Tynan never said he had a 70% edge over the house; he said he played video poker 70% of the time.
But I do have a question: If video poker is the game he made his money on, why would he have "huge fires" to put out? It's not like one can bet $5k, $10k, $25k on a single video poker hand and blow your fortune in a single day. It's a slow war of attrition, not a sudden fire. Something smells fishy here.