Prologue -- The Greed and the Fear
          In which the reader is introduced to the gambling meaning of the term "whale," the job description of the casino host, and the theme of love and greed (winning) and fever and fear (losing).

PART ONE -- WHALE HUNTERS

Chapter 1 -- All in a Night's Work
          A typical night in the life of Steve Cyr: arranging for a high roller to perform onstage in the Joint at the Hard Rock; standing by
as a whale dares a libidinous beauty to swap her chips for his; reorganizing the Las Vegas Hilton's high-limit pit to accommodate a private crap table and crew for a titan of southern California industry; and handling a few other details along the way.
Chapter 2 -- From Salina to Caesars
          Steve Cyr's early history unfolds: growing up at a Howard Johnson's motel in central Kansas; earning a degree in hotel management at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas; and crashing the old-school host system, a single brash twentysomething
host in the midst of 50- and 60-year-old casino marketing executives.
Chapter 3 -- Storming Barron's Joint
          Cyr is taken under wing by a handful of old-timers, who can see that the debut of the Mirage is the opening salvo in a new
era of casino competition and who recognize that Cyr represents the future of casino marketing.
Chapter 4 -- Turning the System on Its Head
          How Cyr breaks all the old-school rules and taboos, wrenching casino marketing out of the '50s and '60s and into the
'90s by mining high-roller ore, such as slot whales, "bill-backs" from other properties, and trouble gamblers, as well as stealing
players from other hosts and casinos, dominating suite meetings, and hobnobbing with his customers.
Chapter 5 -- The Office Orangutans
          The Hilton merges with Bally's in a friendly takeover and Bally's installs a new management team at the Hilton. Hilton's
entire marketing department is fired -- except for its biggest producer, Steve Cyr. Cyr's new boss promotes him to senior host
and lets him restaff the office with dealers, floormen, salesmen, telemarketers, even an established host or two.
Chapter 6 -- Telemarketing the Marks
          All the tricks of the cold-call trade, where Cyr and his apes pull out all the stops over the phone to get high rollers
through the door.

PART TWO -- HARPOONS

Chapter 7 -- Rolling Dead Chips
          How the casino gets the money by paying gamblers to show up (anywhere from a $2 coupon for low rollers to
$250,000 in promotional chips for whales) and by extending discounts on losses of up to 20% -- and the strangeness that
accompanies casinos paying out to take in.
Chapter 8 -- Wine, Women, and Song
          A look at the bait in the casino markeing executive's tackle box for hooking the big fish: private jets, limos, world-class
chefs, wine collections, strippers, and more.
Chapter 9 -- The Furniture of Love
          High-roller suites -- penthouses, villas, bungalows, palazzos, mansions, sky palaces or whatever highfalutin
appellation architectural designers and interior decorators and casino marketers can dream up for these hypersteroida
l sleepers -- are the most unrestrained representation of the classic Las Vegas cliche of excess. And they're described
here.
Chapter 10 -- Condom City
          So? Do the casinos provide whales with girls or what? You'll have to read this chapter to find out.

PART THREE -- WHALES

Chapter 11 -- "A Friend of the Devil is a Friend of Mine"
          In which the "awkward situations" that a host like Steve Cyr can find himself in as he simultaneously befriends and
betrays his players are examined.
Chapter 12 -- Alone in the Casino, Just Me and My Machine-o
          A penetrating look at the problem of pathological gambling, and how the darkest part of the consciousness
business engenders the darkest part of the casino business -- especially when it involves gamblers betting tens of
thousands of dollars on every hand.
Chapter 13 -- From Pathological to Professional
          An explanation of the thin line that separates a pathological gambler from a professional gambler, as embodied
by Billy Walters, one of the biggest and most famous sports bettors in the world.
Chapter 14 -- The Fall of a Gambler, the Rise of a Host
          Stories of the spectacular nosedives of big-time gamblers -- from the ancient Scythians, who gambled away their
very lives, to modern-day China, where the economic boom is prompting somewhat brutal unintended consequences
for casino players.
Chapter 15 -- It's a Small World After All
          The life of international casino marketing executives as they travel the world trawling for the biggest sucker fish.
Chapter 16 -- High-Rolling Tycoons, Superstars, and Women
          What Kerry Packer, Larry Flynt, Michael Jordan, Ben Affleck, Howard Stern, and well-to-do women all have
in common.
Chapter 17 - Where Are They Now?
          A recap of the huge cast of characters in the preceding 14 chapters -- especially Steve Cyr, whose life has taken
some unusual twists and turns.                      

Epilogue -- Greed and Fear Redux          
          Why do people gamble? From where does the gambling impulse spring? An examination of the ontogeny of
risk-taking: how gambling has been an integral force in human evolution.