Berlin has one sort-of Las Vegas style casino, named "Speilbank Berlin."  It is on the Marlene-Deitrich Platz across the street from the newish Grand Hyatt Hotel.  Both these enterprises and the surrounding buildings and shops were developed by Daimler-Benz and Sony Corporation out of the rubble of the "no man’s land" that existed between East and West Berlin during the Wall period.  People trying to escape Communism used to get shot at and chased by tommy-gun armed East German "Vopos" and their German Shepherds in this area.  And now, since the early 1990s development boom, amongst other new development still buzzing in the area, and in old east Berlin, there is Der Speilbank.  A monument to freedom.  A casino.

   Purely for investigative purposes I visited Der Speilbank late last night after a plate of schnitzel and white asparagras (in season here and a local delicacy) at my hotel.  The contrasts to Vegas, or one of our Indian casinos, were most interesting.

   First, unlike Vegas, you need to pay 2 Euros (a little less than $4) just to enter this casino.  Not a lot of money, but it seems the Germans want to attract a client base at their casino that at least has the $4 to get inside.  Unlike some of our stateside establishments.

   There are three floors to the casino.  The lower floors are devoted to slot machines of varying sizes.  The top floor was dedicated to poker, blackjack and roulette.  I headed there.

   The whole place is nonsmoking.  But they had a nongaming smokeroom for guests.   The casino is quiet and a little reserved throughout, with spacious bars and wine closets evident everywhere.  No clanging sounds or Pussycat Doll dealers.  Flat screen TVs were broadcasting the Berlin v. St. Petersburg soccer game in the bars.  

   The poker pit only had two tables.  Only one was active.  The game was no limit Texas Holdum with a 300 Euro (somewhere upwards of $500) buy in.  I got on the list but never played.  Observing the play was interesting.  Could I have learned something about German character?  Each player was a German male in the 40-60 range of age.  It was odd to see so many Germans in one place playing a card game that I have only enjoyed in a multicultural context as in the tables of Las Vegas.   These were good players, all seeming to play correctly by the cards dealt.  Most were drinking large glasses of beer, a couple old guys were drinking coffee, as in Vegas.  Probably waiting to pounce.  I didn’t see any bluffing, including on the one or two times someone went "all in."  Each time that happened, the person had the cards, and won.

   It was getting late and I have a big day today, and no seat was going to open anytime soon at the Holdum table (I was aching to match wits with these Germans), so unfortunately I made my way over to the blackjack tables for a little play before bed.  Here I found some actual tourists – visitors from Asia, along with German women players.  The minimum bet was 10 Euros.  The deal came through a six deck automatic shuffle machine, and the dealer was methodical and pleasant.  I stuck to the "system," and found the female dealer was actually surprized by a couple of my tight hits on 15 and 16.  Seems the Germans are more likely to not hit in those situations against a face card for the dealer.  I just did it for the experience, and left after a little while ahead of the game.

   There are many important aspects that help define a free society.  Chief among them are the right to free speech, the right to practice a religion, and the right to own property.  These are the fundamental rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and referenced in the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  And these were the rights that East Germans and the captive nations were denied for more than a generation by Soviet Communism, until the people rose up and turned back that tyranny. 

   And a "penumbra" of those rights is the right to play blackjack.  It is legally no way a comparative right in substance, but in the former East German no man’s land, it has a little deeper meaning, win or lose.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.