I'm a long time regular here, I play here 2-3 times a week at medium to high stakes. A lot of the time poker is how I pay my bills. Every employee and security guard knows me here, most by including the manager. I've always been polite to the staff and I think a decent tipper. I have never done anything to warrant being thrown out of any card room, casino or any business for that matter. I'm a former marine and former police officer. I've even assisted security more than once over the years when they have been threatened. With all of that said, Rolland the floor man has raised his voice to me on numerous occasions for some really absurd things over the years that I have always just drop and let go of. I even assisted security last year when Roland almost got into a fist fight out front with a patron because he was having security remove a patron and the guy was upset and calling him names. The man was intoxicated and out of line, but security was being completely professional about it but Roland was cursing back at the patron and telling him he would kick his @#$%. It was kinda funny because Roland is a very skinny and tiny man with a classic short mans attitude and the patron was about 6'4" and 300lbs. Security was having trouble knowing how to respond because they are supposed to deescalate conflicts and keep the peace but their boss was acting as badly and out of line as the patron they were removing. Had I not helped out by talking the patron down and helping security deescalate the situation it could've gotten much worse. Security thanked me for my help and one newer security guard even told me "I don't really know who you are or your background outside of the casino, but I always feel better during bad situations when I know you're here."
That's the person I am.... but Roland has kicked me out twice now! He kicked me out one night at about 2am because the whole table, including the dealer was having trouble with one guy that was slightly intoxicated and threatening another player. When he did that I told the guy none of that was going to happen, he's intoxicated and should call it a night. The guy flipped out on me verbally, told me he would shoot me and stood up and acted like he was going to punch me. I obviously stood up so I could defend myself should this situation go sideways and at that point is when Roland walked back inside from his smoke break and realized there was a problem. Without asking any questions or looking at video he immediately kicked us both out. When Roland walked away with security to escort the other guy to the cage to cash out and then out of the casino the players that he was harassing and being verbally abusive to thanked me for saying something to him to help them out. The dealer even thanked me, then apologized to me for Roland kicking me out too and said he didn't know why Roland was like that.
Like most casinos this place isn't in the best part of town and there have been some serious problems here in the past. Years ago a security officer was shot in the lobby from outside and just a few years ago a female dealer was beaten and robbed while getting into her car to go home after her shift. She was beaten so badly she's never worked again and I believe she told me she was on disability for her injuries. The robber got away too. Security has been threatened to be shot many times and I even have seen a man brandish a gun in his waistline to another guy before.
Because of the area and history I ALWAYS carry a blade on me legally and it's NEVER been a problem until Roland kick me out today. Sometimes it's in a sheath on my waistline and sometimes it's a neck knife in a sheath around my neck.... often times it's both! This has never been a problem here or at any of the card rooms I go to in LA. Hustler security asks me to put my neck knife under my shirt sometimes when I come in but NO ONE has ever forced me to leave over it because NO ONE is checking patrons for guns, knives or weapons on their waistband as they come in. They check bags, but thats it! Tons of people have weapons hidden somewhere on their persons because it's not a safe area and lots of people including me leave with very large amounts of cash at times. No one smart wants to be the only person without any weapon on them when horrible @#$% happens. There's not even a sign posted anywhere that states no weapons of any kind are allowed! ... not that it would help because people just hid them anyways because NO ONE IS CHECKING FOR WEAPONS!! I even tried to put my neck knife under my shirt in front of him to appease him and that just caused him to get upset, raise his voice to me and tell me I actually needed to leave and not wear it back in. I tried to explain to him that a lot of people have knives on them hidden but they don't check, so why am I being forced to be unarmed. I had over $10,000 on me. He just got louder and told me I had to leave with it and not wear it again. Completely absurd.