Blarney Stone BS

As gamblers we all love the Hollywood stories of myths and magic and mischief in the casinos. Of card counters and con artists scheming to break the codes in order to break the bank. Of hustles and heists and hijinks and hitting it big. Of fortunes won and fortunes lost. Casino movies are an entire genre of action stories, and Vegas knows we love a good story. Maybe WE can beat the system. Maybe WE can take them down. It’s Vegas, baby. Anything is possible. 

So what does it really take to rip off Vegas? Machines and math wizards? Con artists and spy tech? Ocean’s Eleven with a team each having his part to play? Apparently not. Apparently all you need is a little bit of alcohol and a little bit of luck.  And where does that luck come from? Perhaps from a casino's lucky charm like the legendary Blarney Stone.

You've heard of the Irish tradition of kissing the Blarney Stone, haven't you? Believers travel to County Cork, Ireland, just to kiss the famous rock. Legend has it that those who kiss the stone are granted the gift of eloquence and persuasiveness. Tourists come from all over the world to kiss the rock and gain the gift of gab.

Kissing the Blarney stone is not an easy maneuver. Look at this picture of someone kissing the stone. It must be done leaning backward while holding onto two railings, not an easy feat. But evidently it’s worth the effort everyone feels. 

Here's a little history of the famous rock. The Blarney stone is set in a wall in Blarney Castle constructed in 1446 by Dermot McCarthy, the King of Munster. There are a number of stories about the rock’s origins. Some say the rock was brought to Ireland during the Crusades. Others say the stone is made of the same material found at Stonehenge. Some stories have associated the stone with Moses and with King David. It has been said to be a gift from the king of the Scots to the king of Munster for his help defeating the British in 1314. The term “blarney” means skillful flattery or nonsense, and the name was given to the castle by Queen Elizabeth I in the 16th century, frustrated when the owner used his skills of persuasion to stall her occupying his castle.  

Geologists have studied samples of the Blarney Stone, and science has determined the stories are all fabricated — Irish urban legends. The rock is made of local carboniferous limestone, about 330 million years old, and so has nothing to do with any of these tales. The tales are all a bunch of blarney! Yet visitors as famous as Winston Churchill are among the notables who have visited and kissed the stone hoping to augment their powers of persuasion..

"So what," you ask. What does the Blarney Stone in Ireland have to do with Vegas casino and luck and legends?  

Well, originally the old Fitzgerald’s Casino in Las Vegas held a piece of the famous rock. When Fitzgerald’s was sold and reopened as the D in 2012, the piece of the Blarney Stone passed along to the new owners. The rock sat on a small pedestal between the bar and a line of slots on the D’s second floor. The sign above the stone advised gamblers that if the requirement to suspend themselves upside down for a proper kiss of the stone proved too dangerous, just give the stone a good rub for that special D luck. Is that BS or what!

D Casino Security Photo
(Twitter, DerekJStevens)

So what happened to cause the rock to make the news this month? About 2:30 am one night, a rather inebriated gambler lifted the famous unprotected stone from its case, took the escalator downstairs, and carried the famous rock out of the casino hoisting it like it was a pizza. Surveillance cameras caught it all. But what originally appeared to be a heist of the good luck charm turned out to be just a drunken mistake. 

The owner of the casino has received a lot of praise from its patrons for the way he handled the theft. Rather than notifying the police of the loss, hotel owner Derek Stephens took to social media to help him recover the casino's missing property, tweeting this screen shot of the surveillance video. Less than 24 hours later, the missing piece of the Blarney Stone had been returned by the contrite thief. What do you think? Was this an actual deliberate theft? Or was it all just a fun story to draw attention to the D? Or was it total Blarney Stone BS, like the history of the stone itself? 

Ask yourself, is this the way Vegas typically enforces security? Could it have all been part of an elaborate publicity scheme? The casino has chosen not to prosecute. They say because the man was sorry, and too much tequila was involved. “It was just a typical crazy night in Las Vegas!” everyone said. Sure it was. It wasn’t clear whether the perp kissed the rock before he returned it, and the whole thing sounds like  Blarney Stone BS to me.