News and notes from around the interweb:
- Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador thrown in jail after reporting rape threat against his wife at the Ritz-Carlton in Doha. The hotel first claimed to have the suspect guests on surveillance video and promised to have the guests removed.
The guests stayed, the hotel denied any evidence of the interaction, and then the property pressed criminal charges when he wrote about the experience in a Tripadvisor review. (Tripadisor took down the review, even though it appears to confrom to their standards.) Marriott shrugged their shoulders.I was Marriott’s Ambassador Elite — their highest rewards tier.
My wife was sexually harassed at their hotel in Doha.
When I complained, the hotel had me prosecuted. I was jailed, deported, banned for five years. I lost my job.
Marriott now say the claims were “not… pic.twitter.com/qqavRumnd7
— barrattino (@barrattino) April 24, 2026
- Woman who was caught bringing pot with her into Indonesia is running a GoFundMe. Do want you want at home, but if you bring drugs with you to a government checkpoint you almost deserve what you get?
- Window seat decides.
Keep the shades open! #airplane #airplanewindows #airplanewindowshades @CNN pic.twitter.com/4xfSRcM72A
— Gretchen Carlson (@GretchenCarlson) April 25, 2026
- United Airlines’ Q4 2017 earnings call:
One of my favorite investor days. https://t.co/i109Tt2doC pic.twitter.com/rFvUj20L9u
— Byrne Hobart (@ByrneHobart) April 25, 2026
- Japan’s trains are so good its rules allowed rail to be profitable, cities dense, and driving less artificially cheap. That’s replicable policy.
- Cosplay Kid Rock and the most Frontier Airlines gate agent ever on Denver’s A concourse.
That feels a bit more than just good-ole Bonvoy’d… Welp, as if we needed another reason to not visit Doha (or Dubai, or the Middle East, in-general) these days… sheesh!
In the era of ShuffleMasters, is “card counting” really a thing?
And even when it was “a thing,” it’s spectacularly difficult to do for a sustained period of time, and casinos liked to perpetuate the myth as far more would-be counters wound up losing badly.
The tweet headline is a bit inaccurate – Kirby isn’t banned from Vegas casinos, he is banned from playing blackjack at Vegas casinos.
Some people are able to consistently count cards in blackjack which changes the edge from in the house’s favor to the player’s favor, so *on average* the player will win money instead of losing money. Casinos don’t like this – they want the deck stacked in their favor, not the player’s.
But Kirby is welcome to play other casino games, such as poker.
@Jason Wong–Wong is right.
@1990 – I’m looking forward to my trip to Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi next February. Can’t wait! Don’t understand the reluctance. BTW, if you read about this incident on other sites you will see he was jailed for unproven allegations he posted. People seem to think US law and freedom of speech follows them worldwide but it doesn’t. Many countries will jail you for posting false (or even just negative) reviews. If you don’t like it don’t travel but i love seeing all places on earth and make sure I understand the customs and laws before I travel.
@Jason Wong – Also, as you likely know, Nevada is unique in that they can ban players for practically any reason or limit their action (no blackjack, cap on sports betting amount, etc). New Jersey specifically states their casinos can not ban someone for counting cards. However, they are free to use constant shufflers in multi deck games, prohibit mid-deck entry in single/double deck games, reshuffle with up to 1/2 the deck (including multi-deck games) remaining, etc which basically negate any advantage you get from counting. BTW counting is very difficult and to do it profitably you really need a team like the old MIT blackjack teams.
@Retired Gambler – And let’s not forget the change from 3:2 to 6:5 blackjack, further negating any potential player edge.
These days, the professionals don’t go to Las Vegas, they go to Kalshi or Polymarket.
@Retired Gambler — Next February? As-in 2027? Like, 10-months away? What if your trip was in March 2026? You’d’ve still gone?
@Denver Refugee — Did you mean “professionals,” or did you mean ‘insiders’?