The MIT students, working the Sun on its opening weekend and the week after, won more than a half million dollars, according to the book, and were even comped with lots of free stuff, like a widescreen TV, a Sony stereo and camcorders, for being good customers.
I guess we have to take the casino's word that the book was mostly wrong in suggesting that it lost so much money to counters at the blackjack tables those opening weekends that it had to change procedures and retrain staff.
The last night of the second raid by the MIT students, when they claim to have taken home more than $300,000 from Connecticut's newest casino, they had a scare when a pit boss finally approached them, the book says. They began to panic. Card counting is legal, but they were worried about laws on an American Indian reservation.
“Mr. Chiu, he said, using Kevin's alias at the moment. “We've been watching you all night.”
Kevin's stomach turned upside down, and he began looking for the exits.
“Why is that?”
“Because you are exactly the sort of customer we want to feel at home here at Mohegan Sun. Are you aware of our comp program?”
3 comments:
Writerfella here --
writerfella and cuz Milton saw 21 Thursday. While the film is not told linearly, it does contain a linear 'caper' story that was derived from the totality of the book. And in one hour 44 minutes or so, there simply isn't room for any and all details of the original book. When writing such a screenplay, each minute receives an inherent justification questioning: WHY is the writer showing this particular minute? Plus, it was interesting to writerfella that one of the Asian characters that survives to the screenplay is shown as someone who 'comps' himself, grabbing anything and everything in Vegas that is not nailed down. But then again the biggest thief of all winds up being the Kevin Spacey character, who doesn't steal ANYTHING small...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Writerfella here --
Apparently, 21 is 'the little movie that could.' It has been the No. 1 film for two consecutive weekends, pulling in $46.1 million in 10 days. Trackers now predict it will reach $75 millions, darn good for a movie that cost less than $35 million to make...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
I love how you state the producers' motivation as if it were fact. But as usual, this is nothing but your opinion--i.e., a guess.
It wouldn't have taken any screen time to make the main characters Asian rather than white, as they were in reality. This change suggests the producers' shallow and stereotypical thinking.
Similarly, the producers omitted any reference to an Indian casino or tribal sovereignty. I'm guessing they didn't want any hint of America's multicultural complexity to discomfort their largely white audiences.
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