| What is your main
occupation today? |
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| I'm still handicapping. I have an Internet
service called FrankRosenthal.com.
I provide www information and other information, facts
of opinion, and views. Some of it is free and some of
it is paid subscription. I also do some consultation for
some properties that are out of this country. |
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| The Las Vegas Era |
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| What would you
say are the biggest differences in LV today from the time
when you ran the show? |
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| I think we where more conscious about
more superior service-one on one. When you came into any
of our properties, no matter who you where, literally,
you were a VIP. And that's the way our corporation was
instructed to treat you as opposed to being cattle. |
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| Would you go as
far as saying that casinos in Las Vegas treat people like
cattle today? |
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| Yes, I would. The town is so big. It's
a whole different ball game. The help is less informed.
The old time operators understood the games and they had
a better understanding for romancing the customer, satisfying
the customer, and bringing the customer back. |
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| I got the notion
that LV was influenced by the mafia in your days, but
that seemed to end around the time of the movie in the
early eighties. |
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| Two things: one is that it's grossly
exaggerated and beyond that, I won't be able to comment. |
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| Do you think organized
crime has any influence today? |
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| My best guess would be negative. |
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| But you don't
know? |
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| I don't know as a matter of fact, but
you asked me my opinion and my opinion would be; no, they
do not have any influence today. |
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| What do you think
of Las Vegas today with all the new attractions? |
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| I think it's a marvelous industry.
The evidence proves that the public enjoys entertainment
and gaming and it's the public who has built the new mega
resorts by pouring billions of dollars into the industry.
If not for the state of California, there wouldn't be
any Las Vegas, Nevada. |
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| If I say that
Steve Wynn is to Las Vegas today what you where back in
the late seventies, how do you comment? |
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| Some people would agree with you. The
only difference possibly between Steve Wynn and Frank
Rosenthal is Steve Wynn had the opportunity to utilize
his expertise. Frank Rosenthal did not. |
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| Do you think you
can explain that a little further? |
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| What I'm saying is that my career was
disrupted. I don't know where I would have been today
given all the years that have passed and the opportunity
to apply the years that I have spent in trying to becoming
a top professional. I was able to accomplish many things
when I was there, but I wasn't able to sustain myself,
if you got what I mean. |
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| How did you feel
when you left LV? |
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| Bitter… Professionally bitter. |
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| How do you feel
today about this episode? |
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| You know the expression: "Time heals
all wounds." I think that would be fair saying that. Most
wounds are healed. |
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| Did you have any
thoughts of a comeback? |
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| We did challenge the ruling of the
gaming commission and we were successful on our first
attempt. The Nevada court system did, in fact, reverse
the order of the Gaming Commission on one particular occasion.
Then the Commission and the Control Board and the power
brokers within the state made one more attempt to knock
me out, and they were successful. |
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| Was it like in
the movie, where it had to do with you firing a commissioner's
nephew? |
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| It was a political situation, no question
about that. But I know the scene you are referring to,
and while there was a degree of truth to what happen,
they way it was put out in the movie was not very accurate.
|
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| "Casino," The Movie |
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| Let's talk about
the movie "Casino." How similar are you to the character
portrayed by Robert De Niro? |
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| From 1-10, I would like to say 7. |
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| In the movie,
Joe Pesci plays Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, an unscrupulous
hit man. How close to him where you? |
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| The best comment I can give is we were
once very close friends and unfortunately the friendship
desolved. |
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| Was your wife
Geri Rosenthal (portrayed by Sharon Stone in the movie)
involved in any way? |
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 I
really wouldn't want get into that area. It's an area
that is distasteful and brings back bad memories. I wouldn't
be willing to dispute what you just said, but I certainly
wouldn't confirm it. |
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| Tell us about
Geri? |
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| Geri was a very gifted woman: physically,
mentally. She had an aura about herself that was very
uncommon. Her face appeared to be almost carved. She had
a great personality. However, Geri fell victim to drugs
and alcohol. And as the saying goes, nobody beats the
bottle. |
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| How did you meet?
Was it like the scene in the movie (where Geri, portrayed
by Sharon Stone, throws chips in the air at a craps table)? |
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|
Almost. I had met Geri in Miami Beach by coincidence
about 7-8 years before I went to Las Vegas, Nevada.
And then when I went there, she walked up to me one
night and reminded me that we met in Miami Beach.
The movie is accurate to a point. The craps scene in
the movie is accurate. I witnessed that particular situation,
but I had known Geri and was just about ready to begin
dating her when that scene you are referring to took
place.
|
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| How old where
you back in those days? |
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| I was 39 and Geri was 32. |
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| Did you actually
wear those clothes (mint-green jackets and so forth)?
|
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| Well, all my clothes where custom-made;
from my shoes to my shirts, suits, www jackets, and
ties. About the mint green jacket, no Henrik, that color
was not one of my colors. I did like pastels and earth
tones. Not from a sense of being showy. I just enjoyed
bright colors. |
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| Did you really
do all that smoking (Robert De Niro smokes in almost every
scene)? |
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 Like
a chimney. I still smoke and I'm in the process of reducing.
Bob (Robert De Niro), unkown to me, was watching every
one of my characteristics for months and months. |
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| Tell us about
the scene with the blueberry muffins (where you, "Ace"
demand that the chef put the exact amount of blueberries
in each muffin). |
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 |
"The muffins stayed and
the chef left."
|
The blueberries and the muffins
was Frank Rosenthal. Frank Rosenthal dotted every "I,"
crossed every "T." If you don't, they will give you a
hard time about it. Consistency and presentation was foremost
in my mind. whatever there were muffin or anything around
the hotel or the casino was just a situation that I wanted
to strive for perfection as far as I possibly could. The
situation with the muffins came about because the chef
was, at that time, somewhat of a non-conformist-someone
who wanted to do things his way-and I was trying to get
a point across to him that it's my way or the highway.
|
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| Did the chef stay? |
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| No. The muffins stayed and the chef
left. |
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| High Rollers |
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| Tell us about
your treatment of high rollers. In the movie, there is
a scene where they fix the plane so the players had to
stay another night. |
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|
"There are certain players
that can turn the lights out and it's up to the
casino operator to make sure the electricity stays
on."
|
That particular scene was exaggerated.
Certainly we had little, if I might use the word, "angles."
We might bring in couple of good-looking gals if we thought
he had an appetite for women. Anything we could do to
keep you there-to attract you, to break your concentration-was
part of the game. Flowers, alcohol, shows, and clothes
- you name it. The strongest attraction was generally
the girls-the girls from Beverly Hills. |
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| Do you know if
the big casinos still do like that? |
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| I can't promise that they are, but
if they don't they are missing the boat. We all had our
own formulas. |
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| Is it true that
high rollers can either make or break a casino? |
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| There are certain players that can
turn the lights out and it's up to the casino operator
to make sure the electricity stays on. |
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| What is the typical
high roller game? |
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| Baccarat is a game that is perceived
to be somewhat sophisticated. The average player will
not sit down at the baccarat table. There is a charm to
the game. There is an intrigue to the game, but it isn't
any different than shooting craps or going over to the
BJ. You're gonna loose your money anyway sooner or later
- generally sooner. |
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| How has the movie
affected you and your life? |
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| It certainly has put me in a situation
that whenever I www, I'm easily recognized. And I believe
it's fair to say that the movie has created a somewhat
of a fan club for Frank Rosenthal over the last 3-4 years.
Other than that, I'm not sure if I really quite understand
the affect it had on me. People seem to be in awe of the
character in the movie. |
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| Handicapping |
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| What makes a good
handicapper? |
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| That's a very good question. A good
handicapper is someone that has spent most of his adult
life, if not all of it, studying and educating himself.
To be a good handicapper it requires that you want to
eat, sleep, and drink the game as opposed to 9-5. |
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| Can you call it
a lifestyle? |
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| It's a lifestyle where you have to
be very disciplined-not only disciplined, you can't have
any weaknesses in your character, or you shouldn't have. |
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| How do you define
"weakness?" |
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| Weaknesses being someone that indulges
anything other than very, very clean living. |
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| By this you mean
drinking, smoking, and similar activities? |
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| I wouldn't include smoking, but certainly
drinking, drugs - anything in excess. The game is too
tough. |
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| How long have
you been a www bettor? |
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| I have been a handicapper for more
than 40 years. Before that, I would describe myself as
an apprentice. |
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| How have the conditions
changed for a handicapper? |
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| The Internet has become a marvelous
tout instrument for the handicapper-not the line-maker,
but the handicapper. In addition to that, there are a
handful of people in the world who have developed computer
programs, handicappers, that are able to offset the line
to their advantage. It's been a remarkable transition;
one need not be a handicapper with a definition of a student
of the game in order to beat the game like it was years
ago. The computer has taken charge. |
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| Can you explain
how these computer programs work? |
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| While millions and millions of people,
possibly billions of people, will be using the computer
on the Internet within the next few years, the ability
to create programs that can help to beat www and horse
wagering is reserved for a select few. There have to be
brilliant minds that will be able to feed the computer
information that the average human being cannot do. To
my knowledge, there are at least three programs that are
unbeatable. |
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| Won't www books
suffer from such inventions? |
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| Not necessarily-because of the volume.
We are talking about three programs today that are the
crème de la crème-the elite-vs. millions and millions
of players. |
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| How will these
programs affect www betting in general in the future? |
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| The enormous growth of www betting
and horse racing will only increase, and 99.9% of the
players will loose. |
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| Like it has always
been? |
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| Forever. |
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| Internet Gambling |
| |
| How do think the
Internet gaming industry will affect the traditional gambling
market? |
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| It will only grow and grow and grow
until such time as one or more governments will recognize
that the public enjoys gaming. The more you place a prohibition
towards a situation like gambling throughout the world,
the more you enhance the offshore online bookmakers. |
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| Do you think Internet
gambling should be regulated in the US? |
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| I do. All industries require regulation.
However, in order to regulate, you must understand what
you are regulating, and the problem in this country is
that regulators are clueless. |
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| Can't US regulators
use the experience gained from LV and Atlantic City? |
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|
"Gaming should not be
any different than the New York Stock exchange,
which is probably the largest casino in the world."
|
The regulations that are current
as we speak in Las Vegas or Atlantic City are prohibitive
and restrictive. They do not allow the industry to reach
it's optimum. I think they are counterproductive. There
is still an imbalance towards the definition of the word
"gamble." In this sense, some say it's sinful and others
do not. As long as there is an imbalance, you will doubtedly
be able to maximize the industry the way it should be.
Gaming should not be any different than the New York Stock
exchange, which is probably the largest casino in the
world. That's my opinion. |
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| If the US does
try to ban Internet gambling, what do you think will happen? |
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| They won't be successful. You cannot
place a ban or prohibit something where you have no control.
I don't know how they intend to succeed. This country
has no jurisdiction over the UK, nor do they have any
jurisdiction over Costa Rica or Venezuela.
If, in fact, Senator Kyl's bill or others that are
similar in substance are successful, it only creates
a boom for the illegal bookmaker. It does not eliminate
the situation. Gambling operations just go underground.
It's the same situation that existed during the prohibition.
It didn't work then. It won't work now.
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