress-dot-com.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Corey Levitan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Casino_Org","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Corey Levitan","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/","name":"VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: Hunting for Bambi - Casino.org","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/a-still-from-a-video-joeartistwriter-dot-wordpress-dot-com.jpg","datePublished":"2024-03-08T13:03:09+00:00","dateModified":"2024-03-07T15:52:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/281fd7b5480c9afb75e84ffb75039f09"},"description":"EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0\u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d publishes every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.\u00a0Today\u2019s entry in our ongoing series originally ran on","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/a-still-from-a-video-joeartistwriter-dot-wordpress-dot-com.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/a-still-from-a-video-joeartistwriter-dot-wordpress-dot-com.jpg","width":1000,"height":667},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-hunting-for-bambi\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Las Vegas Myths","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-myths\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: Hunting for Bambi"}]},{"@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\/281fd7b5480c9afb75e84ffb75039f09","name":"Corey Levitan","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-3-3-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-3-3-96x96.png","caption":"Corey Levitan"},"description":"Corey Levitan joined Casino.org in 2022 after a long career covering Las Vegas. He currently covers gaming news on the US West Coast, including Las Vegas. Corey spent six years covering the Vegas Strip for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he also wrote the most popular humor column in the city\u2019s history. (For \u201cFear and Loafing,\u201d he tried out 176 Vegas jobs, including poker player, blackjack dealer and Follie Bergere dancer.) Corey has won more than 100 local, state and national awards for his journalism, which has also appeared in Rolling Stone, New York Magazine and the New York Post. Corey is a New York native whose hobbies include playing guitar, trying to be a better husband, and arguing with strangers on Facebook. Contact Corey at corey@casino.org.","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/corey-levitan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278003"}],"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\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278003"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":278681,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278003\/revisions\/278681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}