Louis Theroux Gambling In Las Vegas
Discover key moments from history and stories about fascinating people on the Official BBC Documentary channel: Th. Louis Theroux has met some absolutely amazing people from all around the world, and who better a man to do it? Thank you all for your support. Josh Teal is a journalist at LADbible. Back in 2007 the world-famous video journalist Louis Theroux filmed a documentary for the BBC titled ‘Louis Theroux: Gambling in Las Vegas’.He attempted, in 60 minutes, to examine Vegas’ casino culture.
- River City Casino Hotel
- Louis Theroux Gambling In Las Vegas Where To Watch
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- Allan Erlick Gambler
One of our aims here at the Neuroliberation campaign is to try to get people to think a little deeper about the mental health effects of gambling on people. We’ve been saying for years how gambling addictions can severely affect the mood of someone and Louis Theroux in his usual documentary style did just that in one of his documentaries titled ‘Gambling in Las Vegas’.
His documentary does an excellent job of highlighting how so-called ‘business friendships’ are never really what they are cracked up to be. Would a good friend let you sit playing a machine for hours on end each day whilst losing thousands of pounds?
Louis starts the documentary off by interviewing a high-roller who has a hired someone on a casino payroll to ‘show him around’. Because he spends so much money at the casino they’ve given him the best suite in the hotel free of charge with complimentary service, the largest hotel suite in North America. The job of the guy he’s hired is to keep him spending and playing at the tables as much as possible.
At one point in the film the guy admits that it’s bad that he’s losing, you’ll notice his ‘friend’ quickly move in and say “aah it’s just a warm up”.
7:40 into the documentary Louis is interviewing a cashier and a casino player that is $4,000 up. Louis says to the cashier “He’s winning and winning” and the cashier replies in these ever-so significant words
“You want people to win, that way they’ll come back. If they never win they’ll never come back”
Louis then asks what then happens in which the cashier replies “We want them to win a little bit, and then we take all their money”.
Louis is then introduced to a lady called Martha who is playing on the high-limits slot machine in the casino.
It’s obvious that she has a severe gambling addiction, she wastes thousands on the slot machines each day, but one question it may make us ask is - who could actually stand and watch that happen to somebody? And as human beings do we really care for each other anymore?
Soon after he asks one of the casino staff about how they are able to take part in that scenario. Unfortunately employees at any gambling premises are rarely taught to really help a problem gambler, and this includes betting shops and bingo halls here in the UK.
Many even swear by the training manuals they are given, and one of our concerns should be for our own way of thinking. Look at what we’re doing to each other!
The man he’s interviewing says that if he saw a regular person spending a lot more than they usual would that he’d say “are you sure you want to be doing this?”.
Unfortunately it’s no secret that it rarely works with people whilst gambling. They are in the thick of an addiction whilst staring at a hypnotic machine that manipulates their neurons to go crazy, like they are another planet.
You see in this documentary clearly that gambling addicts become like children in the sense that they know it’s doing them no good but will make up every excuse under the sun to condone it.
I doubt Martha the high-roller slot machine player was ever really and truly helped when she had spent too much.
Louis also interviews another two guys who have come to Las Vegas on a holiday trip.
Whilst watching it’s soon clear how much gambling has affected their mood and mental status, they are hyped up on the most sold drug going on the planet ‘The desire to have more money’.
24 minutes into the film one of the guys playing blackjack with Louis asks his friend to move because since he sat there he lost $3,000 on one hand. This is a pure example of the delusional mind that gets created in gamblers.
It’s certainly not uncommon for people who have been gambling to create false senses of mysticism. Talk to any ex problem-gamblers and many of them will explain how the logic mind tries to link numbers and patterns. People often believe that god is guiding them to their big win.
There’s heaps more we could tell you about the documentary but we don’t want to spoil it for, all in all it’s a highly recommended watch.
It raises many big questions about our morals in society, and how we seem to socially accept being part of a dark-circus where what we are sold is mind control and illusion, often for a costly price.
River City Casino Hotel
The self-described ‘socially awkward nerd’ is the nerd that your inner nerd aspires to be.
Louis Theroux first rose to prominence in 1994 as the brainchild of Michael Moore when Moore first gave him a presenter role on his satirical television series, TV Nation.
Working alongside Moore was the spark Theroux needed to pursue the documentary format he would later master, spawning beloved BBC documentaries including Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends, When Louis
Met…, and several BBC Specials.
These early documentaries are some of Theroux’s most memorable and feature his exploration of American subcultures such as survivalists, black nationalists, white supremacists, and porn stars.
It is here where we begin to see his interview technique come to fruition as he subtly exposes contradictory elements of seriously-held beliefs, advocated by his subjects.
The seemingly important qualities for being an interviewer might include astute confidence and unwavering journalistic intention, but Theroux has managed to crack open the most enigmatic groups in recent society by utilising a different tactic.
His unassuming nature lends him the ability to switch between navigating the power plays of neo-Nazis and then exquisitely reading psychological subtexts inside the Church of Scientology.
Playing dumb like a social genius
Louis Theroux is a genius at playing dumb, often utilising silence to reveal a person’s true character. If you’ve ever seen Louis and the Nazis, African Hunting Holiday or Louis Theroux: Gambling in Las Vegas, there is an economy of words which enables his subjects to ‘paint in the gaps’ and, at the end of the piece, what is left is a decorated canvas with a distinct caricature at the centre.
Rather than have Theroux tell us who these people are, he lets the subjects do that themselves. For instance, the long pauses that proceed statements made by subjects in Louis Theroux: Law and Disorder in Johannesburg causes a similar pause for the audience and allows moments to reverberate with greater impact.
Holding back words is a well-known interview technique, but Theroux can carry it more effectively through the subject being unable to read whether he is on their side or not – whereas it is clear to the audience watching at home. Which takes us to his next technique.
Poker face
When watching Theroux, you will notice that he rarely conveys emotion – he comes across as an objective witness rather than being there to pass judgement. This is especially apparent in Louis Theroux: Behind Bars where Theroux finds himself in cells and jail yards.
The prison guards are enormously outnumbered and the prisoners could send Theroux flailing at their will. But Theroux can stay calm and discuss ‘prison code’: where a particular prisoner likens the prospect of Theroux getting bashed if he returns.
Similarly, in Louis Theroux’s Hunting Holiday, Theroux doesn’t show any sign of emotion when a South African hunter gets in his face about the hunting industry, even after the cameraman is pushed aside, he doesn’t budge. This blankness, performed concurrently with silence, makes him unreadable to his subjects and allows audiences to perceive that they are viewing the situation unfiltered and without bias.
Don’t threaten me with a good time
Theroux ensures that his subjects feel as if they are the ones in control. He does this through sending messages of passivity: the raised eyebrows and lowered hands are a feature of Theroux’s work that send the message: ‘I’m not a threat to you.’
This allows him to ask the questions and have the subject feel as if they’re in control of the narrative, they feel unthreatened and express themselves more freely when they perceive control.
For instance, in Louis Theroux: Miami Mega Jail, Theroux speaks to the inmates with his hands lowered, softly spoken, and often with raised eyebrows. Perhaps, more poignantly in The Most Hated Family In America, he interviews members of the Westboro Baptist Church and his passiveness allows him to be dominated.
Where perhaps another interviewer might stand up for themselves, Theroux lets himself be berated because he knows their words are the strokes of a paintbrush which dance across the canvas with new colours and character insights.
Please like me
A classic Louis Theroux moment, that perhaps gets to the crux of his success, occurs in When Louis Met… The Hamiltons. Neil Hamilton is a former Tory MP and both him and his wife are high up in conservative circles. Since that documentary aired in 2001, Neil Hamilton has run as a member for UKIP.
The documentary is filmed during a turbulent time for the couple and starts to run off the rails. A particularly awkward exchange involves a drunk Christine Hamilton who, at her admission, ‘flirts outrageously’ with Theroux.
Louis Theroux Gambling In Las Vegas Where To Watch
Mrs Hamilton has her arm around Theroux and we see him blush, before Mr Hamilton walks into the room and the scene goes from classic to iconic Theroux. His nervousness in this precarious situation is where his likeability comes from; we see ourselves in him.
Watch Louis Theroux Gambling In Las Vegas
He is not an FM breakfast host who reacts to situations by pushing a fart button. Theroux puts the human into human interactions – he doesn’t shy away from awkwardness or social blips, which is what makes him such a powerful interviewer and auteur of the human experience.
Allan Erlick Gambler
Louis Theroux brings Louis Theroux Without Limits to Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on Sunday January 19. Tickets via Ticketmaster.