Casinos Use Magick

I knew it!

I've always suspected that the gambling world must be full of magicians plying their trade in all sorts of undocumented situations. Whether they call themselves "management" or "security" consultants, casinos really do have a use for such individuals. How many people do you think visit an occult bookstore, buy a book of lucky spells, and then head out to the casino to try it out? I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that enough talented individuals get their hands on luck magick every year to put a dent in the profits of any casino that doesn't have its own magician or magicians casting counterspells.

Could this finally be the proof? According to a Taiwanese man, the Venetian Resort hotel and casino in Las Vegas put a stop to his winning streak by employing the ancient Chinese art of Feng Shui against him.

The man, surnamed Yuan, alleged that the Venetian dug a one-metre (40-inch) square hole on the wall of the presidential suite he was staying in April last year and covered it with a black cloth, said Apple Daily.

The casino also put two white towels in front of Yuan's suite and turned on two large fans facing his room without notifying him, it said.

Yuan claimed that his luck turned bad after discovering the arrangements and that he went from winning 400,000 dollars to losing two million, the report said.

"We Chinese drape black and white cloths only when there is a death in the family. It is such a taboo for regular people, let alone for the gamblers," he was quoted as saying.

Now the fans and the white cloths might be coincidental, but what about cutting a 3+ foot hole through the wall and covering it with a cloth while a guest was staying in the room? That's completely bizarre - making an architectural modification like that is messy and would have required a lot of fast cleanup to keep the room looking pristine. There's no logical reason for a hotel to do this in a room that is being occupied by a guest.

While I'm not a Feng Shui expert, I know that changes like this to the floorplan of a space are thought to affect the chi flowing through the area. Maybe the in-house magicians looked at Yuan's winning streak and figured that he was employing some sort of spell, maybe based on Feng Shui or Taoist methods that are practiced in Taiwan as well as in China. They then made a small adjustment to the room in order to counter the spell and perhaps even cast something into the room through the large hole in the wall.

It's true that I could be making all of that up and this might just be a case of a gambler whose luck went bad for unrelated reasons, but if so why would this ever work?

Yuan filed a complaint against the Venetian after returning to Taiwan and demanded the cancellation of a two-million-dollar debt to the casino, half of it on credit, it said.

The casino has promised to refund him 100,000 dollars in cash and the same amount in chips, the paper said, without explaining why it had agreed to this.

Yuan had notified the Venetian through his lawyer of his intention to sue for feng shui sabotage if the casino fails to come up with a "reasonable solution," it said.

It sounds to me like the casino really wants to avoid anyone investigating its paranormal practices. Why else would they be so eager to get the case settled if nothing out of the ordinary is going on?

I will admit that I find one particular fact about the case particularly odd. Why, after discovering the Feng Shui "sabotage," did Yuan keep on playing? Personally, I'd take my money and walk out the door as soon as I suspected a counterspell. Without any functioning magick on your side the house is always going to win in the end.