Schuetz: Scott Roeben And I Believe Pips Matter, And We Believe Integrity Matters

I entered the casino industry about 300 years ago, and in reflecting on all those years, I’ve concluded my favorite job was working as a dice dealer. I loved the energy of the game and the camaraderie of working with a crew. It was interesting work, we generally stayed busy, and there was a lot of humor.

As I moved up the organizational food chain in the casino business, I was very much a manage-by-walking-around executive, and this was true all the way up to me being the CEO of a Las Vegas casino company.

Oftentimes, while doing the managing-by-walking-around thing, I would go and push in as a dealer on a dice game. I would talk it up with the guests and help the dealers hustle tokes, and it was all great fun. The employees in and around the casino pit seemed to get a kick out of this, and it gave me a lot of street cred among them, since most casino company CEOs do not understand how the gambling side of casinos works.

My first management position in a casino was as a box person on a dice game. On a game, the box person is generally in a suit and sits on a stool on the pit-side of the game, right behind the game’s bankroll. From that position, he or she can easily see the bank and watch the two dealers on the inside of the game pay and take.

From the box position, a person can also keep an eye on the stickperson and the dice. The stickperson is on the outside of the game, among the customers, and is primarily responsible for the dice. After each roll, the stick person calls the number showing on the dice and also retrieves the dice. He or she is also to watch the dealer that the box person is not watching. Moreover, the stick person is to bring the dice back to the center of the table with a hooked stick. He or she then positions the dice in the center of the table in front of the box person, and this is all about game security.

There is a mirror on the interior wall on the stick person’s side of the game. This is there so the box person can see both sides of the dice in front of him. One side faces the box person, and the other side of the die is visible in the mirror on the inside rail of the table below the stick person. If these two observations do not sum to seven, for each die, well, Houston, we have a problem.

The whole point of this is that the two opposing faces on a die always total seven. For example, if one side of a die is a three, the opposing side will be a four. If that is not the case, there is a problem with the die.

A last detail is that the dots on a die are known as pips.

A guaranteed seven

Now, I should warn the reader that acquiring this small bit of trivia about the reality of dice can change your life. Every time you see a die, you will check whether the opposing faces total seven. 

Over the years, I have called billboard companies and graphic designers who have screwed this up. I have seen it on dice images on clothing, and, well, the list is really quite long. 

My biggest mistake in this area was when I was in an airport terminal waiting for a departing flight in Las Vegas. I noticed that a motorcycle dude had a tattoo on his upper arm. It was a die with a three on one face and a four on the adjacent face. 

Well, I went over to him and explained that his tattoo was wrong and why. He looked at me like he wanted to crush my skull.

(Author’s note: I was once dealing dice at Boomtown Casino & Truck Stop in Northern Nevada. It was a big truck stop with 44 table games, 1,000 slots, and the capacity to park 800 18-wheelers. It was a few miles outside of Reno along Interstate 80. The Hells Angels were on a “run” along Interstate 80 one night and came to the property to gas up, drink, eat, and gamble. About six of them came over to the dice game I was working on, and they bought in. One of these people, a particularly dangerous-looking dude who wore a button that said, “I Like to Watch,” threw about $500 on the layout, wanting gaming chips. I executed the transaction, and then he bellowed to me, “If I lose this money, I am going to rip off your head and s**t down your neck.” I immediately gave the stickman the look that basically said, “I don’t care what the total of the dice is, just call winners for this dude.”)

Anyway, for much of my life, I thought I was the craziest soul on the planet for fixating on dice pips — but I was wrong. Several years ago, I came across a guy who goes by the name of @vitalvegas on social media, and lo and behold, he was often providing punishing language aimed at some poor soul who just did not understand the reality of dice. This guy was so focused on pips that he made me look sane (OK, kind of sane). If you would like to see the evidence that this dude is one pip over the line, Sweet Jesus, check this out.

The Vital Vegas account is the brainchild of Scott Roeben, and I am of the opinion that if God made something more interesting than Scott, he kept it for himself. He is funny, irreverent, caustic, serious, and operates with a great deal of integrity. And, he has been doing all that for many years in Las Vegas.

Inspecting Scott’s website is a hoot. When he talks about his company, he always uses the plural pronoun “we,” as if he has a staff. He doesn’t. He also has a great diagram on his website that defines his business model:

Scott’s areas of interest in his coverage of Las Vegas include hotels, gambling, restaurants, things to do, and, of course, pips. He drops into finance and is really well-connected to the rumor mill. And don’t get him started on Formula 1 racing. Oh, and as I mentioned, he is basically a one-man band.

Vital and vibrant

I live three time zones away from Scott, and no matter what the time of day or night, he will answer my queries within the hour. The man has either an incredible work ethic or he is keeping several amphetamine dealers on call.

I recently had a 45-minute call with Scott, and that is always a quote-rich environment. My favorite quote of his on this particular call was, “I don’t do traditional journalism.” This is what I like to call a “brilliant flash of the obvious.”

Anyone who is familiar with the journalism in Las Vegas will understand it is a curious beast. It is like the aberrant life-forms Charles Darwin chronicled while developing his theory of evolution, while traveling to faraway places on the planet. Strange indeed.

It needs to be understood that both Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn, along with a few of their wannabes, tended to sue reporters into oblivion if they wrote stories they did not like. The reporter then has the choice of going to mattresses and risking everything they had to defend their reporting, or of learning not to say anything that might annoy Mr. Adelson or Mr. Wynn, or any of their wannabes, so they would not be sued into the poor house.

This environment has a chilling effect on reporters and press outlets, and it just became easier to stay out of harm’s way to publish stories about jackpots, weather reports, church socials, and upcoming entertainment. The use of litigation by the mega-wealthy against the press in Las Vegas defined the day that music died for real journalism in Southern Nevada.

So, in this sense, Scott did not practice traditional journalism. He basically has the balls of a bear and just kept marching along, doing what Scott does, and let the devil take the hindmost. In this regard, Scott sometimes goes beyond journalism and becomes a provocateur. 

The good news is he seems to enjoy it.

Sources say …

In Southern California, the Thirty Mile Zone is a geographic area. This area was defined as such because it encompassed much of the entertainment industry. It is also the name of a media company, and one that seems to out-scoop the world.

TMZ was the first to report Kobe Bryant’s death. And there is a long line of scoops beyond the Kobe story, including that it reported Michael Jackson’s death 18 minutes after he quit breathing. The reason this entity is on the front lines of breaking news is that it is argued to have a strong network of sources, which many suggest was acquired by offering a bounty. And yes, they do pay for things, as is explained here.

Scott also has a great set of sources. He does not provide any incentives for these stories beyond working to get the facts right and to reach a big audience. He will also not burn a source.

Scott is also not afraid to start a feud in Vegas, and if you do not believe me, just ask F1, and the folks moving dirt around on the old Trop site, ostensibly to build a big casino, hotel, and baseball stadium. And there are others. 

Scott can also become reasonably annoyed with that paper that Mr. Adelson bought when they seem to use Vital Vegas’ material as their own.

My concern with my recent call with Scott was that he seemed to be tiring. Having a commitment to be the first up with a story is a challenge in a one-man operation in a 24-hour town.

Earlier in his career in Las Vegas, he was sued over an article, and all he had to do was burn the source. He took it to court and put his entire net worth on the line. He won the case. Hell, maybe Scott is a journalist — just one with character, honesty, and integrity. These are important things in journalism, even in Las Vegas.

While Scott may not be a journalist, he certainly adds something very truthful about the reality of Las Vegas. And that is terribly important.

And I respect this man because he seems to know that — and care.