I will talk a bit about Sinatra and his playing at the Sands.

In all my years at the Sands, I have never see Sinatra play to “beat the house.” Meaning playing to win some money and take it home. Let’s put this in perspective: for most of those years Frank was one of the owners of the Sands. He played to either pass the time or most of the time to entertain some friends or guests. So he was never a serious player at the Sands.

It worked like this. Frank would come to the table, usually with some people and we give him some chips. The amount is usually based on the situation and the mood he is in. I have written about that before. Frank and guest play and enjoy themselves. The guest usually buy in or has credit. If he needs chips to play, then I give him whatever Frank wants. Remember Frank is a very, very smart man who understood the casino business. He always handled it very well. Never asked for more than the situation called for. If he is with a good friend he might want me to give the guy $200 or more and say “Put it on my tab.” That means I handle it like we handle Frank’s play.

At the Sands we handled Frank’s play like this. What ever he asked for he got. Got it right away and no questions asked. But remember it those days we treated almost all out people like that. We knew all out players by name and knew what they could handle.

Frank would play, usually with some of his friends or guests and have a good time. He wasn’t trying to beat the house. He was entertaining some friends or guests and making sure they had a good time. By the way, he was so good at doing that. So his friends would play and win or lose and they walked away with what ever they had.

With Frank we had a system to it. If he lost his chips and was leaving he would get up and I would throw a number at him. “Seven - Mr. S.” He would say fine and walk away with his guests. If he won a small amount, he would just get up and walk around the casino with them. That’s fine with me. If he “won” a large amount, he would motion to me and say “hold these for me.” I would say “Yes, sir" or “OK Frank” depending on the situation and who Sinatra was with.

Remember this is all done in the running of a casino. Sinatra was a owner at the time and had a great understanding of what to do and how we did it.

Frank was a very good host. If any of his friends were staying at the hotel, he treated them like royalty. He was so good at it. If G. Peck, or K. Douglas or Eddie G., or C. Grant or any of his Hollywood supporters were in the casino, he went all out for them. I’ve seen him go and get the drinks himself for Rosalind Russell and her company. He loved Roz.

Sinatra was the best “host” of any entertainer I have ever seen.

Now Dean, well that another thing. Dean is Dean.
Dean and I are standing near the 21 Pit and a nice lady tourist comes up and asks, “Excuse me, is this the casino?”
Dean: “No lady, this is a grocery store. The casino is across the street.”
And then he watches her walk across the street to the Castaways.

Now did Frank ever “pay” the tab on his loses?
Well no. Not I or Carl Cohen or Entratter are going to ask him to pay up some small amount that he might have lost in entertaining some of his or the hotels guests. It’s just business. When Frank is in the casino, the whole place comes alive. The lounges and the restaurants empty out and they all come to the casino to watch him play.

Now in the 60s and 70s this was true for almost any place Sinatra went. If Frank and some friends would stop by the DI to play, it would be handled in a smart way. Frank would be given chips to pay with, whatever he asked for. His guests would play and win or lose and be handled like any other player. If Franks loses, the Pit boss gives Frank the number and he leaves with his guests.

In all my years at the Sands I have never heard the DI guys demand payment. And those DI guys were the toughest son of bitches in Vegas. Why? Because of who Frank was and what he meant to the town. When he is in your casino it is an event that is talked about for months.

Now, you should understand that if Frank goes to some casino (other than the Sands) to play, I mean really plays to win something, then it is another thing altogether. He keeps what he wins and any cash he loses is in the can. Any marker he takes, he is expected to take care of.
And he will.

I know you read in the books about the difficulties he has had in some casino’s. Overall when you figure all the days and nights and years he spent in casino’s, you there has only been a few bad situations. Most of the ones I have heard about happened in some place outside of Vegas. The trouble in Atlantic City was because in A/C, no one is allowed to break or even bend any casino rule. They are very serious about it. So, I could see Frank getting into some difficulty in such a strictly regulated situation. And then he may get mad, and he does get mad at times, and it could get out of hand and he ends up saying things that later even he would regret. Of course the next afternoon he reads the papers and and see what they made out of it and he is all mad again.

Vegas was a very special place in the early years. It was run by those who knew how to treat everyone, and especially gamblers, with respect. There were rules. Casino rules and state gaming rules, but all done with common sense.

So when something special or different happened it was taken in perspective to the overall reason we were in Vegas to begin with.

Two things any casino would love to have happen is Frank Sinatra comes in and play or Dean Martin get behind a 21 table and deal.

I have written before about Dean dealing. It was something to see.

When these things happen it just becomes an event. The word will go out and the people will start leaving their casino to come and see it for themselves.

It happened at the Sands many, many times.

It is just not allowed anymore. Maybe it is best. In my day, we had a few hundred in a casino, today there are thousands. Can you see thousands of people leaving their casino and coming to the Sands to see Frank or Dean do their thing. Thousands trying to get into the Sands to see this. This could all get out of hand. Might even be dangerous if it involved some of the young disrespectful people I see today.

But it will not happen today - it just can’t. There is not any Sands casino anymore for them to go to. It is gone.

And the casino rules of today will not allow anything like this to occur. And if they did:

Well there is no one around like like Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin today.

These were very special people.