Laurent Rees

And one day I was playing basketball, And they're telling me, we need to talk to a host for you. Because I was playing like, you know, a good 20 grand a day, whatever. Which is a lot. You weren't worried about playing that kind of money? I had, but I always had that kind of money. So 20 grand a day is no big deal. Like I, honest to God, always made that kind of money for myself.

It got scarier when I was dropping 50 to 100,000 a day. That got like, you know, that hurt.

He's like, come back to Vegas and, you know, put you in a different villa, a golf course villa, the first floor, which has a pool. And I said, okay. So I go back and that's when I realized like, okay, if this guy's inviting me, I have to spend money.

Now, when I arrive, my host has already prepared the room. So he texts me a few days in advance before I arrive and he will ask, what do I want in the room? And I always had two main requests, which was the Saint-Mauve-Ville-Cart-Rosé champagne and a charcuterie board. That's what I live off of. And so every time I would get there, he would surprise me with extra flowers.

I probably had six dozen roses in my room from him. He gave me all these fancy chocolates, handmade chocolates. Kula would have a complete bed set with every toy that you could ever imagine for a dog and Shoebone all ready for her to go.

My dog loved it. She had time of her life in our villa. And so I said, you know what, what can we do to stay here?

My host knew a lot about me. They ask you a lot of questions about what you like. And I love magic because it's one of my favorite things. So we would be eating dinner and all of a sudden some guy randomly sits down at our table with us. And I'm like, who the fuck? What is this guy? And he just starts doing magic. And I loved it.

When he was finished, he would walk away and then the manager would come over and said, we brought him in specifically for you.

I started to panic. And actually, when I finally told, you know, I told Cameron, I'm like, this is what's going on. Like, I don't know how to handle it. And that's when he said, OK, you're good at these slots. Win back. Because he's seen me win tons of money on them. So I said, OK, but you kind of go down this rabbit hole.

You know, I told you, my dad's quote to me is, winning isn't everything, it's the only thing. And so you get competitive against a stupid machine, and you should know better than to gamble against the house. Like, it doesn't ever pay off, ever.

When I first arrived to the win, that's all I would do. I actually didn't even unpack my suitcase. I would literally pop open the champagne, open the back door for Kula to go potty, and then I would take my champagne and go, go to the slot machines. Zara was spiraling. I actually don't really sleep much. I never did anyways, because I took Adderall, so I was always awake.

The Adderall and the alcohol was a cocktail of focused haze. Every time I would drink, I would take a pill. Drink, take a pill, because it would keep me alert, but also calm. When you take Adderall, you have a very bad short-term memory, so you don't think about certain things. Plus, with the alcohol, it just kind of makes your reality just kind of euphoric in a way. Also invincible.

You feel invincible a little bit. And that's probably why I just kept taking it, thinking taking it would just solve my problems, and I could figure things out if I just keep taking Adderall.

So we'd go back to the villa. I would tuck him in bed. I would change, you know, into my comfy clothes and put on, you know, my yoga pants and my Chanel sweater and my Chanel sneakers. And then at three in the morning, go back out into the slots.

So I learned on the penny slots. So I was like, there's got to be a rhyme or rhythm, and I have to feel the rhythm in the machine.

Okay, let me tell you about Dragon Link. It's basically a game. It has like five different characters. It has... You know, an old Japanese man, a young Japanese woman, a big Buddha, a panda.

Now, I was the only one who could hit as many bonuses, you know, in a day. People would just watch me like I was in a zoo. But it was a really incredible game once you felt the rhythm of it. And then I knew how to bet properly and I would hit these big bonuses.

Depending on how the night went, I would either stay awake till 6 to 7 a.m. the next day and continue gambling the whole entire day. If it wasn't doing well, I'd go back to the room about 5 a.m. I would check on Kula. I would take her out to play in the yard. Cameron was still sleeping. So I would go back out at 6 a.m. to the slot machines.

So the janitor that would be on last would wait for me to come in and he'd give me a hug hello and let me know which machines were hitting.

I hated it. I was so stressed. I would never really enjoy it. I would drink myself into disarray every day. I took Adderall left and right to stay awake. I was a hot mess, but I played. And a lot of times I'd win really big. I really would.

My host came up to me and said, we're presenting you with the Chairman's Club card. And they only present it once a year. And this is mid-year. The first thought that entered my mind was, holy fuck, how much have I lost? I was not excited. I was not happy. I was like, just holy shit. What? How much? Did you know you were losing by then? I had to. I mean, but the card, yeah.

Because you don't just give a parade to somebody who's winning all your money. So I knew right then and there, like, something's bad. Like, this is not right.

Oh, I felt it was out of control when I was ordering, you know, a thousand Adderall pills to my hotel room from Newport Beach to Mary Poppins at the Wynn.

And the guy said, oh, it's no big deal. You're like, you're down 1.8 million. And I had to like laugh, shrug it off like it's nothing, but it was definitely not nothing. And I about lost my, I mean. I had to go to the bathroom. I couldn't even imagine.

So what happens is, I never look at how much I put in. I look at what the outcome of the day is, which was great. But, you know, the booze and the Adderall really helped me forget about the amount you put in to win the $200,000 you walk out with.

When I heard the number out loud, like I understand you're losing, you get perks. But this number, I mean, I was thinking to myself, how am I going to get back? And that's why I wanted to win my birthday amount.

So they always say when you're a big player, they always make you win really big on your birthday.

I hate birthdays, but Cameron loves birthdays. And so he It was actually my host who put together my whole room. So I was in room 8808 at the win.

Cameron and a friend left to go to a concert. They go to the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert. And I'm just like, fine, I guess I'll stay here. And I got up because I was so pissed off I wasn't winning on my birthday weekend, whatever. And I got up for, what, 10 minutes. I moved to the poker machines. And this girl is playing my machine and she wins the $1.6 million.

And I'm just like, like literally 10 minutes. That's all it took was 10 minutes. And I was just like, you could shoot me in the leg and I wouldn't cry, just so you know. And I cried. I was just beside myself, so angry.

Yeah, Cameron 100% knew because Cameron said that he saw all the collateral to Laurent.

How did you get the pictures of the collateral that you sent to Laurent? There were a couple of them, absolutely, that I just Googled pictures online. Yeah, absolutely.

So yeah, they were false loans. Absolutely. That's true. I did false loans. I used the money to try and win back other money. Absolutely.

So she exists, but I don't want to talk about her because I love her to death and I don't want her to be a part of this like that.

I called John McCabe. I'm like, look, you got to show me your fucking collateral. Like we got cars, we got watches to show him. And he tried to pull it together and together we couldn't do it at the time to get it to show him.

He's like, it's okay. I just want to get my money back. And like I said, I'm like, okay, well, if you trust me with that, like I'll handle that. And then Cameron caused like a shit storm. He calls Laurent and just starts wailing on me. I'm thinking, wow, what an asshole, because he just doesn't want to get caught in the middle. So now he's the good guy.

I probably could have fixed everything if Ron Richards didn't fucking put the articles out there, but whatever, he did.

One night he says, talk to my friend Laurent. You know, he's loaded and he could probably partner with you.

Cameron said, you have to fly to New York, you have to meet Laurent.

He actually had this little private room at the top of the stairs from the lobby that he was sitting in. He had jeans on and a long-sleeved black shirt. He had a little jacket over it.

He's actually really chill. He's a very, very nice, cool guy. He was sitting there with Cameron and I was a little bit late because Cameron and I had a fight, of course.

And as we were talking, John sent me a text saying, oh, this guy has this Patek Philippe worth a million dollars. Can you get a loan on it? And right in front of Laurent, I mean, the texts were coming in and I showed it to him.

And he's all excited, like just crazy excited.

He grilled me like nobody's business. Just grilled me to the death to figure out if this was safe or not. And at the time, it was absolutely safe.

I said start with one loan, get comfortable, get your feet wet, get paid back, and then let's move forward, right?

We went to the Orange County, just the little courthouse, and we got married right then and there. It was like a Thursday morning. I'm in my sweats, he's in sweats, and we just go get married, do the paperwork so we can get it back to his attorney. But that was it. It was no wedding, no nothing.

Oh, my mom would have fucking killed me. So she said, he's a loser. You don't marry him. What are you doing? And so I was like, okay, I won't, you know, but I was head over heels in love with the guy. Like, what am I going to do?

Thank God for Adderall and alcohol. I had no head at the time. I mean, I had no fucking idea what I was doing. I just kept taking pills, taking drinks. So I never really had like a sober moment to think about it. Never. I just kept going, going, going.

people getting up getting paid no um i was always the one who had the money so i mean like i didn't i didn't really borrow any money so some people think i owe the money i don't i do i would give i always pay people i owe it's just like who i am even if it hurts me like i will pay it