Las Vegas Gunman Chased Gambling’s Payouts and Perks

The New York Times ^ | October 4, 2017 | Serge F. Kovaleski, Sabrina Tavernise and John Branch

[LouAvul]

based entirely 100 percent on pure speculation

Hey! It's Freerepublic! Tin foil hattery abounds!

[PUGACHEV]

"I’m sorry, I must be missing something. I’ve been in a casino perhaps 6 times in my life."

Me too. I find gambling boring, and I think the casinos are seedy, no matter how much glitz they try to project.

[Lionheartusa1]

All games in Vegas are designed to make money for the house ,, he was probably never ahead of the house for very long . My definition of a loser .

Las Vegas / Lost Wages .

[T-Bone Texan]

"...Hang on, I have another theory emerging from my rear end!..."

Hey, my theory has corn in it!

FBI gun running corn, that is.

[RightGeek]

A very astute summary. There may be professional gamblers who make money playing against other players. Against the house/on a machine - not likely.

[WVMnteer]

I actually have had some time to think about it, and if I were the FBI, I would be fully on a “follow the money” path right now. This is a retired guy with seemingly endless money to gamble with as well as a freaking arsenal who also lived in Nevada.

Maybe he simply bought a lot of land in California and Arizona in the 80s and made a killing later in life.

At that point, I don’t even know where to start looking.

[wheresmyusa]

It has always been my understanding that playing Craps, darkside, is as close to house odds that a player can get in a casino. In this case, the casino has only a less than 2% real advantage.

[JoeFromSidney]

I'm a professional statistician. I once remarked to a fellow statistician that I didn't gamble, because I could achieve the expected value by not playing. His responses? "You must think it's a fair game." He was right. I can do better than the expected value by not playing.

[Drew68]

I actually have had some time to think about it, and if I were the FBI, I would be fully on a “follow the money” path right now.

Following the money takes time. People want answers now!

Personally, I'm waiting for the true story to emerge. I think it's going to be interesting.

[WVMnteer]

It’s either going to be extremely curious. Or really boring.

And I know this takes time. I generally have a rule that I don’t start speculating on these kinds of things for 48 hours because there is so much noise in the first 24. (I lived in DC on 9/11 and heard about car bombs at the State Department and prop planes being shot down over the Potomac and all kind of crazy stuff for the first few hours).

I don’t think we’re going to get a journal or manifesto. The only real info may ultimately be his financial records and whatever story his girlfriend gives us. His brother strikes me as clueless to everything (which is perfectly reasonable. My wife’s brother could be running a brothel out of his house, and I wouldn’t have a clue since I haven’t been there in there in two years).