The only book that examines the lifestyles and motivations of the world’s biggest gamblers, the whales, and how the casinos harpoon and beach them. This definitive exposé reveals the shrouded world of ultra-high rollers and the Faustian pacts they forge with their hosts, the casino representatives whose job it is to part them from their fortunes. The third edition includes an extensive update about Las Vegas, the "greening" of gambling, the nightclub and day club scenes, the evolution of the host position, and much more--all in the words of superhost Steve Cyr.

In pre-1990s Las Vegas, casino marketing executives were all cut from the same cloth; sharply-dressed and smooth-talking with street-savvy. They rose through the ranks of operations -- dealer, floor-man, pit boss, shift boss and casino manager. When it was time to leave the trenches, they went "upstairs" into the executive offices, where they hosted a handful of established players according to the unwritten rules of old-school Vegas. Then Steve Cyr showed up.

Meet the monstrous Gila Monster as it creeps across the desert! This book introduces the unique features of this wild animal including habitat, life cycle, physical characteristics, diet, threats, and defenses. Also included are a range map and a food chain diagram. Aligned to Common Core standards and correlated to state standards. Checkerboard Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

Anacondas coil their massive bodies around animals, squeezing them to death. Discover more about this mighty predator and its role in a healthy ecosystem.

Named a Best Book of 2018 by the Financial Times and Fortune, this "thrilling" (Bill Gates) New York Times bestseller exposes how a "modern Gatsby" swindled over $5 billion with the aid of Goldman Sachs in "the heist of the century" (Axios). Now a #1 international bestseller, Billion Dollar Whale is "an epic tale of white-collar crime on a global scale" (Publishers Weekly), revealing how a young social climber from Malaysia pulled off one of the biggest heists in history. In 2009, a chubby, mild-mannered graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business named Jho Low set in motion a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude--one that would come to symbolize the next great threat to the global financial system. Over a decade, Low, with the aid of Goldman Sachs and others, siphoned billions of dollars from an investment fund--right under the nose of global financial industry watchdogs. Low used the money to finance elections, purchase luxury real estate, throw champagne-drenched parties, and even to finance Hollywood films like The Wolf of Wall Street. By early 2019, with his yacht and private jet reportedly seized by authorities and facing criminal charges in Malaysia and in the United States, Low had become an international fugitive, even as the U.S. Department of Justice continued its investigation. Billion Dollar Whale has joined the ranks of Liar's Poker, Den of Thieves, and Bad Blood as a classic harrowing parable of hubris and greed in the financial world.

"If you liked American Gods by Neil Gaiman or Circe by Madeline Miller, be sure to pick this one up." -- Timeworn A sweeping tale of forbidden love and warring gods, where a young Inuit shaman and a Viking warrior become unwilling allies in a war that will determine the fate of the new world. There is a very old story, rarely told, of a wolf that runs into the ocean and becomes a whale. . . Born with the soul of a hunter and the spirit of the Wolf, Omat is destined to follow in her grandfather's footsteps-invoking the spirits of the land, sea, and sky to protect her people. But the gods have stopped listening and Omat's family is starving. Desperate to save them, Omat journeys across the icy wastes, fighting for survival with every step. When she encounters Brandr, a wounded Viking warrior, they set in motion a conflict that could shatter her world. . .or save it.