According to published accounts, he worked with the FBI to shut down a cocaine and money laundering operation and was once banned from Vegas casinos under suspicion of having been involved in the operation himself. His name is RJ Cipriani, a controversial figure who courts press. But last night was a hard one, and the losses piled up on the blackjack tables as he made five-figure bets, his norm. He has just eaten a superb lunch of Dover sole, and smiles as he recalls his all-time largest win on a single hand-$250,000. They, of course, are casino personnel, and they hunger for high-stakes action from deep-pocketed customers like him. “Plus they have to treat you exceptionally well-which they all do.” “They will offer you stuff like promo chips and private aviation and discounts based on loss,” he says nonchalantly.

Out on the massive terrace of his villa, inside the air-conditioned solarium of Las Vegas’s most elite casino within a casino, reserved for the highest of high rollers, he asks me to not reveal where he is as he luxuriates in his posh surroundings.