Two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand dollars in free play simply for walking through a casino's door. Entire entourages flown in to Las Vegas on private jets. Round-the-clock butler service in a 15,000 square foot penthouse villa. Private dinner parties prepared by a team of chefs. Cases of champagne, shopping sprees, chartered yachts . these are the perks routinely lavished by casinos on "whales"--the world's richest men and women who play casino games at the highest allowable stakes. In return, these gambling leviathans are willing and able to risk up to $250,000 per hand and can win or lose $10 million or more over the course of a weekend. Whale Hunt in the Desert is a rare peek inside the extravagant, indulged, and often surreal world of the whale in Las Vegas--the view from the inside courtesy of Steve Cyr, one of the most high-powered and well-connected high-roller hosts in Las Vegas history.