Quote:
Originally Posted by Monorail
Seems like a lot of media are running with the narrative that the guy was a "multi-millionaire" and a successful high-stakes gambler, with the only evidence they offer being that he gets sick comps. In my experience, that's far more likely to be the calling card of a big loser -- while video poker (at least as of a few years ago) was said to be beatable, MGM would have known very well whether they were comping a sharp or a whale. Moreover, the winning sharps I know are almost always very private about their gameplay and winnings; this guy was bragging to every friend and family member. I'll speculate that it comes out that this guy was near-broke or in debt when this all went down. As to where he got his money...his father the bank robber...or maybe just prudent real estate purchases; many sources claiming he sold a few properties for a couple Million. But everything I've read leads me to believe he's likely to be a degen whale.
+1
In the absence of any other motive, gambling losses could certainly be a plausible explanation. Totally agree that long-term losers are the ones most likely to brag when they occasionally hit a jackpot, and to get free suites. He convinced his brother (who is starting to look like a rube) that "his net is better than 100 percent"
according to NYTimes. $125 bet per hand x 7 hands per minute x 60 minutes per hour x 6 hours = $315,000 bet per day. At 99.17% return (same NYTimes article) this is an expected loss of $2614 per day, or about $400,000 annual losses if he played 3 days per week. So even an original stake of $2 million or $4 million should be completely gone after doing this for years. And of course he could be running bad and lost quicker... VP return relies heavily on catching royals, so if they were slow to come his annual losses could easily be double or more.
Wouldn't be surprised if the $100k he wired to Philippines was the last of his money, decided to send it to his girl instead of paying off his marker.
And yet, still bone-chilling that he would decide to take so many people out with him.