GRANDMOTHER BEATS CASINO, SETS WORLD RECORD

Last May 23rd, a world record in sports was broken, but was overlooked by most of the world's press. It was an event that, depending on which mathematician you talk to, occurs once in 5.6 billion times to 1.5 trillion times. You have a much better chance of winning the Lottery--at 100 million to one. It's more likely that the Chicago Cubs and White Sox would win the World Series in successive years (that actually happened!). In any case, this event hadn't happened before in the history of the world.

A New Jersey grandma, Patricia Demauro walked up to the craps table at the Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, NJ with $100.00, and the dice were pushed over to her side of the table. The time was 8:13 P.M. She had played the game only once before and didn't really understand it. Her friend John Capra stood next to her, giving her advice on how to bet. She learned the game quickly, as you'll see.

Ms. Demauro picked up the dice, rubbed her hands together, threw them across the table and established a point--8. Ultimately, she threw another "8" and then established more point numbers and made them also, while throwing every other number except "7" until 12:31 A.M.--4 hours and 18 minutes and 154 rolls of the dice later. The casino's "eye in the sky" recorded every roll of the dice.

For those of you not familiar with the game, the shooter throws the dice, and if she throws "2", "3" or "12" on the opening roll, she loses, and if she throws "7" or
"11", she wins. If she throws any other numbers, "4", "5", "6", "8", "9", or
"10", she establishes a point and, to win, must roll that number again before a "7" is thrown. If she throws a "7" during this time, she loses and must turn the dice over to the next shooter. The casino scoops up the players' money from the table and everyone starts over. Every time the shooter establishes a point number and repeats it, she wins and it's called a "pass". The 14 or so other players at the table are either betting with her or against her (hopefully with her). The "don't pass" players left the table quickly.

In some legendary rolls like Ms. Demauro's, shooters have made over 30 passes. Since it is statistically more likely that a shooter will throw a "7" than any other number, the odds are against her making a pass. But when she makes passes over and over again, she and the other players at the table make a lot of money.

In my own experience, over about 15 years, I've been at tables several times where 10passes were made, but never any more. To add money making opportunities, most players around the table will "place" the other numbers and collect every time those numbers are rolled before the "7" shows its face. They were also betting "hardways"--that double 2's, 3's, 4's and 5's would be thrown. Essentially, every time Ms. Demauro threw the dice, the casino had to pay her and the other players.

If you were fortunate enough to be at the table with her that evening, you would have been paid virtually every time she rolled the dice--"4" and "10" paid 2-1; "5" and "9" paid 7-5; "6" and "8" paid 7-6. At that point, it's better than sex, and it certainly beats working. The decibel level at the table rises as the players applaud every roll of the dice. There's no time clock--theoretically, the game can go on indefinitely until the shooter finally rolls a "7". A small Miami gambling club actually closed down the table and went out of business in 1946 when a woman rolled the dice for 2 hours and the club lost over $500,000.

That evening at the Borgata, the other players were calling out their number requests and Ms. Demauro was making them. Hardways, horn bets, field bets! Single roll bets like two-way yo's (11's), "E-T" (11 and 12), "C" and "E" (craps and eleven)!

The house was certainly keeping score, as the losses were mounting exponentially with every roll of the dice. The boxman was constantly examining the dice to be sure they weren't loaded. The casino manager was agonizing every roll of the dice. The "suits" watched closely every throw of the dice. Players came from other tables all over the casino to witness this historic event. Some offered large sums of money to buy a space at the table from other players. Keep in mind that only about 14 players could actually participate in the game.

Before Ms.Demauro, the old record was held by the late Honolulu native Stanley Fujitake, who rolled the dice 118 times over 3 hours and 6 minutes at the California Hotel in Las Vegas in 1989. (See KENSUSKINREPORT, April 22, 2007).

When Mr. Fujitake made his historic roll, the house lost over $1 million to the players, and the next day, they took the table out in the back alley and chopped it to pieces. Fukitake started out making $3 bets, and finished with $1,000 bets.

Noted gambling author Frank Scoblete had a friend, "The Captain" who once rolled the dice 147 times in Atlantic City over a period of about 2 1/2 hours. "The Captain" was alleged to be skillful at controlling the dice. He would line up the dice with the 3's showing and throw them without spin, like a "knuckleball", to the same spot every time without arousing the suspicion of the casino personnel. He practiced the technique for hours at home (he owned his own crap table).

Ms. Demauro started out the session making $5 bets, and although nobody is talking, she likely cleared thousands of dollars, perhaps over $100,000 that evening. She returned to the same craps table two days later--but only as a spectator. The new queen of gambling went home with her money. God bless her.

KENNETH SUSKIN

UNUSUAL SPORTS LEGENDS--NICK THE GREEK

Mention Nick the Greek to a Las Vegas oldtimer, and you'll get instant recognition and probably a story or two. Not related to Jimmy the Greek, although they share a common heritage, Nick "the Greek" Dandalos was a Las Vegas legend known for his high stakes gambling. Born in Crete, he came to the U.S. in 1911, at age 18. He learned manners and dressed impeccably. He claimed to have a degree from an "unnamed English university".

Shortly after arriving in the U.S., he developed a penchant for gambling. He was drawn to the action and loved it. He won $500,000 in 6 months playing the horses after befriending jockey Phil Musgrave. He then moved to Chicago where he lost it all playing cards and craps. He decided to concentrate on poker and he tore through the East Coast, cleaning out rich gamblers. He once challenged someone to draw a card for a half million dollars but was turned down. He boasted of breaking gambling czar Arnold Rothstein who had allegedly fixed the 1919 World Series (remember Shoeless Joe and the Black Sox!).

The Greek's legend really took hold when, in 1949, he approached Benny Binion (see KENSUSKINREPORT, June 27, 2007) and requested a no-limit poker game head to head with a single player. Binion set him up with an old buddy from Texas, Johnny Moss, 15 years younger than the Greek. The game became the Clash of the Titans. Moss, a good ol' boy with a second grade education against the erudite Nick the Greek--two different styles. The two gamblers played poker day after day for 5 months--5 card stud, 7 card stud, lowball, Omaha, Texas hold-em, whatever--stopping only to sleep, and only a couple of times a week at that.

Moss would take his time away from the game to rest, while the impatient Greek would simply go over to the craps table (he always bet "don't pass"). Tourists and fellow gamblers watched breathlessly as huge pots went back and forth. Eventually, the patient cool hand Moss outlasted the Greek, winning the last pot, and Nick the Greek stood up and simply said, "Mr. Moss, I have to let you go," and he went upstairs to bed. He had lost over $2 million over the 5 month period.

Over the years, the Greek befriended many prominent people on both sides of the law. For example, he once took the famed physicist Albert Einstein on a tour of Vegas. Of course, he had to introduce Einstein to his friends, many of whom wouldn't know Albert Einstein from Albert Brooks. To get respect for his genius friend, he reputedly introduced him, "Meet Little Al from Princeton; he controls a lot of the action around Jersey."

Over the years, the Greek was said to have won and lost $800 million, although he ultimately died, in 1966, broke, playing out his last years in low stakes (legal) poker rooms in California.

KENNETH SUSKIN

INTERESTING PEOPLE--BENNY BINION OF LAS VEGAS

One of the most colorful people who made Las Vegas the city it is today was Benny Binion, so beloved that the city erected an equestrian statue of him in downtown Las Vegas (take that,Bugsy Siegel!)

Lester Ben (Benny) Binion was born in 1904 to horse trading parents who were constantly traveling around rural Texas. He never stayed in one place long enough to attend school. He learned enough to live by his wits, by running errands for gamblers and directing people to the clandestine gambling joints, which catered to the cowboys and the roughnecks in the oilfields.

At age 18, he moved to El Paso where he learned the art of bootlegging. After being arrested and convicted a couple of times, he promised the judge that he would get out of the liquor business.

Instead, he started a numbers racket. Nowadays, the State controls that and calls it the State Lottery. But back in the 1920's and 30's and to some extent today, entrepreneurs ran their own (illegal) lotteries. Eventually, he graduated to floating crap games in hotel rooms in the oilfields of Beaumont, Texas. Although
his reading and writing abilities were suspect, he could count better than most people, and he became a successful gambler.

Unfortunately, success in illegal activities brings unwanted attention, both from law enforcement and crossroading crooks. In 1931, Binion shot and killed a fellow bootlegger, Frank Bolding, after Binion accused Bolding of stealing liquor from him.
In the confrontation, Bolding reached for his knife, and Binion, rolling backwards off a log, shot him in the neck. He was convicted of first degree murder and received a 2 year suspended sentence. The sentence was lenient because, apparently, the man he killed had a reputation for violence, and the authorities believed that Binion had done them a favor by killing him. Several years later, Binion killed a rival numbers game operator who had shot him in the arm. The court found him innocent because of self defense.

By 1946, Binion was prominent in Dallas gambling circles but violence between gambling rivals was escalating, and nobody in the business was safe. The last straw came when his favorite politicians were voted out of office and "reform" candidates were elected. It was time to head for the high country.

In the same month that Ben Siegel (his enemies called him Bugsy) opened the Flamingo casino, Benny Binion piled his family into the station wagon along with a suitcase full of money, and headed to Las Vegas where gambling was legal. He bought into a small casino in downtown Las Vegas, and in 1951, he opened his own casino, the famous Horseshoe. The big attraction for gamblers was that Binion would accept any size bet, provided that it was their initial bet. With the highest limits in town, the Horseshoe became a Mecca for high rolling gamblers.

To keep the gamblers in line, Binion nurtured his unsavory reputation from back in Texas by telling many stories about the bad old days in the rackets in Texas.

In 1953, the Feds indicted him for tax evasion (remember Al Capone?), and he was forced to sell the controlling interest in the Horseshoe to pay his legal bills. Nevertheless, he ended up as an honored guest of the government for over 3 years in Leavenworth. The Binion family got the Horseshoe back several years later, but, because of his criminal record, Binion could not hold a gaming license.

Instead, he became a consultant for the casino and initiated new ideas such as comping small time gamblers and slot players with free drinks and meals. Binion said, "If you want to get rich, make little people feel like big people." His most famous idea was the World Series of Poker which he hosted, starting in 1972, with 8 players. The WSOP was actually begun by Tom Morehead from Reno, but Binion took it over and, by revising the rules to resolve the tournament over a short time period before people got bored, made it a major commercial event. The first winner was Thomas Austin Preston, a/k/a Amarillo Slim. (See April 18, 2007 issue of KENSUSKINREPORT). The WSOP, with national TV coverage, now attracts thousands of players annually, even despite the $10,000 entry fee. The key to its popularity was that any schlepper with $10,000 to buy in could compete with the pros and maybe even win.

Binion had no office in the casino, but informally held court in a booth in the hotel coffee shop. He didn't require appointments, but he would talk to ordinary people as well as congressmen and judges, often telling colorful stories of rodeos and crap games.

He died on Christmas Day, 1989, and over 1000 people turned out at the church. Senator Harry Reid summarized it well, "He's my hero, Nevada is a better place because of him." I guess he was a classic example of rehabilitation--only in Las Vegas can a former crook merit a statue for doing what was illegal in every other state.

KENNETH SUSKIN

UNUSUAL SPORTS LEGENDS--STANLEY FUJITAKE

The legendary Stanley Fujitake has a plaque in his honor in Downtown Las Vegas to commemorate an unusual record. Mr. Fujitake, a Honolulu native, who was known as "the man with the golden arm", became known locally when, on May 28, 1989, while playing casino craps, took his turn at the table shooting the dice and didn't "crap out" until 3 hours and 6 minutes later. The players who were fortunate enough to be at the table with him made thousands of dollars in that time. The California Hotel and Casino lost approximately $1 million on Stanley's long roll.

By the second and third hours, Stanley was steaming. He was rolling sixes, eights, fives, tens, even yos (11's)--but nary a seven. The other players were screaming encouragement--it sounded like Yankee Stadium in there.

Take a break for the restroom or to get a hot dog. Fuggedaboudit. Each time Stanley threw the dice--118 times--the casino slowly and grudgingly paid off the players.

The lesson here is that if Stanley is going to take his turn rolling the dice, mortgage your house if you have to, but get in the game. Sadly, however, it won't happen again because Stanley died in 2000 at age 66.

Before his death, he had 2 other memorable dice rolls exceeding an hour each, which, besides making other players a lot of money, were commemorated on plaques at the Crapshooter Hall of Fame at the California Hotel in Las Vegas, making him a platinummember of this unusual Hall of Fame.

One last note: A day or so after that roll, the dice table was taken out into the alley behind the casino, chopped into pieces and burned.

KENNETH SUSKIN

UNUSUAL SPORTS LEGENDS--AMARILLO SLIM

The legendary Amarillo Slim, whose real name is Thomas Austin Preston, became famous for winning the World Series of Poker in the 1970's when there were only about 10 entrants. Today, there are thousands. That's not meant to belittle Mr. Slim's skill, because he was invited to play against the top players in the world.

Mr. Slim was less well known for winning outrageous proposition bets. For example, he was badgered by former world champion tennis player and noted hustler Bobby Riggs (remember Billie Jean King) to play a game of ping pong for big money. Mr. Slim agreed to do so, provided that he choose the paddles. He came to the match armed with a large skillet for each of them, and he quickly dispatched Mr. Riggs to the losers circle.

Later, hearing of this the world champion ping pong player, a Taiwanese gentleman, challenged Mr. Slim to a game. Once again, Mr. Slim agreed to do so if he chose the paddles. Knowing the Taiwanese was probably practicing with a skillet, Mr. Slim appeared at the match with 2 Coke bottles. Obviously well practiced with the Coke bottles, Mr. Slim easily disposed of the champ.

Mr. Slim had a perfect record in the 100 yard dash against racehorses. He bet that he could beat a racehorse in a 100 yard dash. Although Mr. Slim had run on the track team as a young man, if the race had been run on a straightaway, he had no chance. The trick was that the race was run 50 yards one way, and 50 yards back. He finished the race before the jockey could turn the horse around. He could have beaten the famed Secretariat in a race like that.

Then there was the time he beat Minnesota Fats in pool, using a broomstick. Mr. Fats, who was really from New York, was the pool champion portrayed by Jackie Gleason in the movie, The Hustler, which starred Paul Newman. (Newman also starred in Hud, which, despite popular belief, was not a movie about a government agency.)

The lesson here is: don't let greed impair your good judgment. If someone wants to bet you the sun will come up in the West, don't take the bet. Have you ever been to Panama?

KENNETH SUSKIN