Question of the Day - 22 June 2015

We're still kicking ourselves for forgetting to include "Trailer Station" among the possible answers, and we're stunned that no one wrote in to chide us or pick that option, but you did write in with plenty of other weird and wonderful tales of gambling in unlikely places, so we're sharing a good cross section of those. Plus, we've included one our signature photo montages, in case you don't believe us about some of the options we did include with our recent Reader Poll.

"Decades ago, slot machines at the Denny's on the Strip. You'd think that eating at Denny's would be enough of a gamble all by itself."
• "Played table games in the Venice, Italy casino on the Grand Canal; booked horses closed circuit in a liquor store across the border in Mexico; played slots in an illegal Indian casino in Texas (there were only five slot machines); played illegal "five liners" in hidden "casino" in a city in Texas. Hilarious story: My co-worker and I went across the border in Piedras Negras, Mexico for drinks and dinner. We stopped by a liquor store, where they had close circuit horse racing. It was a Monday. I picked up the racing form, and together we hit the first four races. Probably had around $400 in winnings. We were getting some very nasty looks. We each bet $20 on the next race and lost (probably lucky for us!). Long story short.....THE RACING FORM WAS FOR THE PREVIOUS WEEK!! We won four straight races using an out-of-date racing form!!"

• "Almost forgot about this! We played backgammon under 25-30 feet of water in the Atlantic Ocean wearing scuba equipment. This was back about 1978 or so, the stakes small, and only a few short games just to be able to say we did it."

• "Strangest place I ever gambled was a back room of a junk yard office in East Chicago Indiana this was about 30 years ago. It was an after hours bar, it had craps, roulette, and blackjack tables. Nothing legal about it, I was working as a bodyguard for a guy that collected the outfits cut of gambling for the area. Because of who he was I was one of the few armed people that got through the weapons patdown at the door."

• A barber shop in Rapid City. Driving to Keystone (in '91 or '92?) drove by a small barber shop with a "Casino" sign outside. Had seen a few of these signs and curiosity finally got the better of us. Went in and asked about the casino and the barber pointed to a couple of machines in back. Seems they were state lottery video poker machines. Back then, any place with at least 2 or 3 of them could call themselves a "casino"! Put some coins in, lost, and heading out for Mt.Rushmore."

• "The cargo hold of a Chicago Tribune truck. Honestly." [Ed: We believe you. How could you make it up?]

• "In a Russian department store."

• "Bingo at elementary school PTA - won a lamp!"

• "The strangest place was in a hotel basement casino in Lima, Peru, which had 3 blackjack tables and 1 roulette table staffed by only women dealers in little black dresses."

• "The casino in Freeport, in 1978, 'gentlemen' had to wear coat and ties."

• "Vons grocery store."

• "The old Jackalope Bar on south Las Vegas Boulevard across from the Luxor more or less. Hole in the wall dive bar but it also had a live lobster tank by the door and you could win a lobster as one of the jackpots (or pick one to be cooked for you)."

• "Well, I shot craps for cash at the notorious Lesbian Capricorn Party in Chicago, while pounding back Vampire Tequila Slammers, surrounded by hundreds of lesbians, some of whom had been playing topless ping pong... Does that count?"

• "A LONDON CASINO --- had to pay a 'membership fee' but it was royal and regal inside with velvet drapes, dark wood paneling and everyone dressed up. Very special ... James Bond-like."

• "It wes quite a number of years ago but I once gambled in an empty warehouse in a ski village in the Austrian Alps. We read the next morning that the place had been raided about an hour after we left there. Otherwise I may still be doing time in an Austrian prison lol."

• "Many years ago, there was a "real" casino set up in the basement of a church in a small town in Canada just across the river from Detroit. They had trouble figuring out whether you won or lost in blackjack and their slots were awful, but it was a real casino in the basement of a church!"

• "In the 3B Reactor Compartment on the USS Enterprise (CVN-65). Playing poker to kill time while on freeze-plug watch."

• "I've gambled in Monte Carlo. It was really cool, its own experience - I suppose it would count under the high stakes private salon option, but it was its own vibe. Dress code, you had to pay a fee to get in to the video poker and slots. If you wanted to move on to where roulette and blackjack were, you had to pay another fee."

• "The first time we went to Vegas (1988) we stayed at the Maxim (it was long in the tooth back then). I had to get some laundry done and the Maxim didn't have any do-it-yourself facilities so I went to a Laundromat on Tropicana. When I returned my wife asked how much it cost (she's an accountant). I told her it was $22. $1 to wash, $1 to dry and $20 for the video poker machine. I love telling that story."

• "There is a TA truck plaza across from the Silverton they have about 50 slot machines a few table games and even a slot club.. you had a free slot play coupon in the 2014 book."

• "In a restaurant in Rekyavik, Iceland, and the machine was called 'Silver Ghost.'"

• "I've gambled in half of the places you listed. I would say my strangest/most unusual would be at a go-go bar in Patpong, Bangkok, Thailand!"

• "In a motor home cruising down the highway." [Ed: We trust that someone else was at the wheel?!]

• "In South Korea in a blackjack 'casino.' I was the only person there and I played about an hour. Broke about even but did get a few free drinks."

• "Went to a small French casino just west of Monte Carlo Monaco in a city called Beaulieu sur Mer. Tiny casino was filled with well dressed elderly gamblers who all looked like multi millionaires and it was interesting to be able to play some games with them Fif a few minutes."

• "In a little place in Great Yarmouth, England, when I was 12! It wasn't really a casino; I don't know what you'd call it. It was just one narrow & deep place among many storefronts in a row on a block by the beach. Our family parked in back and went inside, and there were rows of slot machines along the walls, no signs saying only adults could play, and nobody playing the machines, so I got to play a slot machine for the first time in my life!"

• "Forgot my medication and went to a drug store, had my prescription transfered to Las Vegas, then played video poker while waiting and won enough to pay my medication bill!"

• "January 1980 - Riviera- I was playing a 25 cent machine that was malfunctioning- won a small amount each spin. Soon I had 4 people watching, 1 floor worker, one pit boss and 2 suits. I was told that they couldn't touch the machine until I was finished. As soon as I left the machine,up $200, ( We left to get married next door at the Candlelight Chapel), they brought in a dolly and they whisked it away. We walked through a room full of slots, low lighting, and there was only one couple in the room playing a dollar machine, it was very surreal, the woman had a stack of trays on a chair and was loading more as the husband was playing and winning every spin. Both looked very bored. It was the strangest gambling experience I've ever had!"

• "On our first trip to Costa Rica, we visited a little hole in the wall casino right in the center of the capitol city, San Jose. There were only a few dozen machines spread out in a little room about the size of an extremely large hotel room. In about 20 minutes, my wife hit a jackpot for the equivalent of close to 200 dollars. about 20 minutes later, I hit a pot for the equivalent of 400 dollars. That was a big part of our spending money for the rest of the trip. 7 days inCosta Rica on only air fare and rooms. not a bad deal. Not a bad deal at all."

• "Sometime in the mid-1980's, The state of Nebraska legalized off-track betting and blackjack. The statute was challenged and overthrown a very short time after anti-gambling forces took it to court. But in the interim, the Anchor Inn bar, on the Missouri River in Omaha, rushed to open as many blackjack tables as they could fit into the joint. I went there to check it out. The tables were a combination of rented professional tables like the ones in Las Vegas and some quickly thrown-together ones to accommodate the patrons. I was at one of those, where the dealer was a local non-professional part-timer. She dealt with a bored, uninterested look on her face and little conversation. After dealing a hand and turning over her cads, she said "Dealer Loses." Except that it was a WINNING hand for the house. She then paid us all as winners. No one said anything or even exchanged glances. In the time I stayed there, she did the same thing two more times! Surreal, but fun and memorable!"

• "I once played in a small casino on the beautiful Greek Island of Corfu. They had the absolutely fastest Blackjack dealer in the world!!! I could not keep up with the count. He was not only fast at dealing, he would provoke you into making a quick decision, which was often the wrong one. Needless to say I got my butt kick that day but I really did enjoy my trip. Greece was amazing."

• "Over twenty years ago in Macau, before the big new casinos and the Chinese takeover. Playing blackjack the whole table would get up and move to another empty table evry half hour. Other players could play on your hand and would reach over your shoulder and place money on your your spot. I was at first base and a little old Chinese lady kept giving me thumbs up when we won."

• "Drive-in style, in Sweden. Cowbingo is a sport or game sometimes played on markets and similar events. The playing field consists of a field or other grass fields that are divided into squares that players then bet money on. Subsequently released a cow into the court. The cow will then go there and eat the grass. Eventually, grazing, and the time was bowel movements result in a COWPAT. The winner of the round will be the person who bet money on that box, which mocha ports. The game is to advance guess which box it gets. Advantageously, to checking the boxes in advance and see in which box the greenest and the greenest grass grows, and hope that the cow stands there long enough. However, it is prohibited to scare or otherwise affect the cow."

• "We got caught playing poker in the balcony of a Baptist church using communion wafers as chips. Playing with the preacher's boys. We really got in trouble and I got a 'whopp'in' when I got home. I was about 10 or 11 when this happened."

• "My most unusual gambling location was back when on-line poker was readily available. I'm a research meteorologist and was part of a storm chasing/severe weather research project to collect data on tornadoes and supercell thunderstorms (filmed as part of a TV show). While driving around the plains, there was lots of time to kill, so I used the cell internet connection from our laptop to play cheap sit and go tournaments. So my unusual place was basically driving (passenging) down all sorts of highways across the great plains in a tornado research vehicle. My unusual past life feels like it was a million years ago now :)"

• "At a small riverboat casino (now gone) in New Westminster, BC (suburb of Vancouver). The strange and unusual part was having to take a number, like a customer in a butcher shop, and wait for the number to be called to be given a seat at a blackjack table. After getting the seat, you could not move to another table because that seat was being given to another person with a number. The casino would not page your number in the restaurant, lounge, bar, etc. when it came up. You had to be at the casino door, not even inside the casino at a machine, waiting for your number to come up. They had a policy of refusing to estimate waiting time. I did this once, waited for about 25 minutes to get a seat and decided I would not do it again."

• "The Las Vegas bus station."

• "On an illegal video slot in a bar in Indiana prior to the legal casinos in the state. Oh yeah, and I was under age at the time :)"

• "I voted car wash. A new car wash opened in the NW part of town. Had my car washed during grand opening. Played one of their two video poker machines, hit a royal. They had to call to get someone to come pay me....Maxine locked up. Moved to other machine while waiting, hit another Royal. Very exciting for me. Stopped in a few days later with other car, machines gone! Guess it was a grand opening for me, but for them, not so much!"

• "Honestly, there's no place stranger than Las Vegas, so there's your answer. :)

Images in the montage depict Australia's Desert Cave Hotel in Coober Pedy; the Casino di Venezia; Grande Casino Knokke; Swedish drive-in bingo; a Las Vegas topless gentlemen's club; Schiphol-Airport Holland Casino; McCarran International Airport; Hard Rock's Floating Palapa blackjack tables; the Sands' "floating casino"; Prague's Casino Palais Savarin; a "Trailer Station"; and AirJet Design's Casino Jet Lounge. We're just not telling you which is which...

And a late-comer: "I just remembered my strangest spot I gambled: On the beach in Vietnam. I held the bank and dealt blackjack to the other soldiers while we waited for another attack in 1969 during the Tet Offensive."