Gambling With an Edge - guest Bob Nersesian #9

The guest this week is Bob Nersesian.  Bob is a frequent guest to the show, and always entertaining.  Bob is the lawyer who advocates for the players against the casinos, and has successfully sued many Vegas casinos on the behalf of players.  He is also the author of Beat the Players.

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Dusty from the Church Team - Holy Rollers

Our guest this week is Dusty. Dusty was part of the Church Team, a group of card counting Christians featured in the movie Holy Rollers. You can read my review of that movie here -  Holy Rollers.  

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Gambling With an Edge - guest Anthony Curtis 4

Our guest this week is Anthony Curtis, owner of The Las Vegas Advisor and Huntington Press publishing.  

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High Roller Las Vegas

The new Linq Mall has opened between Harrah's and The Quad in Las Vegas. It's an open air mall filled mostly with bars and restaurants.

The High Roller is at the east end, and is the tallest observation wheel in the world. I went yesterday, April 9th at about 2pm. The wheel has only been open a week, and it was empty when I went.

They encourage you to get drunk to ride this thing but I took a pass on the $12 cocktails. Tickets during the day are $24.95 and at night they are 34.95.

Boarding Area

One thing surprised me. As you can imagine there is a video screen with some guy prattling on. At one point he said, "Right now we are 420 feet up. That's right, 420. You know what that means. We're high." This surprised me that marijuana has become so mainstream. It is kind of a perfect joke since the people who get it will really appreciate, and the people who don't won't be offended. If you don't get it just google 420.

The ride takes 30 minutes, and really 10 would have been plenty.

Bellagio fountain

I saw some pictures of the ride at sunset, and that would be a much better time to get great photos. The best parking is a large free lot just east of the High Roller which you can access off Koval or off Linq Lane. I did the big wheel in Chicago with my son about 15 years ago. That one was open air, and we went in December. This was a much better experience than that, but I wouldn't go again. Maybe I've just been around Vegas too long.

The Player Secrets of a Vegas Whale

I opened Netflix last night only to see this in my recommended list. How could I not watch? The Player is 45 minutes of what I would call "Newsotainment"; not really news, and not really entertaining. It is the story of how Don Johnson won $15 million in Atlantic City by exploiting their loss rebate program.

The show is filled with a lot of fluff. The actual time spent on what Don Johnson did maybe totals 10 minutes. The rest of the time is spent talking about how the economic collapse of 2008 effected CET, MGM, and Wynn. There are interviews with Steve Wynn, Jim Murren (CEO of MGM), and Gary Loveman. (CEO of Caesars). Now either Gary Loveman has no clue as to what goes on in his casinos, or he is a blatant liar. When Trish Regan asks him about DJ being barred at Caesars properties he says, "We can't, or wouldn't bar you from coming to the casino." Really? Would you like a list of just the people who have sued CET for being handcuffed and mistreated while being 86ed for doing nothing illegal?

Unfortunately I'm and addict. For me these shows are like pizza - even when it's bad it is still pretty good. The more you already know about the Don Johnson story, the less you will like this show. One tidbit the show brings out that hasn't been mentioned much in other places is his use of porn stars. The idea is the dealer and pit get so distracted by the girls they make errors. One or two errors a night and DJ now has an overall edge. If you're bored some night and scrolling through Netflix you might check it out.

The show was originally made for Bloomberg TV, so if you don't have Netflix you can also watch it here. The Player.

Gambling With an Edge - guest Ed Miller

This week's guest is Ed Miller, poker author and player. His new book is called Poker's 1%. 

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