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WSOP Winner a Lucky College Drop Out

Pius Heinz is a lucky guy. At age 22 this youngster has just won the World Series of Poker and pocketed $8.72 million. That’s a lot of money, and especially for someone who six months ago wasn’t sure which way his life was taking him. The World Series of Poker takes place in every year in Las Vegas and draws hundreds of wannabe poker stars.

Heinz had been dabbling in poker here and there for a few months but wasn’t sure about what to do next. He had considered going back to college from where he had dropped out a few months before, and was not sure if he should take the path of a professional poker player. Let’s just say that in hindsight, Heinz is definitely glad he took THAT decision. He joined the WSOP poker circuit a few months ago and today he is not looking back. I guess he is not going back to college very fast…..!

Out of interest sake I have thrown together a list of some of the world’s most rich and famous college drop outs. Now most of these were not professional poker players, but I am sure that when they took the decision to drop out of college and follow their other dream, it was certainly a gamble.

  • Bill Gates
  • Mark Zuckerberg
  • Steve Jobs
  • Michael Dell
  • Ralph Lauren
  • Andrew Lloyd Weber
  • JD Rockerfeller
  • Ty Warner
  • Ted Turner

OK so I am not encouraging dropping out of college here, but for a lucky few, the dream worked, the gamble paid off, and they are now sitting pretty in their richness and fame while some of us have to go about living the real life of studying or waking up in the morning for a real job.

Posted in Las Vegas.

By reneek
November 10, 2011

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Stupid Casinos and their Thieves

I recently read that a casino just off the M2 in the UK was robbed by two armed men. The men managed to enter the casino, hold up the cashier and then leave with a fair amount of cash. The police in turn set up some road blocks but were unable to catch these masked assailants.

In a police report they urged the public to help find the robbers – described as thin, in their early twenties. Well, that kind of sums up most of the guys I know! Come on police, surely you could come up with a bit of a better description here? I mean where was all the security, cameras, surveillance and the rest? Also, metal detectors or something stopping these dudes arriving with arms?!

Some of the greatest casino heists have been recorded over time. Here are some of them:

In September 1992, brave cashier who worked at Stardust sportsbook, named Bill Brennan, decided to take a long and expensive lunch break.  It was expensive for the casino, not for him, because in a bag thrown over his shoulder, Brennan had packed some sandwiches, and $500,000 in cash….! This was the biggest recorded theft from a Las Vegas casino in history.

In December 2004, 2 Serbs and 2 Hungarians managed to scam the Ritz Casino in London. With the use of cell phones, lasers, computers and other technology, these ‘lucky’ players figured out how to measure the speed of the wheel and ‘guess’ which number the ball would land on, winning as a result a nice little sum of 1.2 million pounds.

In October 1993, a 21 year old woman, in love with her 48 year old hero, managed to load up a truck full of $2.5 million in cash outside the Circus Circus. The two managed to flee the United States and ended up in the Cayman Islands. The poor young girl ended up losing it all, landing up with only a love child, and $1000, while her lover continued to run, away from her too!

Posted in High Roller, Las Vegas.

By reneek
November 9, 2011

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What’s Mickey Mouse Got to do with Gambling?

You know those old Disney cartoons of Mickey Mouse the farmer rushing with his rake and hoe to defend his land against whatever evil forces await him (tornadoes, floods, Goofy)?  Well, that’s the image that popped into my head when I read this week that Walt Disney World in Florida objects to the expansion of gambling in the state and is doing everything it can to fight plans to build three new casinos  in South Florida.  The state government is desperate to generate revenue for state coffers and is mulling the idea of passing legislation to allow the building of these mega casino resorts.  However, Disney is the uber power of Florida’s entertainment world and it seems the group isn’t interested in seeing part of their market taken away.

If you think of it logically, the chances are that Disney World’s prime target of visitors (read: kids) aren’t going to be rushing off to play blackjack instead of riding the rollercoaster. But I think if three massive entertainment resorts were being planned in my own back yard, I’d start flexing my muscles as well.

Disney employs something like 60,000 people in the area and contributes hundreds of millions to state tax every year.  They are also big contributors to political causes – all which means that the group’s power shouldn’t be underestimated.

I think, however, that Disney and the planned casinos could work side by side and actually complement each other rather well.  The casinos could attract a different kind of visitor who may have not considered Florida as a destination since they weren’t traveling with kids, but would then visit the parks anyway since they were already in the area.

In the meantime, I’d love to see online software companies develop slot games based on Disney characters.  That would show true cooperation between these two worlds.  It might not happen in my lifetime, since Disney is always spouting its family-friendly image and is the only company running cruise ships in the Florida area that doesn’t offer gambling services, but hey, a guy can dream, can’t he?

Posted in Gambling. Tagged with .

By reneek
November 7, 2011

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