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02163: Vegas, Baby

by Jesse Andrews
Winter 2007

Offered an opportunity to lose both money and sleep, HBS students could not refuse. When the Hospitality and Travel Industry Club issued invitations for the 25 slots on its annual trip to Las Vegas last October, 150 aspiring high rollers said yes—within five minutes. “It’s about 80 percent educational and just 20 percent pleasure,” club officer and trip organizer Noah Brodsky says, hastening to add, “but it was very pleasurable education.”

“Classrooms” included the Venetian’s Asian-themed Tao nightclub (a favorite of Paris Hilton’s) as well as the hotel’s fabled Paiza room, which the group was permitted to visit only during non-gambling hours. The minimum hand is $185,000. “The only way to get in is if you go at least three times a year and gamble at least $10 million each time,” says Brodsky. At Tao, the group had a private dining room and coveted access to the dance floor; HTIC member Maxime Aucoin estimates that they jumped a line of 500 would-be clubbers, a number roughly equal to the club’s capacity.

The journey cost each member $200, plus flight and lodging. The HTICers haven’t been chatty since returning; Aucoin infers from their silence that few members recovered any of that at the tables. “Business school people don’t tell you when they lose, they only tell you when they win,” he reasons.

Asked if anything had occurred in Vegas that will have to stay in Vegas, Brodsky said simply, "Yes."