Current rates are now below fleet operating costs! It's official!

Miami Jai-Alai and Ft. Pierce Jai-Alai had the same owners. They sent me up to Ft. Pierce once incognito to pose as a poker player and give a report on the room.

 

I suppose it would be easy to do if the players were so inclined.

 

I can believe it.

 

We probably know some of the same people from down there, I used to deal poker for the tribe from like 2006-2012 or something. There was a guy who ran a poker room in Hollywood, Warren was his name I think, who used to come up and play in Brighton every now and then. If I remember correct, I think they called the place "The Classic" and it was the old room from before they built the Hard Rock. Sounds like you got in at a good time, since they expanded to No-Limit and Class 3 gaming in that time frame and people were pretty loose with their tips.

 

Emailed a nice lady on a 2017 Great Dane reefer she had listed, price was higher then giraffe ##### for a 7 year old trailer but figured what the hell, got to talking they own a few trucks and have a brokerage, could not comprehend how I dead head out of the north east every week, they could get me a load out of south shore (about an hr and a half away) to NJ for $650,

so 3 hour deadhead to Northern Jersey, or 3 hours of justdriving never mind loading to go load your freight and get back to where I started, and still have to drive to Nj, yea, all set, almost twice the money to bounce down and do picks for the barn and bring it to where I’m actually loading instead of sightseeing Jersey. And it’s done in a day

“But you are loaded not empty” yea, not how that works, but thanks

 

Yeah, that was the Classic, out on 441 and Stirling. But when the state went to no-limit in 2006, I was already in management. So I couldn't take advantage of the crazy tipping. My dealers were making 100 grand a year! For an occupation that took 6 weeks to teach! To compensate, all the floor people got a cut from the dealer tips. We were getting 15% from all dealer tips to be distributed among the floor people, chip runners, brushes and cashiers. Hence, the 90 grand I was making.

You worked in Brighton? I dealt at Hollywood Dog Track and Flagler Dog Track (now it's called Mardi Gras) after I left the boats. Back then, the Flagler and Hollywood poker rooms were only open 6 months out of the year each. Hollywood had the winter and spring roughly, and Flagler had the summer and fall. So we worked at both places. When it became unregulated, each employee had a decision to make on where they wanted to stay permanently. That is when I left to manage Flagler.

 

Ahh yes. New Jersey...America's arm pit.

 

Yeah, I worked at Brighton and Immokalee. A lot of dealers would go play at other casinos, but I never really enjoyed the game enough to justify going out. A lot of them ended up going to work at more profitable casinos like the track in Bonita or the Isles down in Pompano. I stayed up in Tampa for a few years as well while my partner worked at the Hard Rock up there and that was pretty cool. It's crazy how much money can be made in an 8 hour shift, 4 days a week, for sitting in a chair while babysitting and doing a little math.