The Whale is one of my favorite original characters. I've always been a fan of aquatic type heroes and villains, but with this guy I decided to think about how big money gamblers are also known as "whales" and also about all the documentaries that I've watched in my lifetime about whale and dolphin behavior. Then everything I wanted to say about the character and his followers just easily fell into place.
Thanks for commenting guys. To answer your question, Star, I've read comics where the villains have their own secret hangouts, like a bar that they can all go to after hours to be away by themselves free from the interference of the cops and the heroes. So, I thought why not just up that idea to the maximum of what something like that could be and came up with the idea of a resort chain for bad guys. As far as the police or any others on the side of the law being o.k. with it, I'm thinking that the locations for these things could have more lax laws concerning such things. Either that or they could just be highly secluded, and if any one of them does happen to be shut down, since there are multiple locations all they have to do is move on to the next one.That's the beauty of it, plus it generates more revenue for the ESV's crime organization.