New York City: Underground Casino Cover & Neighborhood Info

thedark

Weaving through the night.
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 12, 2013
Messages
1,558
Reaction score
463
Location
Not where Google thinks.
Hi there!

I'm normally pretty quick with ideas on where to set scenes.. but this one's giving me trouble.

I'm looking for a New York City neighborhood to set an underground casino in, and I'm looking for a cover business.

I was going to go with a club, niftily called Fire & Ice, set somewhere in Astoria, but as this is the opening page of my WIP, I figured I'd really better check with actual New York City residents. If I'm going with a club, where are the nightclubs? Google only gets me so far. I'm happy to move location to wherever is suitable -- my only goal was to shoot for a neighborhood recognizable as "New York City" without being too obvious (for example, most folks aren't familiar with Lenox Hill or Borough Park being NYC neighborhoods...).

I know there's a bit of a trope for setting underground casinos or clubs inside of meat packing plants, laundromats and the like, so I was trying to go a bit outside the box and set one inside an actual club. But maybe I'm underexposed to current TV tropes. Is that a bad idea? I'd love some ideas on businesses where an underground casino could cheerfully operate unnoticed.

My team of vigilante sisters are hitting the underground casinos in town and doing a bit of a Robin Hood with the cash. I'm looking to start my opening chapter with a newspaper article on a previous hit, and open with a brief scene set inside another casino.

Then all hell breaks loose overseas, and we don't come back to the scene again.

Ideas are most welcome -- especially on neighborhoods and cover business.

Damn opening chapter. Third time's the charm, right?

~ Anna
 

thedark

Weaving through the night.
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 12, 2013
Messages
1,558
Reaction score
463
Location
Not where Google thinks.
Quite a number of them:

http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Best+Strip+Clubs&find_loc=Queens,+NY

Have your vigilante sisters posing as college students from one of the NYC colleges/universities to apply for part time strippers (for the heist or probe).

Thanks Bing Z!

Yelp turned out to be super helpful in isolating the kind of nightclub I'm shooting for -- less strip club, more dance club. And who knew, but the Meatpacking District in Manhattan has a reputation for good nightclubs. Makes me laugh though -- there I was trying to stay away from the meat packing plant stereotype for an underground club/casino...

I'll start the scene, and see if I run into trouble setting an underground casino inside a nightclub.

Seems realistic to me. As realistic as the Meatpacking District having the best nightclubs in Manhattan.

Chortle.

Thanks!
 

Bing Z

illiterate primate
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 3, 2008
Messages
3,788
Reaction score
999
Location
New Jersey
I'd stay away from Meatpacking District. It's too expensive and fashionable a neighborhood to have heist-able underground casinos. Unless, of course, if these underground casinos are to host Marc Jacobs, Ivanka Trump, Donald Marron, etc.
 

thedark

Weaving through the night.
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 12, 2013
Messages
1,558
Reaction score
463
Location
Not where Google thinks.
I'd stay away from Meatpacking District. It's too expensive and fashionable a neighborhood to have heist-able underground casinos. Unless, of course, if these underground casinos are to host Marc Jacobs, Ivanka Trump, Donald Marron, etc.

*returns from a quick google of above names*

Well... my goal was to have a ritzy casino indeed. But upon reflection, those folks aren't going into a nightclub to get to a casino. Kids go into nightclubs.

So what makes good cover for a proper private casino catering to such a crowd?
 

Bing Z

illiterate primate
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 3, 2008
Messages
3,788
Reaction score
999
Location
New Jersey
How ritzy?

Remember Atlantic City is just 2 hours away from NYC (half hour if you're a big gambler and fly a chopper.) Mohegan Sun in Connecticut ‎ is also about a 2-hours' drive away. There is a Resorts World Casino in Jamaica, Queens, but I have no idea how classy or crappy it is. Really wealthy people, I suppose, if they're into some private games, may have a certain high-powered dude organize one in a Waldorf-Astoria or Plaza suite, or in a holiday mansion in the Hamptons.

I've always envision that underground casinos are for the lower class people. Thus the strip clubs instead of dance clubs in my original search. But that doesn't mean they don't have tons of cash ^_^.
 

cornflake

practical experience, FTW
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 11, 2012
Messages
16,171
Reaction score
3,734
Hi there!

I'm normally pretty quick with ideas on where to set scenes.. but this one's giving me trouble.

I'm looking for a New York City neighborhood to set an underground casino in, and I'm looking for a cover business.

I was going to go with a club, niftily called Fire & Ice, set somewhere in Astoria, but as this is the opening page of my WIP, I figured I'd really better check with actual New York City residents. If I'm going with a club, where are the nightclubs? Google only gets me so far. I'm happy to move location to wherever is suitable -- my only goal was to shoot for a neighborhood recognizable as "New York City" without being too obvious (for example, most folks aren't familiar with Lenox Hill or Borough Park being NYC neighborhoods...).

I know there's a bit of a trope for setting underground casinos or clubs inside of meat packing plants, laundromats and the like, so I was trying to go a bit outside the box and set one inside an actual club. But maybe I'm underexposed to current TV tropes. Is that a bad idea? I'd love some ideas on businesses where an underground casino could cheerfully operate unnoticed.

My team of vigilante sisters are hitting the underground casinos in town and doing a bit of a Robin Hood with the cash. I'm looking to start my opening chapter with a newspaper article on a previous hit, and open with a brief scene set inside another casino.

Then all hell breaks loose overseas, and we don't come back to the scene again.

Ideas are most welcome -- especially on neighborhoods and cover business.

Damn opening chapter. Third time's the charm, right?

~ Anna

Heh, I was like 'I think the Meatpacking District is too posh for that,' when I saw this and then I read down.

Why Queens, just out of curiosity? I don't mean there wouldn't be one there, but what crowd you'll get is going to depend on where you put it. Astoria is going to draw a Queens crowd, if you see what I mean; no one is shlepping for that - there's got to be one closer or hipper if it's people not there.

I'd go with Chinatown, personally.

There are private poker games, but a whole casino, someone very rich would go to an actual casino someplace, I'd wager, not an underground thing.
 

snafu1056

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 18, 2013
Messages
819
Reaction score
88
Brighton Beach, Brooklyn probably has tons. Brothels too. These kinds of clubs are usually run by and for specific ethnic groups, and can be found in areas filled with lots of recent immigrants. Outsiders might have a hard time getting in. At the very least the regulars and owners would be suspicious of total strangers. It helps to be a familiar face around the neighborhood.

Manhattan is mostly a playground for rich people these days, so underground places like these would more likely be found in outer boroughs, sometimes even in innocent looking residential areas (although I'm sure Chinatown still has a few). A vacant apartment above any storefront would do fine.
 

thedark

Weaving through the night.
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 12, 2013
Messages
1,558
Reaction score
463
Location
Not where Google thinks.
Thank you guys. Sorry it took me a few days to come back to the thread and say so -- I got all sucked in to writing the actual chapter, and sometimes I get tunnel vision when it comes to writing. Just ask my wife, who hasn't seen me for the last five evenings. :)

I wanted to say thank you again, and to say that both the Meatpacking District and Brighton Beach won out. I'd love your eyes on the actual sections, just in case I'm missing anything obvious (like... there are abandoned storefronts in Brighton Beach, right? It's not all residential or brand new and spiffy, right?).

I popped the chapter up here in SYW. The underground casino aspect is a background player in the overall setting of a North Africa slave auction, but it weaves through three scenes in the chapter. And it's the little details about New York that I so want to get right from afar.

Thank you.

~ Anna
 

snafu1056

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 18, 2013
Messages
819
Reaction score
88
The most congested and non-residential part of Brighton Beach would probably be Brighton Beach avenue. That's where the el train and all the shopping and storefronts are. Give it a look on Google streetview.
 

thedark

Weaving through the night.
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 12, 2013
Messages
1,558
Reaction score
463
Location
Not where Google thinks.
The most congested and non-residential part of Brighton Beach would probably be Brighton Beach avenue. That's where the el train and all the shopping and storefronts are. Give it a look on Google streetview.

I did I did -- when I was crafting the scene, I pictured it on Brighton Beach Ave.

You gotta love Google streetview. :)