Casino
Manager Casino managers come in two basic molds. Still
lingering , around are the generation that started in
the illegal casinos and clubs of the Midwest and New
Jersey, tough men who drifted or were called West when
Vegas came alive. These are old fashioned, hard men who
didn't care to change with the times. When I first became
seriously involved with the Vegas scene, I was sitting
in a casino with one of these men, who ran a tremendous
Strip casino with an iron fist. The casino wasn't veryprofitable,
and I think a great deal of the fault lay with the casino
manager, who was now working for a corporation listed
on the New York Stock Exchange, but still thought that
the boys from Detroit and Cleveland were running things.
I was playing blackjack when Sammy (not his real name)
came over and started a conversation. I was doing research
at the time on a novel about Las Vegas, and I asked him
about card counters (players who keep track of the cards
mentally); since my main character was going to be an
expert twenty-one player.
