--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "tralfamidorgooglycrackers"
<tralfamidorgooglycrackers@...> wrote:
Well, gee, if a "cash gratuity" induces the recipient to give the
guest something to which, according to the rules of the
establishment,
he is not entitled to, I would say that constitutes a bribe.
If, on the other hand, the level and quality of service received
would
have been the same regardless of the "cash gratuity", then that
constitutes a tip.
I personally have problems with inducing an employee to defraud his
or
her employer, but I seem to be the only person on the planet who
feels
any scruples in that regard.
In 1997 I tipped my casino host $70 a week. It actually started about
November of 1996. It was a handshake with the money in it. For the
money I received one weeks residence at the Riverside/Laughlin. I
lived there for 11 months. About a third of that time was spent in
the executive suites on the top floors of the south tower. The rooms
were cavernous with two balconies. Nicest view on the river. It was
sooooooo nice having a bathroom bigger than most hotel rooms. And
Mr. Laughlin had the only cable television on the river.
Tipping the hosts had become a racket at the Riverside. I wasn't
even close to being the only one in on this. As a matter of fact, it
was the other hustlers who clued me in. Bill Hartman, a legendary
hustler told me "Now you start out by giving them $10 a day, then you
whittle them down to about $5 a day. Just tell them you aren't doing
that good." I never tried to pull that trick. It was already cheap
enough for me. The ones who pulled that trick could get pushed out
for busy weekends, holidays, special events, etc. I never got pushed
out.
My host worked with only a handful of people. But there was one
host, an Englishman by the name of K****, who was working with
something like fifty people. But alot of his folks were not exactly
on the ball. Some didn't even have slot cards. They would jungle up
to like four to a room. That's only $2.50 a day each unless they
whittled him down. Hey, walk around the casino long enough to credit
hustle up a buck for a hot dog and you are living large in Laughlin,
Nevada. K**** could be seen every night playing the sucker
machines. So the money he was making never left the building.
At the bottom of the escalator to the Bingo Hall was an 18 machine
bank of linked Flush Attacks. This was my office. Unless I wanted
to take a break and go play the Flush Attacks in the no smoking
casino or the House A Rockin' in the North Tower.
That 18 machine bank was the home of the elite Flush Attackers of the
world. They were all boned up on strategy and were the fastest Flush
Attackers on the planet---if the light was on. If it wasn't they
were some of the slowest vp players on the planet.
You had to know how to get away with it. Just sitting there doing
nothing when the light was off was begging to get pitched off the
bank. And it happened to many. There was one security guard known
as "The Nazi" or "Little Hitler", whichever you prefer. When he was
in that section you had to avoid his shift. He knew all the tricks
players used. He eventually got transferred to no smoking but would
occasionally make a lap around the Flush Attacks just for general
principle. I caught him sniffing around me one day so I went to a 5
coin bet between lights, when the light would trigger I would go to a
one coin bet. He asked me what I was doing. "Ah, that flush attack
light is just there for suckers", I say. "No one can beat it." He
gave me a weird look but left me alone after that. There were
probably more people pitched out of the casino because of this bank
than any other situation that has ever existed in a casino.
One strategy was to play 5 coins real slow when the light was off,
then go to 5 coins fast when the light was on. Another strategy was
to play 1 coin when the light was off, then go to 5 coins when the
light was on.
Then there was the world famous "Dive Bomb" routine. Just hang back
behind some others machines with a bucket of quarters then run out
and play when the light came on. One hustler used to p*** us off by
dive bombing and betting one coin. He got his share of flushes. One
day he says to me "Don Laughlin told me I could play Flush Attack any
time I want to." I said "Yeah, that's because you make him $25 every
time you hit a flush, idiot."
I learned to stay off the bank when it was slow. If the balance was
something like 4 live ones and ten hustlers, you're gonna get a light
maybe every 20 minutes and with ten hustlers you're not gonna get in
many hands in the light. So you're sitting there looking like 86
material for too much time. I would walk up and down the bank sizing
everyone up. With about 10 live ones and a few hustlers you would
get lights every few minutes and could make your money in an hour or
so then clear the bank. When the upstairs Bingo session ended was
one of the best times.
Revvie was the resident credit hustler of the Riverside. He had been
there for 11 years. He was buddy buddy with Don. Don even took him
up in his helicopter. Revvie was a 60 year old pot-head with
streaming long grey hair and beard. Don gave him free gratis to roam
the Riverside hustling the credits. Of course, Revvie also picked up
any drawing tickets that were laying around too. Revvie single-
handedly caused the drawing rules to be changed to "one winner per
drawing." Whenever he had a good day credit hustling you could find
Revvie playing the sucker machines at the North Tower Bar, downing
shots and shouting "IT'S NOT RANDOM," as he played. The money never
left the building.
In October of 97 one very unlikeable hustler got into it with some
woman. Security went up to his room to question him. He was dyeing
his hair at the time and had spilled the dye into the carpet. They
86'd him. He went ballistic and called everyone he could about what
was going on. Gaming, the cops, the IRS, everybody.
The s*** hit the fan at the Riverside. Gaming came in and cracked
the whip on the tips/bribes to the hosts. There was something like a
hundred hustlers who hit the bricks on that day. I asked my host
what kind of trouble I was in and she said "you're not in any
trouble, you have a 700 point ($3500 in action) a day average. So I
escaped the massacre.
