Secrets of a Vegas whale documentary
buythehook
Senior Member
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/video/the-player-secrets-of-a-vegas-whale-p5Yp8AANTVeqa1_MXspl5A.html
I just watched this, interesting !
Anyone have any thoughts or comments?
I just watched this, interesting !
Anyone have any thoughts or comments?
Comments
The word Whale seems to get used a lot on TV and these Documentaries. A guy that has 1 million dollar credit line is hardy a whale. Granted a very good player but when you have guys coming in with 10/30 Million and get more if they want that's a whale. I don't want to insult anyone that's from New Jersey or in the casino business there but don't compare the two. Ron will know the name he's very similar in class to a person named Robt A.
Great reply OT
What's ur opionon on Wynn and how do ppl feel about him Vegas?
Great line. I'm gonna use it down the road. With the population they drew from and still couldn't make it. World class dump.
I worked for Wynn for 11 years and when I was the Assistant Graveyard Shift Manager for JM I took the Wynn phone call and I spoke to him every morning he was tough on his Managers and if he asked a question about the business like what's going on now you better have some kind of answer and I always believed he never asked a question without already knowing the answer so you always told the truth. but he was extra fair. Don't get me wrong he treated us like kings but you had to have the answers and if he ask you an off the wall question about a guest and you didn't know you can say I don't know but I'll find out. He was good with that. But his money win or lose he didn't sweat you just needed to know where it was. Without going into this long post we carried around a sheet with every slot machine on it and sometimes when he called he would ask by the way how are the Blazing 7's doing and how many $1 ones do we have. I can tell you stories that would make you laugh. I have story where after speaking with him I couldn't go to the bathroom for 2 days I was shut tight lol.
Now as far as the line employee dealers and Floor supervisors he was the greatest (not that he wasn't with us just different) and I agree. He changed the standard of how guests are treated in Las Vegas the man made this town. But now to answer your question after all the years of him treating the line employee like kings they turned on him by voting in the union the half ass bus driver union that got them a 10 year contact that had things taken away and were given things they already had. They just wanted to say they got a contact a lot of good that did. He's different now a lot different now you lost this man and in return people that work for him dislike him but only because THEY MADE IT THAT WAY. That's today's casino employee and I go back to that word entitlement. Most anyway not all but they all suffer.
I would love to tell that story you would laugh. Just to add something on graveyard he usually called around 8:00 am and asked for the previous days figures and then would ask how's it going now. Well one morning an assistant shift manager at T.I. was running the store and he called 7:30 am well we would get a report at about 7:45/8:00 am or so and it's not like you need it you had to know what was going on (It was Grave-Yard for god's sake) if you weren't in the back sleeping. Well he called at 7:30 and asked the assistant how we doing this morning the idiot said I well I didn't get the report yet and it's coming in about 15 minutes from now well Wynn hung up and 20 minutes later the Assistant was walking out the door fired.
Quick story told to me by a AC Food and Bev guy that I did biz with. Every weekday hoards of busses loaded with NYers would make a day trip to AC. You know the coupons and free perks for the people. They hadda a seafood buffett and many would stuff the crab in their large handbags and eat the meat on the way home. It was a hot summer day and the crabmeat went bad. Yes you guessed it, when they arrived home sick they hired an attorney to sue the the casino for tainted food. I think a judge threw it out as a frivilous lawsuit.
Fitting typo.
You know Stevie your the best when I see you in one of the threads that I posted in I know I'm in for a good laugh. lol this is to funny.
No Crap isn't good in a pocket book even for an hour let alone 6
I was at XS I think last year or the year before, it's at the Wynn or Encore, we are walking in and they stop the line because Steve Wynn is walking in to "check on things" the door girl says he does this every 2-3 weeks on a Friday/Saturday. pretty impressive when you are worth billions and legally blind.
Do you know that on the first year Anniversary of the Golden Nugget in AC he bought every Floor Supervisor in the table game dept a brand new car. One night he did a walk through at the Nugget and we just put up a stage right next to the sports book and had live and loud music. So Mr.Wynn is doing his walk through and says what's this and he's told and say's I don't like it it's to loud and players can't hear the games, can't hear the excitement at the tables Etc: So the band was told to take the rest of the night off and come back tomorrow. So the next day they come in and there's this Plexiglas Glass all around the stage so they go in and you can hardy hear them. Needless to say that didn't last long.
Talk about laughing your ass off. The Back of the house was as clean as the front. I could tell you stories for days about this man. He was so far ahead of his time in the gambling business and there was only one other man that was his equal as far as the gambling business was concerned not guests relations and that was Benny Binion. Wynn was one of the few at that time realized how important repeat business was while the other hotels didn't think it matter because of the millions that came to town.
Me and buddy with wives at Belagio , each have a 50k line.
We blow through it.
At check out they don't comp our 500 golf at shadow creek or girls spa charges for 150.
I have never been to one of his properties since. Lots of other buddies tell me similar stories about his properties.
Also heard another story about him from the pit, oriental gambler staying somewhere else comes to Bellagio to play loses a 1m , Wynn walks up to him and asks if there is anything he can get for him, player said I would like to play shadow creek, Wynn says next time you come to town, stay with us and we will get you on the course. Player walked out without shaking his hand.
EDIT: Yes he lost his company but what a bounce back. Look at the stock of his company and the rest.
I can't believe people still think he owns all these places. He owes in Las Vegas the Encore and Wynn. MGM Bought him out for $23 a share back in 2000 for reasons to long to get into now but it was Ego in the end that lost his company. By the way if you haven't noticed Las Vegas is now a gaming town not a gambling/comp town no more. I'm sorry but the $50k your lucky if a host comes to your table and talks to you and the owner is the MGM with 14 Billion in debt and they keep delaying it. They own Bellagio,City Center, Mirage, MGM, ETC: Etc:
Yea okay Wynn walked up to a player in the casino after losing a million dollars. If your not in the gaming business you really shouldn't believe stories like that . Believe what you want Las Vegas isn't Las Vegas anymore and I assure if you lose a Million Dollars you can play at any course but the owner isn't walking up to you that's what vice presidents do in the table game dept or most likely the host.
I'm not going to stand and justify really silly stories. 50k lines at Bellagio, Aria, MGM or even the Mirage after being stripped over the years of there bigger players going to the above mention casinos 50k it's really nothing and more so then a credit line is do you play to it.
If I bring a half million in cash do you think they're going to part the red sea they want to see me play to it before we establish a relationship. your lucky if a host comes out to talk to you They drop 1.6 Billion a year just Bellagio. People are betting 400k a hand on Baccarat 50k doesn't buy much in Bellagio. Also comps have tighten up over the few years because of the over building and the economy hit.
There's so much more that people with real jobs don't understand the casino business it's like no other where people from all over the world come to give you money. One person is blaming Wynn for giving a cocktail waitress cancer. Casper if it's someone you know I'm truly sorry but that's the bad part of the business. I started and when I became a supervisor we were allowed to smoke while in the pits working that was business.
Verify that with people who worked at the Nugget in the early 90's when shadow Creek it was built. When the MGM took over that's when you had to pay $500 a round and only if you were a player. During the heat they let you play for $500 because most players weren't interested in playing in that heat.
There's still a lot of old time Nuggeteers around ask them how it was to work for Wynn before being bought out by MGM. Now they have a wall street guy running a major casino company 14 billion in debt and he gives himself and his guy raises and bonus big bonus's. I was in a pretty big loop not CEO loop but enough to know what was happening before it happened. Yes people dislike him now because they tried to fuck him and the funny part is he owns this town. Let me know when he lose's a big case against him. Harry Reed is his guy. Trust me he owns this town.
In my opinion there's not much to what he did. It's all positive variance. As the interviewer states: "even with his rules, the 20% discount on his losses and the big bets Don negotiated, the house still has a tiny advantage."
He himself states that with his rules, the house edge is 0.253%. I have been playing with an odds calculator and I can't get it to that number. using the rules that he states (Stand on soft-17, Double any bet, Split up to 4 times). Been juggling the other variables (Surrender, Number of Decks, Yes/No Peek.) In any case I would need to know ALL of the rules to calculate that, the bottom line is: The house still has the advantage!
Then she (the reporter) continues: "Not satisfied with those odds, Don figured out how to tip the game in his favour"
Don states: "You need to better than the dealer" (I've never heard of this strategy to turn into an advantage player. Please explain Don)
Reporter explaining: "Because if you can beat the dealer, you can BEAT the house"
Don's strategy to turn into an advantage player: "There aren't many players that they're gonna deal $100.000 a hand to. They're NERVOUS!"
So basically there you have it. Don's secret to turn yourself into an advantage player: Play 100K a hand, intimidate the dealer, make him nervous, bring women and champagne as a distraction!
Another example of utter bullcrap reporting. This guy may have won a couple of times and those times reached the papers, but he's a losing player overall. Otherwise the casino's wouldn't have taken his action.
Requests DeadMau5 to play a Bon Jovi song for 200K and then doesn't pay up. Check the youtube vid in the article below.
http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/guy-promises-to-pay-deadmau5-200000-to-play-a-bon-jovi-song-doesnt/
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/10/11/deadmau5-bon-jovi-lawsuit_n_4084675.html
When somebody negotiates this kind of deal (20% discount, smaller house edge and ability to play 75K/hand over 3 hands simultaneously), you can more or less be sure that there will be 2 supervisors assigned to the table and they'll have their best dealers to deal this game.
The chance of a dealer mistake going unnoticed in his favour is basically zero.
As I said before, this piece of reporting is utter bull-crap.
Because I'll give the Pit manager a number and when it gets around that number I want a phone call because I also have a number to call if it starts getting out of hand. But I use to tell the guys show people we been there and done that don't sweat and don't burn a hole in the table looking because if you don't look confident and professional this type of player will eat you alive. Spot on Obi One
I thought he was great in Miami Vice[/QUOTE]
I'd kinda think his ex Melanie G was a real piece pre-drugs.
Fattened up, didn't he?
Heard Tubbs is doing the back-counting for him.
OT, you will probably get a kick out of these...first, back when Mirage Resorts as it was called back then was hitting the lows under $10/sh I bought a bunch of May calls 10 strike the months prior after both looking at the charts and living here knowing how undervalued it was at the time...needless to say when MGM stepped up to the plate it was a very nice day....second, back in those days a buddy of mine who was a decent sized player would always stay at the Mirage, he would come in from TX. and always play Shadow Creek... I was a hacker at best and he would always invite me to play with him (because he knew I would always make him look like Payne Stewart RIP back then (I use Payne in tribute to his 1998 US OPEN at the Olympic club where I sat on the hill and watched the 18th as he lost to Lee Janzen from being 4 strokes up) ...in any case I got to golf there so often I use to joke it was "my home course" because I golfed it more than any other in town lol....the caddies were great, lunch in the clubhouse was so nice putting the order in ahead of time...the locker room with all the high profile names on the lockers...etc....but there was that one hole that I believe he named after Elaine...with the big pond and the swans etc...par 3 with the rock waterfall behind it I will never forget among some of the others, what an oasis in the desert that course was. I forgot his right hand guy whose house was also on the course but I put a couple of divets in the stucco of his home with the awesome slice I had LOL!! Thought you could appreciate those two memories ;-)