My Gambling History

What is yours?


My Gambling History

I'll play along even though this site is no longer about gambling (lol). My first time to Las Vegas was back in 1999 (lived in Hawaii). I was 35 yrs old then. My dad who was 65 at the time had already been to Las Vegas maybe 2 years prior. He had asked to go with him and I thought to myself why would I want to go to Las Vegas to gamble away my hard earned money. Well the rest is history. In 2002, I relocated to Los Angeles where I continue to remain today. I go to Las Vegas maybe every other month. Some people like the 5 hour drive to Las Vegas but I hate it. I'd rather fly to Las Vegas.

I was 22 years old. driving a semi across the country in 1971. First casino, first bet was one dollar on roulette Black 20, it lands on Black 20. I left the casino later flat broke losing $280. I've been going back ever since to win that $280 back. I'm around $50K down some 44 years later.

While I had played poker with friends, and would shoot pool and play foosball for money, I had never been inside a casino until 1976. I went on a road trip with a couple friends to Las Vegas in 1976 to see a pool tournament. The first casino I ever walked into was the Landmark. We were going to stay with a friend of the driver on our road trip, and that friend was a bellman at the Landmark. Even back then, Las Vegas casinos, and both the strip and downtown were pretty amazing places. I had a $160 bankroll for that 3-day weekend. I lost most of it the first day. I played a few nickel slots on the second day, back when max bet on most nick slots was 2 or 3 nickels. During the afternoon of the third day, my friends (who hadn't already lost their bankrolls) were shooting craps. I stepped up to a spot next to one of my friends at the table and bought a $5 chip. I told my friend that I wasn't going to bet until it was my turn to throw the dice. When the dice came to me, I placed the $5 chip on the Pass line, and told my friend I was going to make 5 passes in a row, and that he should bet with me. My first time ever playing craps, I was a little nervous. I made the first pass and pressed the bet. I made the second, third and fourth passes and pressed the bet each time. That had me with $80 on the Pass line. I made that pass too! I picked up my $160 in chips and passed the dice on to my friend. I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish and it was time to quit!

That run was the casino hook for me! I continued to go to Las Vegas every one or two years, with friends, road trips related to pool tournaments. I started flying to Las Vegas in the mid-1980's - the drive from Colorado and back is long no matter which way you try to get through or around the mountains...but it was still maybe once every one or two years.

When casino gaming became legal in Colorado Oct. 31, 1991, I was heading up to Cripple Creek on a very regular basis. It was there that I started to focus on video poker and live poker. In 1993, one of the owners of a small Cripple Creek casino asked me if I wanted to get paid to play poker. I asked him what I needed to do. He told me to keep doing what I was already doing - play a minimum of 30 hours/week and they would pay me $7.00/hour (not bad back then) as a proposition poker player. Prop poker players use their own money to play, so they keep all winnings, and also absorbed all losses. The difference between a prop player and a shill is, a shill uses the casino's money to play and does not keep any winnings or lose any money, but their stakes are pretty low so the casino isn't investing very much on shills. Back then, just about any casino that had a poker room (nation-wide, especially Las Vegas) employed prop poker players. The idea behind having prop players was to get games started and keep them going. This was also back when low limit games were all that was being dealt. It was possible to grind out 10 or 12 hours of play without losing your butt. The move to No Limit ring games in casino poker rooms killed the jobs of prop poker players - you can't plan on grinding it out at the table for 10 or 12 hours when some donk can take your entire stack on a single hand. The shift from limit to no limit is also why many casino poker rooms have closed over the last 10 years. No limit is fine for tournament play, but it sucks for poker room ring games.

Starting in late 1999, I decided to fly to Las Vegas once a month, and I did just that 18-months-in-a-row. I came home a winner (paid all expenses and had more money than when I left) 11 of the first 12 months. That trend reversed to loser 5 of the last 6 months. I blame that on the Paris Las Vegas removing their French Roulette table from the casino floor. That wheel made me money healthy almost every time I played on it.

These days my gaming is limited to one or two trips to Las Vegas a year, for work at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and my gaming bankroll for those trips is often less than what I had in my pocket the first time I went to Las Vegas. One visit last year, I didn't bet on anything until I was on the concourse at McCarran for my flight home. I put a $20 into a VP machine and cashed out for $40. Winner!

1) Used to sneak into South Lake Tahoe casinos under the age of 21. Best cover when playing blackjack was Telly Savalas (Kojak) playing along with me. The pit concentrated on him and did not ID me.

2) Played poker (7 Card Stud) underage at Caesars Palace and nailed quad fours with three of them hidden. Won a big pot and left Las Vegas a winner.

3) Decided to work at Harrah's Reno as a change person at 23 years old. Got hired as a craps dealer trainee at Fitzgeralds. Spent over two years working as a craps dealer (and some blackjack and roulette) at Reno, Lake Tahoe, and Las Vegas casinos.

4) Got a job as a Letter Carrier at the USPS and developed a blackjack card counting system to relieve the stress of the job. Made great money as a single deck specialist on the side. Was barred at blackjack for counting cards in Las Vegas after 6 successful years at Reno/Lake Tahoe casinos.

5) Retired from the post office and decided to share my knowledge of casinos and card counting on YouTube and Twitter.

6) Card counting at baccarat as revenge for the blackjack back offs.

My first trip was in July 1988 for business. Boy it was hot. Stayed at the LVH, at the time the largest hotel in America, (now not in the top 10 in Vegas). Walked up to Slots R Fun, hit a royal within 30 minutes. Had no idea what happened as the bells started going off. I was then surrounded by the slot people handing me my winning & leaving their hands out. I tipped a few of them.

I was hooked and have been back at least once a year since then.

A few years later saw the LVA at an airport newsstand, bought it & then got a subscription

Thanks for sharing your stories everybody!

That was interesting about "prop players". I never knew they existed.

I started gambling as a kid, I would lose all my comics. Growing up in New York I gambled on roofs, in hallways, in the backyards, sometimes in a house. I gambled on pool games, some football. I kept gambling when I got married, I put my personal checks in pots, I’ve lost the rent money, I sold things to stay in a game. My wife put an end to my gambling in our home.
We moved from N.Y. to New Jersey. I learned to control my gambling. My wife and her sister twisted my arm about going to Las Vegas, after some hours I agreed to go. Worried about my control I had my wife hold my money and give me a little at a time, that was a bad idea. For a week I played blackjack a little slots, I realized slots are bad and I was bad at blackjack. I loved Vegas so when we got back home I started to learn all the games played in the casinos. We went back every year for more than 20 years. I was able to play all the games, I’d lose, I’d win. My favorite games craps, video poker. One day I tried live keno, I picked 6 numbers for a dollar on the 3rd game I won $1500. I would buy 100 keno games at a time and go where ever, when I would get back to the hotel I would check if I won, one time I hit almost $6000. Other times small hits. I haven’t been to Vegas since my wife passed away almost 7 years ago.

I'm in Vegas with my wife right now sitting side by side playing VP. Don't think either of us would go back without the other. Makes me sad just thinking about it.

Snidely, thank you. Other places we use to go. I live 3 hours from Atlantic City and 40 minutes from Mount Airy. 3 Times I got in my car, got on the highway and driving to Mt. Airy, I turned around and went back home. It took a few years for friends to get me to go to Mt. Airy.