biggest gamblers, highest rollers in Las Vegas gambling wager documentary big

Video Statistics and Information

Video

Captions Word Cloud

Captions

there's the successful clothing retailer who loves the high-roller perks and the poor Greek immigrant who amassed more than 30 million dollars in one legendary run there's the sports gambler once an illegal bookie in New Jersey now a member of the Vegas gambling elite from different worlds they come to Las Vegas for the same reason explorers climb Everest it is the ultimate for gamblers especially the high rollers who are known in Vegas as premium players Premium play comprises high rollers that gamble 20,000 in a visit there's also a hundred thousand to five hundred thousand in a visit according to industry experts there are several thousand people who qualify as premium players but even they are not the most elite of gamblers and at the very top of that pyramid of premium players are the whales they gamble anywhere from 1 million to 5 million in a typical visit to a casino there are probably only about 250 wells in the world but a whale would be the biggest of its species so if the gambler is in in terms of if you if you want to take it to the plains of the Serengeti it would be the king of beasts I guess art it would be the big bull elephant with the moat with the longest tusks it would be the biggest of its kind so if we're talking gaming we're talking the biggest gambler that's the whale one of the biggest whales to swim the Las Vegas waters his Australian media mogul Kerry Packer and this guy when he comes to town everybody you know he causes a lot of meetings to be called because everybody's got to come up with a how're we gonna help this guy this is not Free Willy this is free Willy's parents a publicity-shy billionaire Packer demands to gamble and seclusion he earns that luxury by wagering millions during each visit a portion of which the casino usually wins but not always during a legendary run at the MGM Packer reportedly won over twenty million dollars by betting up to $50,000 per hand at blackjack while the casino was the loser he is rumored to have shown his appreciation to the dealer by paying off the mortgage on her home like Packer whales are part of an international elite we like to think that only the State Department has a stronger foreign policy than we do if you looked at where those real high rollers the whales come from and that changes with economic cycles in the 80s it was the era of money that was big there was a lot in South America for a while and recently it has been from the Far East the reason that most of the period play a large percent of the premium play comes out of Asia is that's that's where a lot of wealth has concentrated so much wealth in fact that even the recent economic crisis along the Pacific Rim has not lessened the casinos efforts to lure the Asian high roller we have a department here that caters mainly to the Asian customers Far East customers we speak several different languages from Cantonese to Mandarin to hook into Malaysian and Thai because we do have to you know there's there are some customers that come here that don't speak any English at all so it's important for them to to know that they're going to a place where someone they can at least you know be able to communicate gamblers in general are notoriously superstitious a fact the industry is obliged to accommodate there are more superstitions in a casino than probably anywhere else you'll find any by per square foot it's said it's silly but people live and die by it white limousines for instance are primarily associated with funerals in Asia not a good omen for games of chance you wouldn't want to give somebody a clock for their birthday or their anniversary again that's a sign of I believe death so it's not it's something that we always have to remember all this little idiosyncrasies because it means a lot to - to them and it's important for you have the knowledge of what's what there you know the biggest are very superstitious people casinos tolerate high maintenance high rollers because the payoff is enormous less than 5% of Vegas visitors are considered premium players yet they provide up to 40 percent of the revenue with casinos who cater to them premium players left nearly 1 billion dollars at Vegas tables last year there's probably about seven casinos here in Las Vegas that are now really actively pursuing the high-roller market and we all do similar things to attract that customer a customer with extremely high expectations they're used to the finest service they have big houses and it's it's plural they have big and beautiful houses they have the you know the finest cars the the finest chefs the finest wines their own jets in many cases or they're used to having a charter provided or so these are expectations right from the get-go in the last decade high-stakes gambling has become an intensely competitive business with casinos around the globe vying for the same customers and yet none compared to Vegas what is it that makes this city a mecca for the most serious gamblers one reason is discretion lots of wives don't know what what the master of the house is doing and certainly they're not going to hear it from me they're probably a fairly high-profile individual or at least they're they're probably well-known because they are very wealthy so discretion is very very important it's an expectation it's a requirement the second requirement for High Roller casinos is money while the casino will always win over the long haul they must have the cash on hand withstand short-term losses whales on a lucky weekend and many millions the third ingredient of the Vegas mystique can be called the cult of money Vegas fawns on the rich providing a playground with toys that only the wealthiest can afford watch is made by Piaget there are only eight of them in the world one is owned by Queen Elizabeth and for seven hundred and seventy five thousand dollars you too can no more you ever go on a bank in your neighborhood and you show them $100 bill or stories on $100 bill and oh my gosh they have to look at it six I hear hundred-dollar bill is you know like a quarter it really does you know it's it's just nothing so people seek this out in excitement there's a lifestyle there's a tradition but when you want to go to the one and only the original the mecca for gambling in the world everybody concedes that is Las Vegas the Rio has been traditionally known as a favorite spot for Las Vegas locals but they recently joined the hunt for high-roller gold with over 200 million dollars in upgrades the real like several other casinos in Vegas is gambling on its ability to attract the high-end customer well high rollers as they're known in the business have always had high expectations of how they're treated and they're treated well because they are very profitable for the business so as that business has become more competitive it's been sort of a buyers market so the customers have asked for more demanded more and receive more competition for high rollers billed the Rio to create a six million dollar wine collection widely regarded as one of the world's finest it's available to the public but be very careful which bottle you decide to open so the most expensive is a lovely 1924 Chateau Mouton Rothschild and Bordeaux in France if you want to buy it anyone was to buy it's $200,000 we always take one hundred ninety nine thousand for cash of course not all High Roller tastes are so extravagant at least not by some standards everyone says what do these people drink well I'll tell you what they drink the most asked for one month is Chateau Petrus 1982 and you can't get that one under $4,000 a bottle so that's us for a lot wine collections and high-end restaurants are just part of a casinos Arsenal in an arms race for the premium player the ultimate suite at the Desert Inn for example is over 9,000 square feet of pure luxury even the bathroom fixtures are gold from the elegant marble entry Wade to the private pool everything is designed for the comfort of those that can afford to play or to pay on a bad day you'd have to have at least $500,000 credit line on a normal day it would be a million dollar credit line and above to get into that type of accommodation but we will rent those Suites out which range in size from the biggest ones from about eight thousand three hundred to nine thousand three hundred square feet we will rent them out we have rented them out they go for fifteen thousand dollars a night but we do provide a butler

Info

Channel: angryprotein

Views: 708,997

Rating: 4.3177738 out of 5

Keywords: tv, casino, bet, monte carlo, poker, texas, blackjack, bacarat, roulette, cards, slot, machine, chip, win, how, dice, dealer, croupier, chance, lotto, lottery, game, uk, bbc, famous, champion, money, wealth, rich, gold, treasure, millionaire, billionaire, high, roller, luck, play, secret, deal, jackpot, hotel, class, craps, sport, action, big, nevada, atlantic, city, trick, mafia, best, top, most

Id: TNQd0B4F3MY

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 9min 57sec (597 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 30 2012

Reddit Comments