#professional window starer

[newstfionline]

Las Vegas Gunman Chased Gambling’s Payouts and Perks

By John Branch, Serge F. Kovaleski and Sabrina Tavernise, NY Times, Oct. 4, 2017

LAS VEGAS--The video poker machines that Stephen Paddock liked were the ones that did not draw attention. They had few look-at-me flashing lights or listen-to-me bells.

He would sit in front of them for hours, often wagering more than $100 a hand. The way he played--instinctually, decisively, calculatingly, silently, with little movement beyond his shifting eyes and nimble fingers--meant he could play several hundred hands an hour. Casino hosts knew him well.

“Not a lot of smiles and friendliness,” said John Weinreich, who was an executive casino host at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa in Reno, Nev., where Mr. Paddock was once a regular and where he met his girlfriend. “There was not a lot of body movement except for his hands.”

His methodical style and his skill level allowed him to gamble, and occasionally win, tens of thousands of dollars in one sitting, collecting payouts and hotel perks in big bunches. Last week, as a reward for his loyalty and gambling, Mr. Paddock stayed free of charge on the 32nd floor in one of the elite suites of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, one of his favorite places to play.

On Sunday night, using an arsenal of rifles he secretly shuttled in and shooting through windows he broke, Mr. Paddock, 64, sprayed gunfire into a concert crowd across South Las Vegas Boulevard. When it was over, 58 people were dead, plus Mr. Paddock, who killed himself in the room as police teams moved in. About 500 were injured by bullets or in the panic to escape the barrage.

That the attack was launched from a glassy tower of one of Las Vegas’s most prestigious casinos was not a coincidence. A defining aspect of Mr. Paddock’s life involved gambling, and he hungered for the kinds of rewards that only the Las Vegas Strip could provide.

Just three days before he opened fire from the Mandalay Bay, he was seen playing video poker in its casino.

Mr. Paddock was not widely known among the city’s serious gamblers, operating at a level below the highest rollers. He was not a whale, the term used for the biggest gamblers. But placing bets of $100 or more in video poker, “this guy was gambling high,” said Anthony Curtis, a former professional gambler and currently the owner and publisher of Las Vegas Advisor, a website covering the casino business.

Mr. Paddock once owned and managed an apartment complex near Dallas, and he has been described by some as a wealthy retiree. People who knew him were under the impression that he was a profitable gambler, or that he at least won often enough to make his casino lifestyle worthwhile.

According to a person who has reviewed Mr. Paddock’s gambling history, and who requested anonymity because the information was part of an active police investigation, dozens of “currency transaction reports,” which casinos must send the federal government for transactions greater than $10,000, were filed in Mr. Paddock’s name. Mr. Paddock had six-figure credit lines at casinos that afforded him the chance to make big sums in long sit-down sessions, and he was known as someone who always paid his accounts. His rooms were often comped, meaning given to him free, including this past weekend at Mandalay Bay, according to the person familiar with his history.

At the Atlantis in Reno, Mr. Paddock would often move to a machine when somebody using it got up to take a break. “That would annoy people and he did not seem to care at all,” Mr. Weinreich said. “He acted like ‘these machines are for me.’”

Mr. Paddock was also a “starer,” Mr. Weinreich said.

“He loved to stare at other people playing,” he said. “It was not a good thing because it would make other VIPs in the high-limit area uncomfortable.”

“One of my guests once said to me, ‘He really gives me the creeps.’”

At Mandalay Bay, Mr. Paddock played the video poker machines located in a relatively quiet room labeled “High Limit Slots,” set aside from the jangly machines on the vast casino floor. The room has its own attendants, working behind a desk, and its own restrooms, to keep gamblers close.

The relative anonymity fit his personality in many ways--a solitary pursuit that exercised his calculating mind.

“He was a math guy,” Eric Paddock, his youngest brother, said. “He could tell you off the top of his head what the odds were down to a tenth of a percent on whatever machine he was playing. He studied it like it was a Ph.D. thing. It was not silly gambling. It was work.”

Video poker receives less attention than poker at the tables, which has garnered fame and riches for those who compete in tournaments such as the World Series of Poker. Video poker shares some of the same parameters--players looking for winning combinations of cards, from pairs and full houses to straights and flushes. But it is a vastly different game.

“Video poker is the crack cocaine of gambling,” Mr. Curtis said.

There are no opponents. There is no bluffing or worrying about competitors’ hands. Generally, five cards are drawn from a refreshed 52-card virtual deck--instantly on the video screen--and players decide which ones to “hold,” or keep, and which ones to exchange for new cards. Players calculate the possibilities remaining in the 47 other cards.

A pair of jacks or better might earn the bet back, a “wash” for the player. A royal flush might pay 400 times the bet--perhaps a $50,000 payout on a $125 wager.

For experts like Mr. Paddock, who had played the game for 25 years, his brother said, each hand required only a few seconds of time. Ten hands could be played in a minute. The computer kept track of the financial tally.

It is a game of coldly calculated probabilities, played without hunches or emotion.

“Gut feel has nothing to do with it,” said Bob Dancer, a professional video poker player in Las Vegas who has written 10 books on the subject. “If I have a feeling that says, ‘I’m going for another heart,’ then I will lie down until the feeling goes away.”

The top machines at Mandalay Bay pay out 99.17 percent, or $99.17 for every $100 wagered, according to Mr. Curtis. If Mr. Paddock did wind up a net loser, those losses could be offset, in part, by comps, or “kickback rewards,” essentially free money casinos give loyal customers to gamble with. The more that players play, the more they earn in comps. And casinos offer an ever-changing menu of promotions that can cut the expected losses a fraction further.

“If you get close to 100 percent--that’s where he gambled,” Eric Paddock said. “It’s not just the machine. It’s the comps, it’s the room. It’s the 50-year-old port that costs $500 a glass. You add all that stuff together and his net is better than 100 percent.”

Those types of perks were one reason Mr. Paddock drove nearly 90 minutes from his home in Mesquite, Nev., to Las Vegas for high-stakes gambling. He also visited Mesquite’s more modest casinos, but was not known for gambling big sums there.

[brengud-blog]

Chicken Noodle Soup.

Hey Everyone,

So this will be one of my final posts!

Im going to start with my advice for the next class.

My Fellow EDP friends. The time to design is short, so while thesis is still in the fluffy 3 tier phase take advantage of the downtime. Find something in a category of products that you want to learn more about. If you have the drive to learn about soft goods or metal casting, this is going to be the best time to gain that manufacturing experience. After all, this class is a tool for our later endeavors. I would also do some research on kickstarter, if you have an idea for a product, go take a look and see how many times its been done and how successful that project was. On a higher level, look at who published them and where they got press, as well as prices and materials. This will give you solid boundaries to work within. Finally, time your coffee runs because if you're not back from when Creighton expects you to be, you get the disappointed dad-core vibe and let me tell you, its no bueno.

So now for the more bloggy part. This class has been such a phenomenal learning experience. I'm leaving this class with more than Ive taken from any class. I really wanted to break into the world of soft goods and this was my opportunity. I think designing and apron was good middle ground of not being to simple, yet not extremely complex (Andy). I do think that in the future ill venture back onto kickstarter with another soft goods product, or some tool that dives into the maker community, not quite sure yet!

I have a much greater understanding of how to convey a feeling to an audience. On that note, I REALLY liked making the video. I had a blast going out to Indiana and making a stupid little side table all while thinking of framing, focal length and how I could tell my personal story as well as the aprons story. Learning to edit video taught me a new tool for conveying an idea and will without a doubt be useful in the future. I had an idea of a style of visualization that I wanted to use and I tired my best to learn it and having that freedom was really an amazing opportunity.

Ive really enjoyed going to professionals work spaces and getting a feel for how they work, getting a more in depth understanding of their design process and hearing them talk about their passion. Also the mixture of people who spoke the class was nice, it wasn't just people who've hit the jackpot on kick starer but people who are independently creating and making use of the platforms (Insta / kickstarer / the internet?) in a meaningful and creative way. (im looking at you Eric Trine)

One note for the second semester. As much as the business talk is important, I think you guys should space it out between first and second semester. Having a 3-4 hour discussion on business was fuckin' brutal. I think you could present it to next years class in 50 minute increments, allowing for better note taking and understanding, because after around an hour I just couldn't pay attention anymore and would start doodling.

O.K - The Iron Apron Timeline.

I should be getting my next sample back next week. With that ill be posting another short update for the backers to see the progress and the corrected details. With that final check, the final production run will BEGIN! It will most likely take a few weeks for production to be completed. Within that window of time ill be getting all the packaging and mailing details for the backers so that when I get the 50 aprons all i have to do it put them in their lil box. Ill also be making the 5 special rewards for the people who backed on the $100 reward category. Im still not quite sure what im going to be making them, I was thinking hooks to hang their aprons from but that seems like, "meh". Finally, I still have to punch around 30 more leather pieces. If you recall my strap dye bent on me. So ill have to whip out up before the shop is closed for the summer and I loose access to it. (super bummer)

Then I mail them out to all the lovely people who gave me money asking them to post on social media  (insta / facebook / twitter ) #IronApron so i can get a little bit of a look into people lives as well as possibly making a small community of people who can use that #.

Ted and Creighton, Thank you for everything, you guys are the best tag team I think Ive ever witnessed ( you guys should do a kickstarter together ). I’m looking forward to coming back next semester to see what your students are going to be putting out into the world.