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July, 1986

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by MisterJJ, Jun 14, 2012.

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  1. MisterJJ

    MisterJJ Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Apr 17, 2012
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    Location:
    Ramona, CA
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    20

    My Trip Report

    I got out of work on Friday night at 11:30pm. I had been working as a fabricator at an Aerospace company a little South of San Diego (Yes, you can go South of San Diego and not be in Mexico, although some parts do look like Mexico). Anyway, I decide to go for a drive after work. Just a drive. I like driving. Unfortunately there's not a whole lot of choice on directions to go unless you actually like driving in Mexico. It's mostly a choice between the hills and deserts to the East or to L.A. which is like going from a baby elephant to an adult elephant... it's just bigger, more dangerous, and smells worse. So I avoid either and head up the I-15. After a while I spot the first sign that lists the mileage to Las Vegas. After a little calculating of the time it would take I decide to give it a shot. BTW, I'm just over 21 years old at this point!

    I don't remember much about the drive and I don't remember seeing many bright lights on the way in to Vegas. I was mostly looking for a cheap motel to get some sleep, thinking that the fancy casino-hotels would be way too expensive. You could definitely say I was on a limited budget, since I was limited strictly to the money in my pocket, less than $100. I had no credit card and no checking account. Eventually I came upon an only somewhat sleazy looking motel with a vacancy sign lit up in standard neon form. I rang the bell, which apparently woke up the attendant, and asked how much for a room. I don't remember how much it was but I do know I was very surprised at how much it would cost. I know it would have left me with very little money to do any gambling at all. So I politely excused myself and left, suddenly having a great realization that I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I drove off, thinking there was no way I could find a place to sleep at any reasonable rate, not that I would even know what a reasonable rate was since I had never had to pay for a hotel/motel room before.

    Time for plan B. I found a shopping mall to pull into and quickly fell asleep in my car. Not many hours later I was awaken by the rather bright sun shining in on me. I moved the car so I wasn't facing the sun and fell right back asleep. Not much later I awoke to find myself laying in a pool of my sweat. I thought OMG, it's HOT! Oh... wait... this was 1986... I thought Oh My God, it's HOT! I opened the car door to let some of the heat out only to find that I was actually letting hotter air in! I'm wearing my heavy work jeans and a t-shirt. So I'm thinking that nobody could be walking around in this heat wearing jeans. I have to get some shorts to wear and it just so happens I'm at a shopping mall. I wait for the mall to open and go into the nearest department store and right in the middle of the isle is a clearance bin with shorts in it. What luck! I rummage around and find what I think would be an appropriate pair of shorts for this climate. Now remember, I'm 21 years old... I'm not gay (no fashion sense)... no girlfriend keeping me from dressing like an idiot... and absolutely no concept of color coordination. The shorts I picked out were later labeled by my friends as my Hawaiian Nightmare Shorts. The pattern was a mish-mash of palm trees, surfboards, and other tropical scenery, randomly thrown together with various bright splotches of vibrant color. But my biggest concern at the time was that they made a very minor dent in my limited finances.

    After changing into my new shorts in my car, I was off to explore the world of gambling. I drove down the strip and was struck by how far apart the casinos were. For some reason I had imagined them as being all lumped together. They were more like individual islands. Desolate islands because few people were walking around in the mid-morning July heat. After driving the strip, I picked a casino to check out, but I really can't remember which one it was. I know it was one of the larger ones, and I thought it had some kind of tropical name (maybe my shorts thought they would fit in and directed me there, after all, don't most 21 year old males think from below the waist?), but I can't remember which casino it was. So I stroll into the casino wearing my sneakers, Hawaiian nightmare shorts, and a t-shirt. Everywhere I see bright lights, flashy signs, and people wearing suits! I may lack fashion sense, but I don't lack a sense of not fitting in. I felt like a half-eaten walnut tossed into a bowl of macadamia nuts.

    I wander around looking for some form of gambling I could try. I really hadn't given much thought to how you actually go about gambling. I knew how poker and blackjack was played but not how you would go about betting real money. I remembered trying to play blackjack with a friend using poker chips to bet but neither of us could figure out how exactly it was done. Slot machines, the standard “gateway drug” to gambling was not even on my radar. I guess that Twilight Zone with the slot machine in it had far too much impact on my young brain. I can still hear that machine saying “Fraaaankliiin... Fraaankliin... Franklin!”. So here's a young kid with no gambling knowledge, no desire to play a slot machine, and way too shy to sit down at a regular table game. Where would such a person end up? Maybe you guessed it... The Wheel! Using the advanced cleverness of all my accumulated years of knowledge, I quickly devised a betting strategy to beat the wheel! I would observe the spins and when I felt it had been a long time since one of the numbers had hit I would start betting on that number! Genius! Nobody has ever thought of this before, right? Amazingly, it worked okay for a significant amount of time. I would lose some and win some, never going far in either direction. Of course I was only betting $1 each time. Eventually I set a loss limit on myself and quit while I was only down about $20.

    I slowly came to the realization that this wasn't really the gambling I though of as gambling. So I wandered around the tables, being way too intimidated to even ask how to play. I eventually wound up at what is probably the second simplest form of gambling at the tables. Roulette it was. But roulette is still pretty complicated with all those numbers and sections and stuff, let alone the fact that the payoffs for the various bets were a complete mystery to me. But... we have the nice, simple, and easy bets that you don't even have to know how to count! All you have to do is know the difference between black and red! So... after noticing that players were allowed to put real cash down on these simple colors and then win or lose, I saw my clear way to take advantage of this game. Applying the same “logic” as the wheel, I concluded that if it hit one color numerous times in a row, I could simply bet on the opposite color since it was obviously due to hit, right! Gawd I'm smart!

    Once again, I go a surprisingly long time without losing but without winning either. But eventually the real odds of the game starts to kick in and I slowly decline. I keep a close eye on my remaining cash, keenly aware that I need to keep enough cash in my pocket to buy enough gas to get me home, meaning I had to have enough for a full tank of gas... 8 dollars (did I mention this was in 1986?). The long streak of one color eventually comes and my big gambling day is over. It's late afternoon, I'm dead tired, haven't eaten since the night before, and I've only got enough cash for the gas to get home. The drive home is mostly a blur... I get home and eat one of my standard meals (microwave burrito or PBJ sandwich) and crash with visions in my head of beating the casino on my next trip. All I need is a little more money to start with... yeah, right. Luckily, a girlfriend got in the way of such plans... although, a serious gambling habit probably would have been cheaper.
     
  2. dfalk

    dfalk VIP Whale

    Joined:
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    HAHAHA

    That's was a good little story, thanks for sharing.
     
  3. Iamrice

    Iamrice High-Roller

    Joined:
    Sep 16, 2009
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    ATX
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    Great report/story.

    Thanks for posting it!
     
  4. tapakip

    tapakip Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Sep 10, 2007
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    Location:
    South of Boston
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    Enjoyed reading, thanks for the post!
     
  5. LucyR.

    LucyR. VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Feb 17, 2012
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    2,210
    Location:
    Los Angeles,CA.
    Trips to Las Vegas:
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    1986 year

    Hi, I am really surprised that you didn't choose to eat in Vegas because
    in those days the buffets were $2.99. Hot dogs were 2 for 99cents.
    Shrimp was 99cents.
    What about the free drinks for the gamblers? Yes, you were too young
    and innocent to be in sin city all by yourself.lol.

    My gambling sister and her boyfriend would go to Vegas on spur of the moment in those olden days of the 1980's. If they couldn't find a cheap
    room they would sleep in a hotel parking lot in Vegas.
    Cheapy rooms used to be $25. per night and you can still find them in Vegas.
    My whole family used to have fun gambling and eating at the buffets and
    the fun snacks at the hotels. We never had to pack snacks with us except sodas for the road.

    It is now 2012.... and frugal me doesn't like to pay $8.00 for coffee and a donut at Ballys.lol. Instead I make my own coffee and pack my own donuts
    for the hotel room.lol.
    I buy the $44.99....24hour buffet which is a great deal for me.
    I usually pay $39.00 per night in Vegas. I am not a gambler so I pay for
    hotel rooms.

    There are still a lot of deals in Vegas. It is still affordable for people on a budget.

    I enjoyed reading your Vegas trip report because you had a memorable experience. Yes, it is hard to remember the names of the beautiful hotels in
    Vegas because they all look alike with all of those bright lights at night. Lucy
     
  6. theotherone

    theotherone Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Aug 31, 2011
    Messages:
    530
    Location:
    Near Nashville, TN
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    6
    Retro report...I love it!

    It would have been cool if you had done better back them but at least you tried and had a good experience.
     
  7. TuneinTokyo

    TuneinTokyo High-Roller

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2010
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    Location:
    Richmond Ca.
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    15
    Awesome. Great report. I love the adventure aspect of it. I had a couple of those, though not related to casinos but road adventure. Thanks.
     
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