Ever since we were old enough to understand the concept of gambling, the word “casino” has conjured up images of tuxedo clad men sipping vodka martinis and nonchalantly placing bets the cost of an average sized family home (with spacious backyard and swimming pool). Expensively dressed women would raise an impeccably groomed eyebrow when the man would lose everything, but they would shrug it off and have another drink (James Bond movies really have a lot to answer for). When we actually came of age and were able to enter a Casino ourselves, we quickly saw that popular culture had been telling us lies. Most modern casinos prefer a more casual approach and are likely to be filled with polyester covered grandmothers playing the slot machines for hours, at just pennies per turn. Many casinos are also part of a hotel or resort, and many gamers look as though they’ve just come straight from the pool. Does the old fashioned idea of casino glamour actually exist in the modern world? It sure does, but only if you’re wealthy enough to be what the casinos think of as a “whale.”
The Lure Of The Whale
While the low end of the gambling market actually provides most of the income received by the casino industry, the sheer lure of the whale, and the ability to generate a huge amount of profit from a small group of individuals means that casinos are more than willing to provide casino whales (also known as high rollers) with lavish gifts to entice them to a particular casino.In Melbourne, Australia, the Crown Casino estimates that it receives approximately $800 million per week from its beloved casino whales. The Crown Casino is the most luxurious in the country, and so it manages to attract 80% of the high rollers who visit the country.
All The Perks
Since its not rare occurrence for a casino whale to spend (or rather, lose) more than a million dollars in a single evenings session, it’s not surprising that the casinos will happily subsidize their stay with free airfares and accommodation and essentially, anything else to make their stay as pleasurable as possible (Crown Casino has a fleet of gulfstream jets on standby in case their high rollers want to see anything else in Australia).
Targeting Wealth
Many casinos in Europe, Australia and the US are actively targeting whales from countries with emerging wealth. There are high numbers of new millionaires and even billionaires in countries such as China and Russia, and they often need an extra incentive to travel so far for a gambling vacation, which means that private jets, a complimentary hotel suite with a private butler, and essentially anything else that the client desires have become the norm. With the increasing private wealth in China, casinos in Macau have experienced a surge in high rollers, many of whom appreciate that they don’t have to travel so far for opulence.
Who Really Wins?
Casinos often take a gamble when they invite a high roller to visit, as in the case of the Chinese businessman who lost more than $630,000 in a single casino visit. While the casino should have been delighted with this, they actually spent more than $780,000 on this one man, paying for private jets, hotel rooms and covering certain losses (a common practice to entice the high roller to keep playing).
What It Takes To Be A Whale
When walking through a casino, you’re unlikely to see the whales in action, since they are kept in private gambling suites, away from the prying eyes of the polyester wearing slot machine junkies. Most casinos have a “minimum buy in” to be considered a whale, and the Bellagio in Las Vegas actually has a specific private room for gamblers who play with more than $1 million at a time. In rooms like this, deep inside the Bellagio, is where you’ll find the old world glamour of the casino that many of us want to experience when visiting a casino. Of course, you can visit and play, but it will definitely cost you…
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This is a guest post by contribution author Nate Miller. Nate currently represents AWG Ambassador a Las Vegas transportation company that specializes in limousine private tours and many other super car las vegas.
