Harrah’s Entertainment has announced this day that, in conjunction with MTV Games, it will be installing fully-equipped Rock Band “entertainment stages” into their properties this March. Harrah’s owns a number of entertainment properties (read: casinos) worldwide, including Bally’s in Atlantic City and Harrah’s in Las Vegas.

The wild pairing of gambling, drinks, and Rock Band will kick off with a “Total Rock, Total Rewards” competition that runs throughout March and April. The Rock Band competition will take place across seventeen casinos throughout the United States, giving participants the opportunity to win crap like Rock Band apparel, cash, and the opportunity to open up for the B-52’s at the House of Blues in Atlantic City this Might. Because that’s exactly what you want to see before Fred Schneider hops around on stage to the beat of “Dance This Mess Around” — people playing plastic instruments.

Dale North and I had a opportunity to play some Rock Band at Harrah’s in Las Vegas when we were at CES a few months back. While it wasn’t one of these fancy new Rock Band stages they’re speaking about (Harmonix’s Jonh Drake and Alex Navarro just used electrical tape to hold down the drum kit), it was hosted by a dude dressed like Rod Stewart. Hell yeah.