The Spotted Ball – Chapter 5

The Spotted Ball, A True Story by Larry Cohen c 2025

Chapter 5
“Joey’s group”

The Casino in the Embajador Hotel, for me, had a few problems. The first big problem was the smoke. Cigarette smoke. If one were to enter the Casino after 6 pm, one walked into a wall of smoke. The ventilation was extremely poor even though it was air conditioned. The smoke was thick enough to be seen, smelled, and cut with a knife.

The second problem, previously mentioned, were those well-manicured, hairblown-styled American staff guys that constantly patrolled the gaming floor. They behaved as though everyone in the casino was there to cheat them. Maybe they were right. Actually, I hoped they were right. Secretly, I was hoping that there was someone in there that knew how to cheat the casino and get away with it since, basically, the casino was there to cheat the customer. The odds are so favorable to the casino that if there was a way to cheat them, so be it. In any event, I didn’t like those floorwalkers.

Back here in my area of New York State there was a travel agent who ran gambling “junkets”. This time it was a junket to what I thought to be a relatively obscure casino in, yes, the very same Hotel Embajador. One time when I was visiting the casino along with a few classmates, I saw people I immediately recognized from back home. I thought being so far from home for so long that I was hallucinating. One member of the tour was the owner of a well-known floral shop whom I knew on a first name basis. There were others that I recognized as well, mostly area businessmen. When I approached Mr. Flower Shop, he explained to me they all were there on a gambling “junket” that “Joey” had arranged.

I later found out from friends at the hotel’s tennis courts that “that Joey’s group took the casino for $50,000” . I further learned that they did this “taking” at the craps tables and that they would never be invited back. I didn’t know casinos “invited” gamblers. I thought they were there on their own volition.

One night, when I was “studied out”, I decided to take a walk to take in the ocean air since I was less than two miles from the Caribbean Sea. The winds blew toward the land at night, toward the ocean during the day. I stopped by the casino and I thought I saw my biochemistry professor there. Yes, it was Professor Hazbun and he was there but I noticed that he wasn’t gambling. He was only looking. We were both surprised to see each other but I could see his attention was focused on the roulette wheel. He was trying to do what many had done before him…trying to analyze the outcome of odd numbers versus even numbers versus black numbers versus red numbers. He was a brilliant professor having written his own biochemistry textbook. Although we never spoke of it, his conclusion was probably the same as mine. Simply put, there is no winning system for the players…the odds are with the casino.

As for those gambling tourists who “beat the casino out of $50,000”, had they stayed there long enough, they would have lost their winnings. Casino owners count on that. As Mr Wynn said on “60 Minutes, “no one goes home with their winnings”. But, if you must go home, then there is always the possibility that you can take your winnings with you. And, these guys had to leave and head back to the Mohawk Valley. The tour was over.

To be continued…..