Great read- trump gambling story

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/japanese-gambler-donald-trump-213635?o=1

Interesting stuff. Per WIKI:

"The character of K.K. Ichikawa (Nobu Matsuhisa) in the film Casino was based on Akio Kashiwagi."

maybe I'll try reading it again [didn't get far] but I didn't think the article does a good job of explaining why the Japanese man was such a threat

I don't think the author intended to make that clear; only that Trump may or may not have been such a great casino operator.

What gambler in his right mind says, I'm bringing X and I'm going to leave with zero or 2x?

I mean, I've thought that it would be nice to leave with 2x or even 10x - but reality is, if I leave with more than .98x, I've won. (in my mind, when I add up the room, the food, the attentions of the high limit bartender)

Leaving with zero - that's crazy talk. Happens a lot, sure, but to consider it before hand - for me, I like to cut my losses.

Seems like the gambler was connected with the Yakuza (Japanese Mob) and was killed by them. Whether this was because he promised them a cut of the winnings if they fronted him the money or for another reason is unclear.

Either way, it's safe to say nobody is playing like that at Trump Taj any more!

The casinos were almost Trump's downfall.
I remember the early 90's when all the
tabloids were saying he was finished and
personal bankruptcy was around the corner.
He knew noting about how to run a casino,
he wrongly thought they were like running
every other business.

Quote: EvenBob

The casinos were almost Trump's downfall.
I remember the early 90's when all the
tabloids were saying he was finished and
personal bankruptcy was around the corner.
He knew noting about how to run a casino,
he wrongly thought they were like running
every other business.

Yeah, just like he thinks running the country is like running any other business.

Quote: darkoz

Yeah, just like he thinks running the country is like running any other business.

President's don't 'run' a country, how would
they do that. There are lots of economic
factors involved, almost none of them
controlled by anybody directly. It's just luck
if any president has a good economy. The
military is something the president does have
control over, but not the economy. We
do blame whoever is in office when things go
sour, even though they can do little to turn
things around. If not for WWII, god knows
when the Great Depression would have ended.
It was after the war that congress cut income
tax rates and cut business taxes to stimulate
growth, and the GD finally ended. All Roosevelt
and his 'raw deal' did was prolong it.

Good read that :-)