https://www.thrillist.com/entertainm...t-all-in-vegas
If you ever had doubts about casino hosts being the scum of scum read this.
With that said, this guy is my new hero.
https://www.thrillist.com/entertainm...t-all-in-vegas
If you ever had doubts about casino hosts being the scum of scum read this.
With that said, this guy is my new hero.
Last edited by cmoney; 09-22-2016 at 09:01 AM.
:freelewfather
" Don’t forget, if you lose $100,000, you’re losing $100,000 that you paid taxes on. So you really lost $150,000 of what you earned. "
dude....
"Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness." - Alejandro Jodorowsky
"America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers." -- William S. Burroughs
But you got value for that $50 large .... no tearsOriginally Posted by sonatine
Very good read. But if you are 27 and don't realize there are "sales people" in the world you deserve to be parted from your cash.
Ruthless
It has always amazed me how business sharks can fall for this. It goes against most principals that made them money in the first place.
I guess they just get bored .
:freelewfather
Vegas was built on suckers. Always was, always will be.
$10 bet for one guy gets the juices going while another guy has to bet $1k.
If you're pulling down 100k/year as a plumber and have 250k liquid in the bank, maybe you need to lose 30-40k on a trip before it hurts.
And it has to be in Perth or Grand Cayman. And the comp dinner has to be at Red Lobster.
I hate to be the Debbie Downer of this thread, but you should take everything Steve Cyr says with a grain of salt.
Steve is a former casino host who eventually went the route of becoming an independent host -- one of those guys who brings whales to various casinos and gets a piece of their action. These trips are known as "junkets", and are different from trips arranged by an in-house casino host.
At some point, Cyr decided upon the unusual tactic of playing Vegas bad guy and selling his story of exploiting whales to whoever would listen. He has appeared on various lame "insider Vegas" TV specials, written a book, and has been interview for websites such as the one cmoney linked.
Basically, Cyr is a big-time snake-oil salesman and self-promoter, so a lot of his grandiose claims of his "accomplishments" as a host and junket operator should be viewed with skepticism.
Oddly, Cyr still runs a junket firm: http://iscconsult.com/about/
He couldn't be doing as well as he claims, because he's also an independent salesman for Lifelock. Seriously. https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-cyr-624ba99
It should also be noted that, despite running a junket company called HSIX from 1999-2009, Cyr also took a job as a lowly host at the relatively inconsequential Hard Rock, from 2008-2010. I guess it's possible that Cyr just did this in order to steal data on whales and direct them to his junket operation, but I think it's more likely that he was no longer making much money with HSIX, and had to return to his previous life as a normal casino host. Then he found the self-promotion angle, founded a new junket company (ISC Consulting), and quit the Hard Rock.
But let's face it here... this guy couldn't be balling if he's still trying to hawk Lifelock on the side.
Also, it should be noted that the site cmoney linked (thrillist) is infamous for garbage "insider" articles. I just read one involving a supposed former employee on a cruise ship which seemed full of inaccurate and fabricated claims. So thrillist and Cyr were a perfect match, to be honest.
The general gist of the article is correct, though. Hosts don't care about you. Hosts get paid when you lose money -- though often their compensation is mainly tied to your average bet and time playing, and not your losses. However, losses will sometimes factor into it, as well.
You can't entirely blame the host, though. Sure, they are phony, they pretend to be your friend, and they disappear on you once you can't do anything to earn them commission anymore, but they are a product of the casino system which supports them. They are all under tremendous pressure to get players down to the casino and get them gambling, while at the same time are under pressure not to overcomp or comp players who don't play anymore. It's a shitty job, because you can have a guy who gambled a lot last time, asks for a suite and a bunch of food comps, and then just uses all the freebies and never plays once. If this happens too often, a host's commission can be docked, and they can also get fired.
Honestly, I'd love to see the whole host model just removed entirely. Truthfully, in this day and age with computer/marketing analysis of players via loyalty clubs, most hosts are extraneous and unnecessary. In fact, they have already been neutered a good deal at certain properties, such as Caesars. Harrah's Rincon has neutered them to the point that they no longer even have power to give away suites, instead leaving that decision up to the hotel rooms coordinator!
Soon enough the whole host model will disappear.
Interestingly, the Caesars "guaranteed benefits" of the Seven Stars program is in direct contradiction to the "what have you done for me lately" model the hosts have to use. This has infuriated both hosts and players, as they are in a constant battle over these matters.
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