Question of the Day - 13 December 2023

Self-proclaimed “King of Baccarat” Mikael Mase claims he's “banned from every casino in Las Vegas.” Actually, we saw one headline that he's banned from every casino in the world.

We'll take the under on that. 

First, in Las Vegas alone, of roughly 150 casinos (defined as having 16 or more slot machines), some have never even heard of baccarat. Second, most of the 60 casinos of consequence are usually eager for high-roller play, especially at baccarat, so it's hard to believe that even a few, let alone all of them, have 86'd him. 

One Vegas surveillance supervisor, the Venetian’s Jake Ormand, has offered an on-the-record testimonial to Mase. Ormand told LAWire.com, “He won $10 million in three months alone. … He was not a safe bet for our business, so we had to restrict him from returning to our property.” We'll get to possibilities other than baccarat anon. 

The Jersey-born Mase, 32, sports a body and face full of tattoos and a usually a backwards cap. He claims to have done time for selling drugs, then become addicted and homeless on the streets of Washington, D.C. His acolytes claim his “genius-level intellect expanded his footprint, establishing a vast network of pharmacies, rehabilitation centers, and clinical labs.”

Supposedly, at 28, four years ago, he took up the life of a gambler, though he'd been participating in games of chance from a very early age. He blames his ancestors for his current avocation. “Minus my mother and my father, my entire bloodline is filled with gamblers. My grandparents were very involved in my life. They raised me and they were sick sick gamblers,” he told Inked magazine. “When I was five years old, I was taught gin rummy, Hungarian rummy, Texas hold ’em. They liked to gamble, so if they had to take care of me all day, they wanted to gamble with me. Even if it was just for pocket change.”

Late on, he beat his fellow Jewish kids out of their bar mitzvah money. “He even once won a substantial some against one of the dads in his neighborhood, who had to pay him the balance by check.”

Mase claims to have a system for beating the house at baccarat — and that casinos win by cheating against him. One description we found claimed, “He often speaks about a day of reckoning, when he will bring casinos to their knees because of how they’ve treated him.”) His "system" boils down to: “Statistically speaking, you should bet on the banker and never bet on a tie,” thereby somehow exploiting the razor-thin house edge in the volatile game. Thus, Mase’s claim to have won $30 million at baccarat is taken largely on faith.

Baccarat isn't Mase’s only game. His first love was blackjack, which he still plays. He gave that Inked interview while at a 21 table. His parents don’t approve, with Mase’s dad trying to steer him into respectable investments. This, Mase claims, feeds into his rebellious streak.

LAWire vaguely claims that “Every mainstream artist, influencer, comedian, singer, actor, rapper, producer, and athlete follows his social-media pages and has been seen in his presence time and time again.” A litany of rappers follows. 

Mase’s tax statements have been "leaked" online to prove his bona fides. Much of Mase’s wealth, apparently, has been earned through high-stakes poker and online gambling, so we continue to take the $30 million baccarat assertion a tad skeptically.

Medium.com values Mase at $10 million, “undoubtedly influenced by the high-stakes nature of his poker career, winnings from casinos in Las Vegas, and strategic involvement in the online-gambling scene.” Nothing to sneeze at, to be sure. But it also suggests another reason that casinos such as the Venetian might steer clear of him: allegations of money laundering.

As Medium’s William Cooper writes, “Potential bans could be linked to issues like money laundering, connections to land developers, or other undisclosed factors.” He also attributes Mase’s supposed baccarat prowess to edge-sorting, a controversial technique that entails spotting imperfections in the backs of playing cards. Casinos regard this as cheating, for instance in the case of the well-known Phil Ivey wins at Borgata and Crockford's in London, litigated for years due to Ivey’s employment of edge-sorting. If casinos think Mase is cheating, they’d understandably show him the door.

There’s much more to be found online about Mase. However, most of it is written from a fanboy perspective. That's about the best, or the most, we want to say about him.