86ed for smelling bad

I grabbed this yesterday and saved it to post this morning. In the meantime, I got scooped by Chuckmonster and KLAS. But here’s the original story, from the AP:

Yes, Michael Wax stunk. Hes the first to admit it. The 440-pound Brooklyn man said he was playing poker in an Atlantic City casino for 17 hours Tuesday and didn’t have time to clean up. He understands why grossed-out gamblers complained about his body odor, but said he didn’t deserve stinky treatment from the casino that asked him to leave.

Dave Coskey, a spokesman for the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, said it is company policy not to comment on matters involving their customers.

Wax said he told casino officials: "Theres no question I stink. I’m not denying it. I do have an odor. Ive been playing for 17 hours."

Stinky gambler fuming over casino ejection – NewsFlash – mlive.com.

Since this has already been covered, let me bring my own editorial perspective to it. This sort of thing goes on much more than you think, and in my experience it’s been, more often than not, the employees who’ve been counseled on foul odors. Seriously.

There’s a deeper question: could smelling like ass give a poker player a competitive advantage? Some players will do anything to throw everyone else “off their game.” Maybe Odor Boy ™ was deliberately cultivating his funky aroma as part of his grand strategy. Luckily, the Borgata folks put a stop to it.

It’s because of stuff like this that no one I worked with looked forward to being posted in the poker room. Sure, there are hygiene issues, but nothing’s as rewarding as dealing with a guy who’s been playing for two days straight and is now on tilt. Plus, this was pre-poker boom days, so it wasn’t “wow! poker!” it was just a bunch of guys sitting around playing poker.

I feel sorry for the Borgata folks–they’ve worked very hard to create the finest gaming destination outside of Las Vegas, and all they get for their grief (minus the raves for the Water Club) are headlines about some guy stinking up the poker room.

One last note–the guy’s just been told that he smells bad, and he cops to it. Does he think to himself, “My god, I do stink like a goat? How did I get here?” and then decide to seriously examine his lifestyle choices? No, he just wants to shake down the casino for a free room. And why would an apology from the casino even be in order? Odor Boy ™ should have apologized to everyone else at the table for forcing them to put up with his stink.

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