HARDBACK
FISHING FOR THE BIG ONES
BY DOUG FRENCH

Just what does drive those record gaming company profits we’ve been reading about? 

Is it the thousands of mostly chubby, pasty-faced couples we see shuffling down Las Vegas Boulevard, gawking at the ornate buildings, dancing fountains and erupting volcanoes? 

Sure, the visiting bucolic masses help, but it’s the high rollers who build those buildings. Luring the middle class is as easily: a free buffet here, a few free drinks there and these folks will hand you everything they have — but that isn’t enough for the house’s success. 

It’s the gamblers who bet (and hopefully lose) big who casinos aggressively chase. Ironically, accepting big bets is the only time the casino really gambles. A packed casino looks like an automatic moneymaker to the untrained eye, but one “whale” at the baccarat table winning a million bucks can cancel out the other 10,000 people losing their last $100. 

Gaming Author Deke Castleman’s Whale Hunt In the Desert: The Secret Las Vegas of Superhost Steve Cyr tells the story of how coveted whales are marketed and their egos stroked so that they will lose millions in Las Vegas and other gambling cities.

Castleman’s story is told around the career rise and exploits of Steve Cyr, recognized as the Las Vegas Ahab. Cyr, a high-octane combination of brass, ingenuity and good old-fashioned Midwestern work ethic, is yet another Las Vegas success story. 

After growing up in the hospitality industry working for his parents who owned and operated a Howard Johnson Motel in Salina, Kan., Cyr came to Las Vegas to study hotel administration at UNLV. 

Cyr took all of the gambling related courses he could and also worked at the Barbary Coast, dealing a variety of casino games, writing sports bet tickets and clerking in the casino pit and cage. 

After graduating from UNLV, Cyr cold-called the casino marketing supervisor at Caesars Palace, finagled an interview, and was hired as a slot host despite having no experience. 

Cyr’s career provides the backbone to Whale Hunt, ending with him going independent and forming H-Six, which according to Cyr’s website is “a strategic partnership set up to nurture long-term relationships between casinos and customers linked together by the integral ingredient — the Casino Host.”

The book is chalk-full of antidotes about the wining, dining and pampering of these coveted players. At the same time, it chronicles how the gaming business changed from the 1980s to the present.

When Cyr entered the business pit bosses and dealers controlled which players received comps. Casino hosts were old guys who hung around properties being nice to big players who had already decided to play at their properties. 

Cyr changed that with telemarketing, the use of computer technology and hyper-aggressiveness. He used informants all over town, such as dealers and limo drivers, who would tip him off about players he could market. And, he wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. 

The book tells of Cyr sending a fruit basket to Hustler Magazine’s Larry Flynt, a huge player, each week for six months even after Flynt hung up on him. On Cyr’s second unannounced visit to Flynt’s Los Angeles office, he landed Flynt, who told Cyr, “You’re one persistent host. I feel like I owe you money.” 

But where Whale Hunt is most instructive is when Castleman delves into the psychology of these whales. The prospects who Cyr looks for are those “who eat like a bird and shit like a moose.”

These players have huge appetites for risk and are willing to lose everything when they get behind. But many of these same players have an “unnatural bias against a big win.” When winning they are “tighter than an accountant’s asshole,” writes Castleman, “not wanting to cross that disquieting line from winner to loser.” 

Most people expect to lose to the casino, so when a player suddenly becomes a winner he or she can’t handle it. “They go on spending sprees — booze, jewelry, hookers, jewelry for hookers, even jewelry for the wife,” Castleman explains. “And when they inevitably lose again, their whole world crashes in around them.”

For those curious about what really makes Vegas hum, Whale Hunt In the Desert will give a clue, and may keep them up at night. LW