Regular trips are also made to Chinatown’s 99 Ranch Market, and T&T Ginseng, emporiums that peddle a witch’s brew of rare teas, herbs, and—strangest of the bunch—cordycep worms. Haven’t heard of them? Neither had I. Cordyceps aren’t actually worms. They’re a type of caterpillar-eating fungus that gets hand-picked in the Himalayas and sometimes used like Viagra. They’re literally worth their weight in gold.

The Wins and Losses in the Reserve Equal the GDP of a Small Nation
When a high-roller is ready to gamble upward of $2 million, Brian Benowitz, Cosmopolitan’s vice president of casino operations, can have the Reserve unlocked, set up with the client’s preferred games, and fully staffed within 25 minutes.

Here, Baccarat is the prevailing game of choice. First, it’s familiar to more than 50 percent of Reserve guests who hail from Asia and play it in Macao. It also has a significant house advantage, meaning that the Cosmopolitan will better incentivize its play. Higher risk, higher reward.

The casino’s biggest Baccarat bet to date was $300,000 per hand for an entire shoe—that’s 8 decks of cards, played out as roughly 60 hands in 60 minutes—on two tables simultaneously. Those are stakes of roughly $600,000 per minute, or $36 million per hour. (That nearly matches the 2017 gross domestic product of Tuvalu: $40 million.) “I’ve never seen anything like it,” adds Benowitz. “There were some ups and downs, but eventually the casino won.”

The biggest client victory Benowitz has witnessed amounted to $30 million over a short weekend trip, but that was before he started at the Cosmopolitan. Here, he’s seen a high-roller score $6 million playing Single Zero (European-style Roulette)—and lose up to $7 million.

Excessive spending happens off the tables, too. “We’ve seen billionaires buy the Cosmopolitan out of their Champagne—that’s millions of dollars’ worth of alcohol—just because they can,” adds Benowitz. “High-rollers love to compete with their buddies on who can outspend the other.”

Exotic Requests …
As an animal-friendly hotel, the Cosmopolitan fields a lot of pet requests. Butlers hustle schnauzers around the on-site dog walk, make trips to Petco for additional dog beds and leashes, and put in orders to the esteemed on-site culinary team for canine-specific gourmet feasts. But dogs aren’t the only pampered critters in Vegas. A misbehaving sugar glider (aka a flying squirrel) with severe separation anxiety takes the prize for weirdest animal guest, while nocturnal snakes that required dozens of blackout shades might be the highest-maintenance. 

Things get crazier when animal requests revolve around wild creatures, rather than domesticated pets. Once, someone asked for a monkey to be dressed up in a butler’s uniform to check the guest in. And inebriated demands for zoo animals have ranged from llamas to tigers; the latter was needed to—no joke—reenact that infamous scene from The Hangover. Alas, none of those wishes could be fulfilled due to rules against animal cruelty—and common sense.

Some Things Are Off Limits, Even in Sin City
Also in the category of demands that can’t be fulfilled: hookers. It’s a common misconception that prostitution is legal in Las Vegas. While it’s allowed in the rest of Nevada, Clark County prohibits it. The thinly veiled requests, however, come roughly once a week: “Can you introduce me to someone?”

Requests for drugs—usually cocaine—are also once-a-week occurrences that come with a hard “no.” (Unless, of course, butlers see a valid prescription.) Even directing guests to Nevada’s legal marijuana dispensaries is a no-no, because the Cosmopolitan operates under a federal casino mandate that strictly forbids its consumption.