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Looking at each book, in order of mention, we start off with Whale Hunt in the Desert: The Secret Las Vegas of Superhost Steve Cyr (319 pages, hardbound, $24.95), written by Deke Castleman. Perhaps it's best to start off with isolated tidbits from one of the most fascinating books of recent years profiling a man who went from brash telemarketer with a hotel management degree from UNLV to help establish a new style of luring the highest of high rollers.
"Most whales are used to running everything and everyone in their lives. They generally get whatever they want whenever they want it," says Cyr.
"The high roller with the most ferocious reputation for trying to run the business of the casinos where he plays is Kerry Packer. In
the casino world, Packer is the Prince of Whales." Cyr says, letting us know that Packer is worth somewhere between 4 and 8
billion dollars.
Indexed and illustrated, the book details how "whale hunters" operate and what "perks" or "freebies" whales are offered to
entice them to a particular hotel or, in some cases, "steal" them away from another establishment.
It's about ego, sex, peculiarities, psychology too. How does one person develop and use specific manipulative skills to convince someone with massive discretionary income to "come play at our place?"
It's another world -- one the public has rarely been privy to.
For example, did you know there's a major difference between a "branch" and a "property" host? All a property guy has to do
to bump into customers is hang around the casino cage. A branch guy is away from the casino, in San Francisco...Hong
Kong, wherever.
Castleman is a master of absorbing information from men like Cyr and rearranging the material into clear, organized and understandable facts. He has compiled a virtual must-read textbook for everyone in the industry -- management, players
and of course, aspiring hosts.
The book too, is a history of the changes in Las Vegas hotel management and ownership practices and policies. It details
how approaches to create revenue were revised. This varied from trying to attract locals, via tour and travel visitors, to
welcoming international players, to openly courting the high rollers and how the city itself responded to "evolving market
conditions."
Castleman has a way with words few gambling authors can match: "Whales are coveted and feared, loved and hated, all
at the same time by the Las Vegas casinos that cater to them. A half-dozen do; more than five dozen, like the Stardust,
don't. Few casinos have the fortitude and fortune to fade the gut-wrenching sphincter-squeezing high-wire action of the
world's heaviest hitters. ...On the one hand, the top casinos will do anything to get them. ...On the other hand, with a
single hot streak a single whale can decimate a huge publicly traded corporation's entire quarterly earnings."
Castleman's style stands head and shoulders above most writers I've seen in 25 years at Gambler's Book Shop. He
uses it to pack this book with material about the city, the industry and the "secret army of people" -- those who have
the rare components of big bucks, plenty of chutzpah (nerve and guts) to play very big and those who have harnessed
the even rarer talent of guiding these high-bred thoroughbreds to the tables, keeping them there and getting them
back in action regularly.
