patrick.net

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4951890/Vegas-shooter-drank-non-stop-gambled-100-000-hour.html

The Las Vegas shooter was so hooked on gambling he played up to 1,000 hands of video poker in a single hour - at a cost of $100,000.

Stephen Paddock bet the colossal sums by playing $125 a time hands at 'ferocious' speeds for eight hour stints in casinos on The Strip and in Reno.

Top video poker players told DailyMail.com that players like Paddock look like 'stenographers' on the machines because their fingers move so fast.

They had seen Paddock at exclusive VIP tournaments in Las Vegas where he won and lost six-figure sums.

The players described him was a 'low level high roller' but he still would have got perks like free limousine rides and $10,000 of free money to play with.

Paddock's girlfriend Marilou Danley was taken on all-expenses paid shopping trips and they would have stayed in expensive hotel suites for free.

DailyMail.com can also disclose that other high rollers were concerned about Paddock drinking a 'constant stream of booze' whilst he was playing.

They described him as a 'heavy, heavy drinker' and wondered if his high alcohol intake contributed to his mental deterioration.

The 64-year-old had a passion for gambling which he indulged in his retirement with the estimated $2 million fortune he had built up through a real estate business.

Friends have said that Paddock, a former accountant and auditor, developed what he thought was an algorithm which would let him beat the system at video poker.

Anthony Curtis, a former professional gambler and currently the owner and publisher of Las Vegas Advisor, a website covering the casino business, told DailyMail.com that Paddock was not a 'whale' in the casino world, meaning the very biggest spenders.

But he was a known quantity and would be seen at invite-only tournaments where players would compete for $50,000 cash prizes.

Curtis said that according to players in Vegas he knows, Paddock 'gambled big, he really did', but he was not sociable.

He said: 'Nobody knew him, that was the weirdest thing

'People I know only knew of him, they didn't know him. He wasn't friendly but wasn't unfriendly.'

If anything stood out it was Paddock's drinking, Curtis said.

He said: 'He was a heavy drinker, heavy drinker, that's what I heard... some people thought he was a pure alcoholic. He had a constant stream of booze coming his way'.

Curtis said that video poker players he knew told him that Paddock played $25 a hand machines where you can put in five bets at one time, bringing the stake for each game up to $125.

Players at his level would be playing at 800 to 1,000 hands an hour, or one every 3.6 seconds - Curtis said he and his former playing friends used to time each other to see who was fastest.

Players have to go quickly to improve their likelihood of getting hands like a royal flush which come on average every 40,000 hands and might earn $50,000 on a $125 wager.

For the highest rollers, they are treated like rock stars and essentially get anything they want, be it front row tickets to a concert, Super Bowl tickets and a Lear Jet to take them wherever they want.

Even at the lowest level of such tournaments they will get 'full RFB', meaning room, food and board. The presence of the amblers helps build the casino's image.

Michael Shackleford, a former professional actuary and video poker player who now has a career analyzing casino games, said: 'The low level players will get free low end meals, buffets, maybe free rooms midweek

'As you get up they've going to treat you to the better restaurants, better rooms, free tournaments, free airfare, free transportation.

'The way the casinos look at it is every player has a particular value.

'If you have a player who is losing $1m a trip, the casino will give him $300,000 worth of stuff just for coming in.

'They don't like to give you money, they prefer to do it in the form of comps. In Vegas it's fiercely competitive for the big players, they often negotiate to get the best offer.'

Shackleford said that video poker players tended to be smart, disciplined and patient.

He said that you have to be able to sit down at the machine and play it for hours at speed but if you press one button wrong it could cost you two hours in value to play.

He said: 'It's a very volatile game and if you're going to be playing it professionally.

'You go up and down like a roller coaster. You need nerves of steel to keep playing in the bad times.'

Shackleford himself used to lose $25,000 in a single day - but once won $40,000 when he got a royal flush.