Gambling's Adult Western

The Sands' Jack Entratter, formerly a partner in New York's Copacabana nightclub, says he must take in $25,000 a day just to break even, what with 750 employees who are provided a total of 937 free meals daily and a show star who may be drawing as much as $20,000 a week. The Sands has 363 rooms, and a 72-room addition is in the works. There is also the matter of having to keep some $300,000 in cash on hand to bank-roll the casino.

The two other Strip operations invariably mentioned along with the Sands as having the biggest play and thus the largest gambling profits—the Desert Inn and the Sahara—have a comparable overhead. The Desert Inn has 500 rooms, the Sahara 400, with 200 more to be added soon.

An average room at the flossy hotels costs $10 to $14 a day, a sumptuous room $20, a suite $35 and a sumptuous suite approximately $60, which is usually quoted as the absolute top price for accommodations. There was a time when no minimum at all was required at the after-dinner shows, but now the standard minimum is $3 (plus 22% tax), and $5 is tops. Drinks are 80� to $1 in the lounges. For gamblers they are on the house, but the cocktail waitress will be hurt if you do not tip.

Ah, gamblers. It is not coincidence that the most warmly appreciated stories told by Las Vegas comedians have to do with losing at gambling. Says Joe E. Lewis: "This is the only town in the world where you can have a wonderful time without enjoying yourself."

The heart of the matter is, of course, that in the long run no one can hope to beat the odds—usually figured as percentages—which always favor the house. In the commonest bet at craps—that the shooter will make a winning roll, or pass—the house percentage is 1.41. In other words, the house stands to win $1.41 of every $100 bet on the pass line over a period of time.

Craps is often said to be the most popular American casino game because of this relatively low percentage, but many bets on which the house has a much higher percentage can be made, and are every day. Craps is the big game because it is so fast, and it probably would remain the champ if the percentages were a bit higher.

The No. 2 game is twenty-one, or blackjack. Here the house percentage cannot be calculated precisely. The player's main obstacle lies in the fact that the house wins if he has a breaking hand (i.e., exceeds a point count of 21 in the draw) whether the house dealer's hand breaks or not.

In roulette, the third-ranked game, the house percentage is almost invariably 5 5/19. This is because the payoff odds are figured on 36 numbers, divided equally between red and black, while the wheel actually has 38 numbers (including the 0 and 00).

As for slot machines, the house can make the payoff as high or low as desired but cannot freeze the jackpot. It is sobering to realize that a nickel machine in Downtown Las Vegas must gulp 9,660 coins to pay the operator's yearly flat-rate tax and license fees—federal, state, county and city—before beginning to return a profit, which is also taxed.

Half the bookmaking places in Las Vegas folded when the federal 10% tax on wagers (this does not apply to casinos) was levied in 1951. Six remain—four downtown and two on The Strip. These are prohibited by law from accepting other than walk-in bets, and really big bets are unheard of.