Baby may still need a new pair of shoes

Encore Boston Harbor opened three years ago this June to great fanfare. Casino. Hotel. Resort. Swank destination. (That designation "Boston Harbor" is pretty laughable, as Encore isn't actually in Boston, but in the down-in-the-dumps working class little industrial city of Everett, Massachusetts.) I take it that Encore was chugging along pretty well at first, with lots of locals streaming in and plenty of tourists taking boats from downtown Boston over to Everett to play blackjack, eat expensive food, and soak up the tacky glitz and glamour that's generally absent from our fair city.

I haven't been.

When it first opened, my sisters and nieces and I talked about a girls-night-out trip to check it out, but we never got organized around the excursion. I also have a friend who likes to gamble (video poker), and we've talked about boating over to take a quick peek. (In fact, we talked about it just the other day.) And then there was covid.

So to date, my only experience with Encore is when it appears out of the corner of my eye, looming there when I pass nearby on the train coming from my sister's in Salem. It's always a shock to see it looming up, an oasis of posh just outside the railyards.

I'm in no hurry, but I will get there someday, with whatever's the modern-day equivalent of a roll of quarters in my hand, prepared to hang in there for as long as my virtual roll of quarters lasts.

Kimahn T. Le has been to Encore, and she wasn't playing the quarter slots. Instead, prosecutors allege, she's been doing some in-house loan sharking for losing gamblers in desperate need of a bit of cash to stay in a high stakes game. Because when you're in a high stakes game, even if you've been on a losing streak, sometimes baby needs a new pair of shoes. Or whatever.

The Quincy woman, prosecutors say, would slide up close to the losing gambler, reach into her purse, and hand over a wad of cash — or maybe some casino chips — after the gambler agreed to pay as much as 10 percent a week in interest on the loan. (Source: Boston Globe)

Ten percent a week? That's some vigorous vigorish, but probably not out of line with what the general loan sharking business commands. (I have no idea whatsoever what the going rate is. Thankfully.)

Le, 50, was arrested April 10 at the casino and now faces multiple counts of usury in Suffolk Superior Court. She pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released on personal recognizance, according to court records.

She has been banned from Encore. (Let's hear it for facial recognition software.)

The person, identified as a “cooperating source” in court records, outlined the terms of Le’s loans, prosecutors wrote.

“Kimanh Le told the CS that she would give him/her a rate of 5 percent on any loan amount under $10,000,” they wrote. “If he/she is able to repay the loan within 24 hours, otherwise, the going rate would be 10 percent per week.”

On nine occasions since July, the cooperating source allegedly conducted nine transactions with Le, totaling some $78,000, according to prosecutors. The interest rate was 10 percent but was later lowered to 5 percent and 6 percent on most of the loans, records show.

So Ms. Le was not without heart. If you paid her back within 24 hours, the interest rate was only 5 percent. And even if you didn't make it in under that wire, she generally smiled kindly on you and only charged you 5 or 6 percent anyway. Winner winner chicken dinner!

Canny strategy that. Sort of like good-cop-bad-cop all rolled into one. Look what a good person I am, only charging you 5 percent a week when I could have made it 10...

Even if I'd made it over to Encore, Ms. Le would not have been interested in me as a potential customer for her "underground financial institution." What's the point of approaching someone who caps her daily gambling limit at ten bucks? Plus she targeted fellow Asian Americans. More of the trust factor in action!

Anyway, I may pay a visit to Encore this summer at some point. Mostly I'll just be content to pick up an occasional lottery ticket. Because if I'm going to gamble, I might as well just go ahead and defy the odds and put two dollars down on a Powerball ticket. You never know. Someone's gotta win it. And if I win, chicken dinner for everyone, on me!