Welcome to Las Vegas! My name is Victor H. Royer, but everyone just calls me Vegas Vic. I was named after that famous neon sign in Downtown Las Vegas, that cowboy with the hat on top of the Pioneer Club, always waving his hand and beckoning to his long love, Sassy Sally, on the other side of the street. I will be writing a few articles for AccessVegas.com, so I hope you enjoy them.
As soon as the first guards saw me at my machine, all the guards stopped halfway inside our little enclave of slot machines. The King also stopped, being in the midst of his guards. The lead guard looked angrily at me and then at the casino executive. The executive made a motion with his hands as if to say it was okay, but the guard wasn't buying it. He was about to come over to where I was when the King waved his hand, then whispered something to the guard. He stopped immediately, and then smiled! I heard the casino executive next to me distinctly let out a breath of relief. The King and his procession then entered, and the King settled in front of the carousel of $500 machines. This was only about ten feet away from me. He was wearing a dark robe framed with crimson, a black headdress with white and silver thingamabobs on it (I didn't know what they were), dark glasses, and white gloves. He caught me staring at him. I was practically next to him. I felt embarrassed, and lowered my eyes.
When I looked up again, there he was still looking at me and with a smile on his face. He motioned to me with his hand, as if to indicate "You're okay." I nodded back at him. He turned to one of his guards and said something in Arabic. The guard then walked over to the other casino executive, who was standing near the King, and said something to him. The executive then came up to me and said that the King wishes that I continue with my game and to please not be distracted by him and his staff. I thought that was quite extraordinary. I mean this man could have had me ejected. Not only did he have spending power, but he had significant political power as well. Some days later I spoke with my friend, the casino host, and asked him about the King. He told me that the King had a $100 million line of credit at the casino and that he spent it many times.
So there we were, the King and I. Almost sounds like the prelude to a musical, but in this case, the music was the sound of slot machines. The King appeared to be a very nice man. I found out later that night that he didn't like to play when Lady M was there, because she was distracting to him. He felt that her noisy style of playing was too frenetic, and so he simply waited until she left and then came down. The casino actually had a problem with this, because both the King and Lady M had arrived at the same time, and neither liked to be near the other, although it was the King who actually made an issue out of it. I don't think that the casino would have allowed Lady M to disturb the King, but she was there first and they weren't expecting the King, who showed up suddenly. But, that was the life.
The King and I will be continued in the next column.
Victor H. Royer is the Author of 22 books on casino gaming. His newest series of 13 books -- including the new release Powerful Profits from Tournament Poker -- are now available in all major book stores, or from The Gambler's Book Shop at 1-800-522-1777, or at Amazon.Com. Visit his Web site at: http://www.GamingAuthor.com
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