4 ms·

To be fair, what you’ve describing strikes me as closer to hospitality than gambling per se. I live in a ski town. There are absolutely regulars at the Four Sea

To be fair, what you’ve describing strikes me as closer to hospitality than gambling per se. I live in a ski town. There are absolutely regulars at the Four Seasons who tip well in exchange for being “friends” with the staff. The fact that they never hang out outside work hours doesn’t seem to bother them.

kibwen 7mo ago
This seems instructive for considering when a difference in degree makes for a difference in kind. Let's call this "whale potential": the amount of money that a power user can naturally funnel into a casino over a single visit is multiple orders of magnitude more than the amount of money that a power user can funnel into a ski resort over a single visit. For a casino, the act of a customer losing money is not merely a side effect of the activity, it is the primary effect of the activity.
- postflopclarity 7mo ago
  I think you might be underestimating how much money can be spent at a ski resort.
  - Kirby64 7mo ago
    There’s only so much you can spend at a ski resort. Casinos there is literally no limit. The high roller salons can have games with 10k+ per hand/game or more.
  - rcbdev 7mo ago
    A 7-day-card at the Semmering costs € ~280, the sports hotel there is another € ~800 and then let's price in €~600 for food. So an entire week-long ski holiday in the alps costs you around € 1.700. I will not try to argue if this is much or little, just trying to add some context for those not familiar with popular skiing tourism destinations.
SaltyBackendGuy 7mo ago
You're spot on (ex casino worker). There's no conspiracy. Speaking for myself, I was nice to people because it made me more money in tips (also, because I am not an a-hole). Made a lot of "friends" when I worked in the casino, employees and patrons. It's not any different than folks I work with in tech (i.e. some you connect with and have genuine friendships and some are work friends). They likely stopped calling her due to upper management telling staff to not engage due to legal liability (or they lose their job). edit: Additionally, there are whales and there are folks who's job it is to get them in the door (we had game managers for the big games).
- dcrazy 7mo ago
  Yes, I think the grandparent post conflates those whale-attractors with typical service industry behaviors toward repeat customers.
  - carefulfungi 7mo ago
    High end hospitality is different from exploiting compulsive behaviors of addiction. Here are some examples: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/feb/15/draftkings-lawsuit-sports-betting-addiction https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/feb/... https://frontofficesports.com/lawsuit-says-draftkings-vip-program-preyed-on-gambling-addicts/ https://frontofficesports.com/lawsuit-says-draftkings-vip-pr...
- nsvd2 7mo ago
  While I'm certainly no supporter of casinos, I think that online gambling is a difference in kind.
Spooky23 7mo ago
We’re regulars at a resort we go to annually. We always tip everyone generously and send notes to management about especially helpful staff. My wife was on a first name basis with our normal housekeepers, who have watched my kid grow up. We spend at the property with events, amenities etc. The management tends to cycle through the company but the local staff does not - they flag us as VIPs directly. Most people don’t do that and don’t or can’t throw money around in a resort setting. But in a casino, it’s easy to measure the lifetime value of a guest and price the interaction cost. In a beach setting, the financial benefit of a happy customer is less certain. Point being, i would guess that Wynn does 50x the hospitality outreach than Relais & Châteaux, despite both offering a high quality product.

kibwen 7mo ago

This seems instructive for considering when a difference in degree makes for a difference in kind. Let's call this "whale potential": the amount of money that a power user can naturally funnel into a casino over a single visit is multiple orders of magnitude more than the amount of money that a power user can funnel into a ski resort over a single visit. For a casino, the act of a customer losing money is not merely a side effect of the activity, it is the primary effect of the activity.

postflopclarity 7mo ago
I think you might be underestimating how much money can be spent at a ski resort.
- Kirby64 7mo ago
  There’s only so much you can spend at a ski resort. Casinos there is literally no limit. The high roller salons can have games with 10k+ per hand/game or more.
- rcbdev 7mo ago
  A 7-day-card at the Semmering costs € ~280, the sports hotel there is another € ~800 and then let's price in €~600 for food. So an entire week-long ski holiday in the alps costs you around € 1.700. I will not try to argue if this is much or little, just trying to add some context for those not familiar with popular skiing tourism destinations.

SaltyBackendGuy 7mo ago

You're spot on (ex casino worker). There's no conspiracy. Speaking for myself, I was nice to people because it made me more money in tips (also, because I am not an a-hole). Made a lot of "friends" when I worked in the casino, employees and patrons. It's not any different than folks I work with in tech (i.e. some you connect with and have genuine friendships and some are work friends). They likely stopped calling her due to upper management telling staff to not engage due to legal liability (or they lose their job). edit: Additionally, there are whales and there are folks who's job it is to get them in the door (we had game managers for the big games).

dcrazy 7mo ago
Yes, I think the grandparent post conflates those whale-attractors with typical service industry behaviors toward repeat customers.
- carefulfungi 7mo ago
  High end hospitality is different from exploiting compulsive behaviors of addiction. Here are some examples: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/feb/15/draftkings-lawsuit-sports-betting-addiction https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/feb/... https://frontofficesports.com/lawsuit-says-draftkings-vip-program-preyed-on-gambling-addicts/ https://frontofficesports.com/lawsuit-says-draftkings-vip-pr...
nsvd2 7mo ago
While I'm certainly no supporter of casinos, I think that online gambling is a difference in kind.

Spooky23 7mo ago

We’re regulars at a resort we go to annually. We always tip everyone generously and send notes to management about especially helpful staff. My wife was on a first name basis with our normal housekeepers, who have watched my kid grow up. We spend at the property with events, amenities etc. The management tends to cycle through the company but the local staff does not - they flag us as VIPs directly. Most people don’t do that and don’t or can’t throw money around in a resort setting. But in a casino, it’s easy to measure the lifetime value of a guest and price the interaction cost. In a beach setting, the financial benefit of a happy customer is less certain. Point being, i would guess that Wynn does 50x the hospitality outreach than Relais & Châteaux, despite both offering a high quality product.