Posted on 10/04/2017 9:07:48 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
LAS VEGAS — The video poker machines that Stephen Paddock liked were the ones that did not draw attention. They had few look-at-me flashing lights or listen-to-me bells.
He would sit in front of them for hours, often wagering more than $100 a hand. The way he played — instinctually, decisively, calculatingly, silently, with little movement beyond his shifting eyes and nimble fingers — meant he could play several hundred hands an hour. Casino hosts knew him well.
“Not a lot of smiles and friendliness,” said John Weinreich, who was an executive casino host at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa in Reno, Nev., where Mr. Paddock was once a regular and where he met his girlfriend. “There was not a lot of body movement except for his hands.”
His methodical style and his skill level allowed him to gamble, and occasionally win, tens of thousands of dollars in one sitting, collecting payouts and hotel perks in big bunches. Last week, as a reward for his loyalty and gambling, Mr. Paddock stayed free of charge on the 32nd floor in one of the elite suites of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, one of his favorite places to play....
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Today the theory is that he wanted to get away. If that is true, why did he let himself be known to the casino?
If you’re gambling with your players card, which you must do to get perks and comps and points, you will be well-known to the casino.
diversion
So he could get into the high roller suite with no questions asked.
Complete gambling addict. What a hopeless life.
There’s a theory going around that he made his money via illegal activities and the gambling was just his way of laundering the money.
Hang on, I have another theory emerging from my rear end!
Years ago my SIL gave me a casino gambling tutorial program. Here is what I learned:
The amateur bets a hundred in hopes of winning a thousand.
The professional bets a thousand in order to win a hundred.
The best odds are at the Blackjack table
The second best odds are full-pay video poker machines with nothing wild.
I studied and practiced every night for a month, at which point I could play indefinitely and continue to break even. Then I realized I had broken even before wasting my time playing poker.
Could be but like most of the theories going around regarding Paddock, it is based entirely 100 percent on pure speculation.
Did the strategy for playing video poker suggest that you should always keep cards that make a royal flush (even if you have to break a pair) due to the payout? Or were you just supposed to go for royal flushes when there was nothing else better?
I don’t remember. I never put it into practice and that was a long time ago.
Maybe when I retire I’ll have a go at it. Who knows, I could be the next George Lind.
So according to the NYT, at 1:30 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. the night before Paddock committed mass murder, he called security on the people staying in the room beneath him to get them to turn their music down?
Some starbucks cashier in Mesquite told a reporter that the filipina girlfriend had once urged paddock to use his casino points to pay for their drinks. The galfriend (who worked as a host in casinos before) knew that this starbucks store accepted casino points. Paddock got angry at her and paid through some other method instead. The girlfriend then stood behind him meekly.
My extensive experience at local casinos playing nickel slot machines is that they return about 95%, keeping 5% of each wager on average. One hundred dollars is equivalent to 2000 nickels.
Let's assume that a nickel player and a one hundred dollar player play at the same rate; let's say ten spins per minute. That would be 600 spins per hour. The nickel player would be wagering $30 dollars each hour. The hundred dollar player would be wagering $60,000 per hour.
The house would be keeping 5% of the nickel player's wagers or $1.50. The house would be keeping 0.83% of the hundred dollar players wagers or $498 dollars.
This explains why I have never received a comped hotel room and why someone like the shooter gets treated so well. Neither luck nor skill has anything to do with it once you play often enough. The house wins.
The above analysis also explains why I only play nickels.
Video poker is the perfect game to launder money. You can play a long time and not lose a lot. For me it is a time killer. Waiting for my friends who dragged me into the casino to lose all their money lol.
I’m sorry, I must be missing something. I’ve been in a casino perhaps 6 times in my life. I just can’t get that mad at my money. I work too hard to get it...
I think he was using casinos to launder money.
I live in Vegas. I guarantee he wasn’t making money. Former boss gambled the same way.
And at that point you were light years ahead of 99.99999999999% of every other sucker who tries to get "something for nothing."
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