Rumors abounded recently that UFC president Dana White and Las Vegas casino The Palms had had a fall-out.
It reportedly centered around the casino’s decision to cut White’s credit line in half. A credit-line is the upper limit of credit which a casino is prepared to extend to a valued client, usually a high-stakes player who brings significant benefit to the casino either by way of personal prominence or level of expenditure.
Credit-line customers can either gamble on credit or can deposit a check with the cashier, the check being taken on trust with the assumption that the depositor has sufficient funds in their account to clear it in the usual check-cashing period.
According to a friend of White’s, The Palms cut his credit line because he “he kicked their asses by winning BIG a few times within a short period of time so they chopped his limit )he’s aggressive in his bets) in half. This isn’t the first casino that has done this to him and I doubt it’ll be the last.”
White responded by pulling all UFC events from The Palms. Prior to the fall-out, The Palms and its 2,000 seat arena had been the venue of choice for TUF Finale events. They have now been moved across town to a rival casino.
Local newspaper The Las Vegas Review-Journal followed up on the story this week and found out that not only was this version of events apparently accurate but that a senior executive from The Palms had been sent to Zuffa HQ to do some damage limitation.
According to the report, “Palms president Joe Magliarditi showed up in the lobby of UFC headquarters on Monday, apparently on a mission to defuse a conflict with UFC president Dana White.” The report featured a quote from Dana White who said, “We [he and Magliarditi] had a face to face, a sit-down, and we had a good conversation.”
Further, “White was on a huge run, then lost more than a third of it. When he asked for more credit, he was abruptly informed of the downgrade. Several veteran gaming executives who spoke on the condition of anonymity said most gamblers would consider that beyond bad form.”
This is said to have left White, a decade-long customer of The Palms, absolutely furious. He wrote the company a letter there and then informing them that all live UFC events were henceforth being withdrawn from their premises.
The LVRJ report states that White “is known as a highly disciplined blackjack player who, when he won early, would walk away. That practice is known to drive casino operators crazy, especially in these budget-slashing days.”