Has Las Vegas jumped the shark?

Over the Christmas holidays a lovely and charming friend of I and the Ms. asked me if I thought Las Vegas (Mondays 9:00pm on NBC) had jumped the shark. I didn't have the stomach to admit it but after last nights episode I'm worried it may have. How can a show based in Pursuit of Leisure's Official Most Fun Place On Earth have gone downhill so quickly? The whole Monica Mancuso (Lara Flynn Boyle) owning the casino thing was a disaster. Having a gust of wind take her half way across the strip to her death was mind boggling (though one look at Boyle's bony frame doesn't rule out the possibility), but at least it got her off the show. Until last night when her ghost was "haunting" the Montecito. Add in the fact that there was a shameless plug for NBC's winter Olympic coverage from Turino (for God sakes' people, Vegas is in the middle of the desert!) and it leaves me to wonder who is writing this stuff. I also miss Nessa Holt more than I thought I would. She and Mike Cannon (James Lesure) had a great chemistry. I am not writing off this show though. The "Everything old is you again" episode from earlier this season was fantastic and the cast is still arguably the hottest in prime time (Molly Sims, Nikki Cox, Vanessa Marcil for the men, Josh Duhamel, Lesure for the women). Plus the show is still based in Vegas so literally anything goes as far as potential plots. Not many shows allow for that kind of creativity so I look for the show to rebound and finish this year strong now that Ed Deline (James Caan) and crew are back running the Montecito.