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Las Vegas loves its losers -- especially well-heeled losers. In fact, Vegas so adores those high-flying gamblers with the means and the bad luck to blow staggering sums at the tables that the casinos have a nickname for them: "whales."
And the whales are prized commodities in Vegas. Casinos fly them in on private jets, put them up in mindblowing villas and provide them with personal chefs and doting butlers -- just so long as these deep-pocketed players are willing to put six figures at risk each time they visit. Just a few years ago, Vegas was crowded with these massive free-spending players. But in the current economic climate, the highest rollers represent a thinned-out species. Even those whales still willing to risk princely sums are tighter with their chips than they used to be -- and they're getting selective about choosing a casino to go swimming in. When Whales Attack "When times were good, a gambler would come in for a weekend, win 50 grand on Friday night, and promptly piss it away. By the time he was ready to leave on Sunday, he owed us money," says Steve Cyr, senior director of player development at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and subject of Deke Castleman's Whale Hunt in the Desert, a Vegas confidential. "Now when some of the hundred-thousand-dollar players get a couple of scores, they stop playing and keep the money."
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