Stop Predatory Gambling

The Chairman of the Expendable Americans caste

by spgadmin

The Wall Street Journal has a MUST-READ story about Terrance Watanabe, the Nebraska man who lost nearly $127 million during a year-long gambling binge at the Caesars Palace and Rio casinos in 2007.

The government is a full-fledged partner in the business practices used by the predatory gambling trade. Here are some highlights of the story:

In a civil suit filed in Clark County District Court last month, Mr. Watanabe, 52 years old, says casino staff routinely plied him with liquor and pain medication as part of a systematic plan to keep him gambling.

Several former and current Harrah’s employees say their managers told them to let Mr. Watanabe continue betting while he was visibly intoxicated, even though casino rules and state law stipulate that anyone who is clearly drunk shouldn’t be allowed to gamble. These employees say they were afraid they would be fired if they did anything to discourage Mr. Watanabe from gambling at the casinos.

Harrah’s Total Rewards Player’s Club system, a loyalty program similar to that of other big casinos, created a special rank for Mr. Watanabe, “Chairman,” according to the filing and several employees. Before Mr. Watanabe, the most exclusive rank was “Seven Star.” 

One reason Mr. Watanabe was seen as so valuable to Harrah’s, say Messrs. Deleon and Kunder, two of his handlers, is that he gravitated toward games with low odds, including roulette and slots. “He was considered a ‘house’ player because slots and roulette are house games — they have terrible odds for the player,” says Mr. Kunder. “And the way he played blackjack, he made it a house game. He made such bad decisions on the blackjack table.” 

Several employees say Mr. Watanabe would stay at the tables for up to 24 hours, sometimes losing as much as $5 million in a single binge. He was allowed to play three blackjack hands simultaneously with a $50,000 limit for each hand. At one point, the casino raised his credit to $17 million, according to court documents.

When Mr. Sullivan, the Iowa casino host, visited Mr. Watanabe in Las Vegas during the height of his binge in 2007, he says, Mr. Watanabe appeared incoherent and had trouble remembering details of conversations. Other employees recall Mr. Watanabe stumbling around and dozing off at casino tables, some of which were located next to a nightclub blaring loud music.

Mr. Kunder and Mr. Deleon say they both voiced concerns to managers that Mr. Watanabe was too intoxicated, and were told not to get involved. “Nobody wanted to be the one to cut him off,” Mr. Kunder says. “We were afraid of what upper management would do if he left because of our actions.” 

Mr. Watanabe alleges that during this period Harrah’s not only didn’t make him leave when he was drunk, but it plied him with alcohol and prescription drugs to encourage him to stay and gamble. Several Caesars employees say there was no policy to keep Mr. Watanabe drugged or drunk. But, they say, staff knew the company wanted to keep one of the Strip’s most lucrative customers, and so looked the other way. A picture of him was hung in employee back rooms, they say.

In a country where everyone is considered equal, where all blood is royal no matter your race, religion or income, how can the state actively partner in a program that renders some of our fellow citizens as expendable?

Harrahs rightly created the special rank of “Chairman” for Watanabe: the Chairman of the Expendable Americans caste.