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Former presidents George Bush and Jimmy Carter (pictured eating ribs
with brother Billy) have stayed in the Venetian's 5,000-square-foot
Presidential Suites, which are sedate by Vegas standards. Originally
built for business travelers, the hotel has proved to be popular with
high rollers. The Presidential Suites are currently undergoing an
opulent retrofit to reflect that change.
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Photos: Top, Jeff Green; bottom left and right, Corbis Images
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Beale has since become something of an authority on high-roller design,
a discipline with its own idiosyncratic mandates. Although Vegas luxury
these days is overwhelmingly Mediterranean in inflection, the bulk
of high rollers are Asian, which subtly informs the vision of opulence.
All-white flower arrangements usually signify death in Asian culture
and therefore are taboo, as are mirrors above beds. "Another thing
that is perceived as bad in Asian culture is decapitated statues or parts
of statues," Beale says, "whereas we in the West might think that
a Buddha hand is a beautiful object." Conservative Middle Eastern cultures
must be taken into account as well. "Even though you're at Caesars
Palace and there's nude statues everywhere, we try to avoid that within
the private spaces," he says. "You want to cover up body parts."
What brings high rollers to a space is the personal marketing done by casino
executives and the perks that are offered. But what brings them back, Beale
says, is how the entourage--which can number 80 or more people--likes the
space. "It's the people surrounding the big player who spend the most
time in those suites," he notes.
At Sheldon Adelson's Venetian, Jim Beyer, vice president of design, tells
me that the extremely successful property was really intended as a high-end
business hotel. And yet the high rollers came. "The high roller has
really become more a part of the business model since the hotel's opened
than it ever was while we were planning it," he says. Accordingly the
Venetian recently expanded its baccarat pit (high rollers favor the game
because it gives the least edge to the house). "One of the interesting
things about a casino," Beyer says, "is that everything's competing
for perimeter space." The Venetian deemed its baccarat expansion so
important that it found space for two semiprivate gaming rooms and a dining
room aimed at high rollers with a table that is, as Beyer notes, set up
in the "circular Asian style as a compliment to our Asian clientele."
He adds that although the Venetian "didn't feng shui this place, this
baccarat pit has always been considered by players to be a lucky room."
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All-white flower arrangements are verboten in the suites (like this one
at Caesars), because they're associated with death in Asian cultures.
Cultural considerations are important as foreign high rollers often
travel with army-sized entourages of family members and friends who all
have to feel comfortable in the room.
Photos: Left, Corbis Images; top right, Jeff Green
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Beyer then takes me to one of the Venetian's 5,500-square-foot Presidential
Suites (former presidents Bush and Carter have stayed there), where he almost
apologetically notes that "we weren't trying to absolutely blow people
away with these suites. We were attempting to make something that was elegant
in an almost restrained way." The high-roller influx is changing
that, however; with a new series of reconfigured Presidential Suites
(currently being designed by Sue Firestone) the Venetian is now, Beyer says,
"trying to blow people away." It's all about the details. Standing
in the foyer, he points at a wall that has gilded moldings: "In the
new suites we took that up a few levels. You won't see a plain wall; you'll
see several levels of articulation. You'll see wainscoting and exposed-grain
rosewood cabinetry and plasma-screen entertainment centers."
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The Forum Penthouse suites at Caesars Palace (below) were built in
response to the success of high-roller rooms at rival casinos. The name
was a matter of some discus-sion, as it resembles the title of a certain
magazine whose letters invariably begin, "I never thought it
would happen to me..."
Photo by Right, Peter Malinowski
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Who then decides which guests are suitable for the rooms? That job falls
to VPs Bruce Himelfarb and Brian Parrish, respectively the very vision of
the genteel casino host and the slick number-cruncher. "For someone
to stay in the Presidential Suite we would normally look into the three,
four, or five hundred thousand dollar levels and above," Himelfarb
says, referring to the amount of money put in play in a single day. "The
average bet would be $5,000." Some fish, however, are simply too
big for the Venetian's painstakingly recreated canals. According to Himelfarb,
Packer--the most famous high roller of all time--has expressed interest
in playing at the Venetian. "We've chosen not to have his business
at this time," he demurs.
"The thing we look at is what's the upside for us," interjects
Parrish, whose demeanor and syntax is that of a Wall Street analyst. "At
some point there's a law of diminishing returns. Packer has as much firepower
as most hotels--he'll come at you until he catches a lucky streak."
Himelfarb and Parrish--who now routinely visit Asia, particularly mainland
China, recruiting potential high rollers--look to limit the hotel's exposure
to risk. "The more time [a high roller] spends gambling," Parrish
says, "the greater the advantage for the house." And therein lies
the real importance in designing the mythic splendor of the high-roller
suite: to create a fantasy world from which one does not care to leave,
to surround the player with such abundance that he forgets what he has just
lost.
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