Thursday, August 21, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Welcome to the jungle

Cheats and grifters thrive on the underbelly of Las Vegas

By Bob Shemeligian

Margie is a local chip hustler who earns her living by schmoozing gamblers at the tables, flirting with them and surreptitiously pocketing some of their red, green or even black chips.

"You do what you gotta do," she says. Margie, a striking brunette with an hourglass figure and dark Egyptian eyes, is getting on in years. She looks to be on the other side of 50, but she still dresses provocatively in dark colors and always in outfits that accentuate her cavernous cleavage.

"They're moneymakers," Margie says flatly.

In a city with gambling as its steel mill, a city that offers nothing but hope and lurid excitement, one very real quality is its dark side. It's evident in the countless residents who occupy tiny spaces in thin-walled weekly motels, who sleep away the day and come out at night to scavenge scraps to eke out meager livings. They include the percentage players, card counters, chip hustlers, local streetwalkers and grifters. They thrive on a different side of the Las Vegas economy--its underbelly.

Another who earns his living on the dark side of the world's entertainment capital is Jack, who uses his wits rather than his anatomy. Jack is a professional gambler. He's among the world's most proficient card counters--so good he can quickly run through a deck with his fingers, and then tell you what are the remaining four cards without looking at them. He's earned hundreds of thousands of dollars playing blackjack in Las Vegas casinos over the past 25 years.

Today, Jack plays 21 sparingly. He says the casinos have wised up. Those with hand decks limit penetration by placing a cut card less than halfway through the deck. And even those with shoes (the boxes that hold shuffled cards) watch players very carefully.

"The casinos want you to play blindfolded," Jack says. "They give you nothing, and they want everything."

These days, Jack plays mostly poker. Although the money's not as good, the occupation is more fun and less stressful. "If you're a professional hustler, you're really an ambassador," he says. "You have to be nice to the tourists. After all, they're paying for the game. You can't be out of line. You go in and ply your trade and act like a gentleman."

Many who ply their skill in casinos--especially during late hours--try to get an edge any way they can. Keith Copher, chief of enforcement for the state Gaming Control Board, says his agency arrests nearly 500 people each year on charges of trying to cheat a casino in some manner.

It's a serious charge. According to state law, any attempt to cheat a casino is a felony--no matter how small. That means a gambler could face serious charges by simply past-posting a bet at a table, or adding an extra chip to a winning blackjack hand.

Copher says many still attempt to cheat casinos in every way imaginable, from using light wands to block the optic device that counts how much money is dispensed by a slot machine to manipulating a machine to pay a false jackpot. One primitive way to do this is to rub one's feet vigorously on the casino carpet to create static electricity to help manipulate a keno machine into paying a jackpot.

"We got a warrant for the arrest of [notorious casino cheat] Barry Zeltner for doing just that--rubbing his feet in front of the machine," says Copher, who added that Zeltner also took other measures to manipulate the machine.

Copher says some greedy tourists have been arrested for sitting at a machine with a jackpot that hasn't been paid and claiming he or she won the money. "False claiming--it happens," Copher says. "Usually, a representative of the casino will try to handle the situation by telling the person he or she did not hit the jackpot. But if the person is insistent and doesn't leave, it's like, `Hey, stupid, you're not getting the money, and you're getting arrested.'"

Copher says the Control Board doesn't investigate cases involving card counters--as long as the counters don't practice illegal activities to gain a further edge.

The existence of these "employees" in Vegas' underside doesn't surprise Hal Rothman, UNLV history professor and author of Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the 21st Century.

"No one comes here for the climate or the lack of water. Few come here for the desert scenery, and few for the culture," Rothman says. "People come here for different reasons. And every low-life scumbag in the universe passes through here. This city is a magnet that attracts every human hustler. After all, this is a city of excess. This is a place with no rules, even if there are rules."

Loan sharks are another breed that takes advantage of that excess. The loan sharks, or "juice men" as they're known in poker rooms, are omnipresent in most major casinos and are seeking out many casino workers--especially on payday. Unlike proprietors of the check-cashing stores and auto title lenders, loan sharks don't advertise in the Yellow Pages. But they're just as easy to find.

Just ask Michael, a veteran poker room supervisor. "There's juice men in most every major casino," he says. "They get 5 percent a week. That means if you owe him $2,000, you have to pay $100 each week. That's just the juice. They prey on degenerate gamblers with bad credit, and they have a lot of customers--many who work in casinos."

"This is a place for predators who prey upon the weak," says professional poker player Mike Dickinson while seated at a medium-stakes Texas hold 'em game in the Bellagio poker room. "Just look at all the girls who get involved in prostitution and get pimped out. Look at all the people trying to borrow money--trying to scam their way through. This place has always been a haven for scam artists. Unless you have strong character, this town will eat you up. This place has a way to ferret out your weaknesses. A lot of people don't make it here. They have to leave."

Michael, the supervisor, believes the casinos are aware of the presence of loan sharks in their establishments. "I can see how they let these guys operate, seeing as they loan money to gamblers and the gamblers play in the casinos," he says.

By hook or crook

Another "dark side" worker casinos have long tolerated is the prostitute.

The reason, according to George Flint, lobbyist for the Nevada Brothel Association, is expedience. If a gambler takes a trip to a legal brothel in a rural county, he will be away from the casino for several hours or more. If a gambler is serviced by a prostitute in his room, then he has more time to spend in the pit.

"[The casinos] don't want any activity that will keep gamblers away from the action, not even for a couple of hours," says Flint, who adds that moralists shouldn't be too hard on casinos for tolerating the world's oldest profession. "Keep in mind, there's general knowledge [throughout the nation] that we have legal prostitution throughout Nevada and when we see those huge, alluring billboards and those ads in the phone book, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that pussy is the core object that's being sold," Flint says.

But prostitution is illegal in the most populous counties of Nevada, including Clark County. And so it flourishes on the dark side.

"It certainly is a lucrative business in this town," says Metro Police Lt. Terry Davis, who heads the vice section, and who is careful to note: "The hotel industry is very cooperative with vice efforts."

So, why are there so many young, attractive and alluringly dressed women in and around the lounges of most major casinos during the late night and early-morning hours--women who gladly meet the stare of a lonely, male casino patron?

"Yeah, isn't it sad?" Davis says with a laugh. "It seems like they're the only women you can get to look at you in this town--especially late at night."

The problem, according to Metro Police and other officials, is that prostitution in Las Vegas is an industry that is much too large and powerful for any one agency to combat. Flint says he once counted nearly 40 prostitutes working the floor of a downtown casino.

"It's totally beyond the ability of Metro to fight prostitution in Las Vegas. It's just too big," Flint says.

But vice officers make a strong effort. Last year they arrested 4,113 women and men on vice-related charges, an increase over 2000 when 3,760 suspects were arrested. Of those who were arrested, 17 women and men tested positive for the HIV virus. "My tip: If you have sex with a prostitute, you are playing Russian roulette," Davis says.

Of particular concern to vice officers is an increase of prostitution in areas off the Strip. These include the corner of Tropicana Avenue and Industrial Road and the Boulder Highway corridor from the Castaways Hotel to an area well south of the Tropicana intersection.

Vice officers say many prostitutes stay in weekly motels along the Boulder corridor and other low-rent sections of town, and start plying their trade as soon as they walk out their front doors. "They work anywhere there's high traffic," Davis says. "You see them all hours of the day and night."

Gambling, prostitution and loan sharking are certainly not admirable qualities for any jurisdiction--but Las Vegas does seem to handle it quite well.

"What do you expect from a city where the roots of civic pride stem from usury?" says Jim, a local jewelry manufacturer. "I've lived in different cities from San Francisco to New York, and there's no city like Las Vegas, a place with gambling, loan sharking, pawn shops--a place where men think they can get women for nothing, and in fact the women are using them."

High stakes

Perhaps these stark realities are what drive some to gamble?

"Many gamblers are what we call escape problem gamblers," says Bo Bernhard, director of gaming research at UNLV. "The misconception is that they play for a rush, and that they feel great. Most often they feel nothing, and they play to escape the realities of life."

One who agrees with this assessment is Drew Spangler, a resident of an apartment on the Boulder corridor who says he is looking for work.

"I've hit hard times," Spangler says. "This can be a tough city. It's also a scary place to live. If you know anything about playing cards, you know the casino wants to know everything about you. It's like Big Brother is watching you."

But others question whether this is a fair assessment of an industry that prides itself on offering adult entertainment for those who like action and employment for those willing to work. "There isn't a dark side of Las Vegas, just different shades of gray," says Howard Schwartz, operator of the Gambler's Book Shop. "For some people, like the retired, this can be a nice place to live. They play and try to supplement their monthly checks. A lot of them try to grind out $10 or $20 a day--that and a cheap meal."

Still, there are others who frequent casinos who are not so pragmatic. "They hear about people who stagger up to the table with five bucks and all of a sudden, they're a conglomerate," Schwartz says. "The dream is what keeps them here--it's what keeps this town in business and it's what keeps these people moving. Otherwise, they'd stay in their little rooms and rot away."