I’m not trying to get political here or anything, but, in the course of watching Donald Trump sucking up to Vladimir Putin and hearing about how thrilled Putin is with Trump’s figurative embrace, I can’t help but think about the relationship between high-stakes gamblers and their fake-friendly casino hosts.
Give enough action to a gambling joint and it will be easy for you to think you have friends there, in the form of your host and other casino employees.
They’ll commiserate with you when you lose, set you up at the nightclub, take you and your pals out for dinner, and appear to be going out of their way to make sure you have the cool suite with the good view.
Before getting carried away with the relationship, though, it’s good to remember what the great sports bettor Billy Walters, author of aptly titled Gambler, once told me about the relationship between gamblers and the place that wants them to gamble more.
“When you walk into a casino and see nothing but teeth,” he said, “you know you’re in trouble.”
The pearly whites are strikingly visible because everyone is smiling. They’re happy to see a person who will fatten their employer’s bottom line. Considering that Trump is the one who pardoned Billy Walters from a prison sentence that grew out of charges for insider trading, it would be great if he shared that wisdom with the President of the United States.
To me, it feels like Putin is the house and Trump is the gambler with a bundle to lose.
That said, if it’s any consolation to the President, even world class poker players can fall victim to convincing hosts and games of chance. WSOP main event champ Peter Eastgate admitted to dropping a tidy bundle on sports betting (and has since quit the habit).
Stu Ungar lost millions at everything (he told me he would “bet on a cockroach race”). David Benyamine who has $9 million in tournament winnings, told me about getting snapped by the high-stakes slot machines.
I can relate to how easy it is to get wooed, whether you are a politician or a gambler. Back when I was playing on a card counting team, I received more than my share of friendly entreaties from hosts.
Calls would come and often begin with a cordial-sounding voice on the other end of the line:
“Hey, buddy. We haven’t seen you in a while. We’d love to have you back…”
And, damn, even if I knew exactly what was going on, I went out of my way to gamble with those guys and collect free cookware or windbreakers or gift-cards in exchange for placing chips in the betting circle.
Of course, everything changed after they realized that I played blackjack with an advantage that their bosses did not want me to have. A gambler on my team ruefully addressed this by saying, “We get walked in through the front door before being thrown out with the garbage.”
That’s one advantage of online casinos. You can’t get thrown out, at least physically.
And that’s only if you show yourself skillful at beating the games. Otherwise, the casino loves you, courts you, and treats you like gold when you are in house. Maybe, Putin learned from casino hosts or vice versa.
At any rate, his playbook seems similar to the one deployed for going after insecure gamblers with big egos – the mega advantage player Don Johnson characterized those random gamblers as “schmucks” – who make it easy for casino bosses and their hosts to separate suckers from their money.
I’ve long believed that casino gambling provides lessons for life away from the felt. Maybe Donald Trump, who once owned three failed casinos in Atlantic City (all of which carried the Trump name), should have spent time at the tables to see what it looks like when the house tries to win you over.
It’s always worth remembering – whether at the poker table, the blackjack table, or the negotiating table – that the guy showing teeth is not necessarily your friend.
Michael Kaplan is a journalist based in New York City. He is the author of five books (“The Advantage Players” out soon) and has worked for publications that include Wired, GQ and the New York Post. He has written extensively on technology, gambling, and business — with a particular interest in spots where all three intersect. His article on Kelly “Baccarat Machine” Sun and Phil Ivey is currently in development as a feature film.
*Photo – Flickr
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