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Question of the Day September 10, 2004
Q:
My brother-in-law told me about your new book called Whale Hunt in the Desert. He said it's about high rollers. My question is: How high of a high roller is a whale?A:
For this answer we turned to Deke Castleman, the author of Whale Hunt and the senior editor of Huntington Press. Here's what he has to say."A whale is among the world’s biggest casino players. Opinions vary, but my idea of a whale is a player who can bet at least $50,000 a hand, with a $5 million line of credit. That’s 100 betting units, which will get a $50,000-a-hand gambler through the weekend, usually. Sometimes he’ll lose it all. Sometimes he'll come out ahead. But he's prepared -- and can afford -- to lose five million in a three-day jaunt to Las Vegas.
So $50,000, to me, is the lowest of the high. How high can a whale go? The biggest table-game bet taken by a Las Vegas casino has been $250,000. For 100 units, you need $25 million. To lose in a weekend. That’s pretty serious money for one player, even in the big casinos. Only seven or eight human whales can handle that kind of action. Six of them are Asian. Maybe a Hong Kong banker or a Japanese industrialist or an Indonesian general or even a mainland Chinese will show up with twenty-five mil to play with.
Perhaps 100 players worldwide can handle $100,000 a hand. Probably 500 gamblers altogether qualify for whale status by betting $50,000 hands.
Thousands more are capable of bringing million-dollar bankrolls and making $10,000 wagers. They might not be whales, but they're big fish all the same. That’s why there are more than 500 casino hosts in Las Vegas -- to handle all these hoards. The relationship between the top players and the superhosts is primarily what my book is about.
No part of this answer may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the publisher.
