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How'd you get hooked?

Discussion in 'Non-Vegas Chat' started by Happygirl21, Jan 19, 2017.

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  1. MikeOPensacola

    MikeOPensacola El Jefe

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    In the 60s my Dad worked for a company that helped finance casinos (no, not the Teamsters...lol) and the first two projects that my Dad worked on were Caesars and Circus Circus. He took me out to Vegas when I was six years old for one of his business trips when he was working on Circus Circus. This was the first time I had been there. Fast forward to my high school years when he told me a lot of the stories about when he and his buddies would drive from Iowa to Vegas during their summer vacation during college to work at the strip hotels for the summer. His first summer he worked at the Trop, second summer was the Dunes and his last summer was at El Rancho Vegas, the first strip hotel. One summer he was Jack Benny's personal valet for half the summer when he was doing his show at the hotel my Dad was working at. I guess I kind of grew up with all the stories and couldn't wait to go someday. My Dad wasn't really a gambler but he passed on his fondness for the city and its endless characters to me. My first trip as an adult was while I was in the Navy when I was only 18. I lost a few hundred my first trip but Vegas was everything I thought it would be and its been a great ride from there. When my Dad was still alive I would call him from Vegas every time I visited. He really got a kick out of that and he'd drop another nugget of Las Vegas knowledge or nostalgia on me. I've lost more than I've won over the years but I've had some absolutely incredible times, met some really great people and have created memories that will stay with me for far longer than my ability to travel there. I felt right at home there the first time I visited and in retrospect I guess that is why I've kept going back all these years.

    :peace::beer:
     
    Annual CCA (Casino Collectibles Association) Show at South Point
    Long Overdue Stay At The Golden Nugget
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  2. Drewm1972

    Drewm1972 VIP Whale

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    I always was occasional low limit BJ player then couple years ago lost $800 at Aria playing BJ, slots etc which made me upset then when I walked over to bellagio I saw "Johnny depp ( looked just like him)" showed me how to baccarat which then sucked me into it now rest is history!!! Lol
     
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  3. mkhira2

    mkhira2 Tourist

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    My father knows his way around a deck of cards and taught me poker when I was young. My brother and I then hosted poker games at our parents home nearly every weekend while in high school. That led to short trips to the nearby Indian casino, which eventually led to a Vegas trip. I enjoy gambling in many forms and Vegas doesn't judge for it.
     
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  4. TDB Aces

    TDB Aces Tourist

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    Prior to 1994 I had never gambled or been to a casino. For some reason I had always wanted to visit Las Vegas. A friend and I went to Las Vegas in 1994 and stayed at Treasure Island. On the very first day I was playing video poker and got a royal flush. That hooked me.
     
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  5. Blonde_4_ever

    Blonde_4_ever LasVegas4ever.com

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    It totally did!:)
     
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  6. TIMSPEED

    TIMSPEED Money’s on the way, with CashNetUSA

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    I started gambling at 18, of course, in the Indian casinos...I think because my aunt played nickel slots/keno all the time, so I wanted to see what it was all about.
    At 21, I began hustling on the casino bus, riding it every day (4 hour stay at the casino, hour there, hour back) for $50...rolled that extra money up and then in 2008 when I finally gothe a decent job, began playing 25c 10/7 DB video poker...first weekend playing "pro" vp, I hit two royals (both $1000, one was DEALT!)
    from then on, I was hooked and studied all information I could get my hands on, on anything about "advantage gambling" (which I'm sorry to say, for a while including dice influencing, hahaha)
     
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  7. Camp Rusty

    Camp Rusty VIP Whale

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    I blame my mother......my mom was a bridge player and loved cards, my earliest recollections of learning math was playing blackjack with my mom. No splits or any strategy or anything, just adding up the cards and winning or losing.

    To this day I can only count to about 23.

    My mother again.......we went to England when I was about eleven to tour what I thought were endless castles and churches....most of the castles had these little casinos in them with slot macines that took the giant English pennies. I was mesmerized with the coin pusher machines and played them almost the entire time my mother walked around the castles, of which there seemed to be no end.

    I will still put a few bucks through a coin pusher machine whenever I see one.

    Hooked on Vegas......I was hooked before I ever went I guess, James Bond was always in a casino somewhere, Vegas has always been more of a verb and a state of mind to me than a physical location.
     
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  8. FullBoat

    FullBoat VIP Whale

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    I blame my folks. I got kicked off the floor while my mom was playing slots. I was only about 6mo at the time. Guess they were afraid I hadn't used up all my luck yet. ;)
     
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  9. Multifarious5

    Multifarious5 VIP Whale

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    Took a road trip with my mom, going from ABQ to Seattle, a few weeks shy of my 21st birthday. Recently divorced and tight on money, yet pursuing her Masters, my mom was trying to give me a great vacation, yet had to watch every penny, even though she never voiced it to me.

    Exhausted, we stayed a couple nights in Vegas due to cheap rooms, at the illustrious Circus Circus. Apparently they were low on visitors, so they bumped us up to a suite, no charge. Still circus circus, but being under 21, my previous few hotel stays had been at random BFE motels, due to my dad being a geologist. Free upgrade, even at CC? The first hook.

    Then, being a PITA teen (oh boy was I!) I was absolutely mesmerized by the lights, the sounds, the smell of the casino. I was under-aged by (literally) a few days, but tall...at just under 5'9. Mesmerized by the scene, I decided to go for it, press my luck,and play under-aged. What's the worst they could do if I play under-aged, kick me out? So I went for it.

    So, I played at CC... and played...and played.

    I never won much, but I loved the "clink, clink, clink!" of the coins hitting my plastic cup! I loved the way the sounds and lights erased all stress, all worry. I loved that it was an entirely different universe than the not-so-hot neighborhoods of Albuquerque that I had learned to call home.

    And I continued to play.

    Despite being under 21, CC loved me, and they never carded me once. That was my second instance of feellng like I "had" Vegas....and it felt good.

    Confidence up, after a few days of eluding CC security, being a renegade and playing under-aged for days, I figured "I've got this," and trotted over to the Riveria. I didn't even have time to put money in a machine before the Riveria security was on me for ID. I barely had "one silver dollar" and "I wasn't going to let them catch me", but I got the boot. I was HOOKED. How could one place let me play for days, yet another bust me 5 minutes in? I loved the dichotomy.

    7 years later.

    Vegas was a distant memory, but still simmered under the surface. I never won big. I lever lost big. But I was hooked on the lights, the smells, the sounds....and the fact that what flew at one place, didn't at another. I talked my mom into a redo trip. (And she doesn't gamble, she brought 60$ as a gambling budget for 5 days!)

    After some serious sleuthing for great deals, I found room and airfare for two, for 6 days at Mirage of $586 TOTAL for both for airfare and 5 nights. My mom had been on the fence on Vegas, but with those prices? She was in, we just split it 50/50.

    From there, I remembered how Vegas had loved me in the past at CC, then B slapped me at Riveria.

    But that was my hook, my link, my poison.

    I was out to win...not on money, but on the experience. I was legal now, and no on was stopping me. I took my $100 a day gambling budget to Mirage, and I went to town....finding the machines that let me stretch my buck the most. And I played, and I played...all on a $100 a day bank roll.

    Finally, that trip was done. $586 total cost (plus minor food) for 6 days, 5 nights at Mirage, airfare included. Epic vacation. Not a few weeks later, despite the "bargain of the century" package, Mirage was sending me 2 night comp offers, "Hooked" just turned to a love affair with Vegas.

    Now, I'm 40, and my love affairs with Vegas has cemented it into a bi-annual trip, or more. I'm older, wiser, less reckless, and more comfortable, but Vegas still is as complex and mysterious as she was when I was in my 20's. Her face might change, but her core never does...and like many other VMBers, I'm in love with Vegas, and all of her complexities!
     
    Last edited: Jan 28, 2017
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  10. dmr

    dmr Registered Abuser

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    LOL! :)
     
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  11. freez111

    freez111 Low-Roller

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    an excerpt from an "introduce yourself' post on Blondes pages a few years ago...kinda fits here on this thread, as i wait for trip 15 in a week!

    But no matter how you say it...HOOKED!

    "As a youngster in my late teens and early twenties in southwestern PA, I always loved to play poker with the guys and whenever a local Fire Company, Moose, Elk or some other lodge had a fund raising casino night…I was there! I played what they offered but the only real “gambling” I knew was football betting and the dog track at Wheeling Downs in the early 1980’s. You know…I did have a great–aunt that took me and my sister to bingo all the time and we played real fire hall bingo as elementary schoolers…maybe that’s where I got this gambling bug!!!???

    Well one day, just around the time I turned twenty-one, I received a direct mail mailer from “Bob Stupak’s Vegas World”, I was in awe!!! I showed all my friends and family what appeared to be an amazing trip offer for two persons for less than $200! It came with all of this; 3 days and 2 nights stay, $400 in casino action (I actually called them and asked them what they meant by casino action, it was $300 in promo chips and $100 in slot play) 2 show tickets, a dozen drink tickets and a dozen other freebies! All I had to do was pay the $198 and get there!!! Well, that Vegas World trip never happened, but the fire in my belly to be in Sin City was ignited! Gambling, bargains, drinking! I’m gonna love this town!

    So a few decades go by as I try to make a living and build a career! I scratched my gambling itches with one trip to AC, a Bahamas trip with a casino, a work ski trip to Lake Tahoe, the horse and dog tracks, those same horse and dog tracks after they started allowing poker rooms (yay!) and the occasional casino boat at the Florida ports. Along the way, after moving from PA (little gambling) to NC (ZERO gambling), came marriage and two kids.

    Then in 2003, I finally make my first guys trip to Las Vegas (woo hoo!) and what do I do???? Biggest rookie mistake ever…I blow 80% of my paltry bank roll in the first 4 hours of a 3 night trip! I was pretty much just hanging around the rest of the trip and needless to say my first Las Vegas experience was not a great one! BUT…, it did not deter me a bit…I said I’ll be back again…and I was!

    I went back the following year (with much better budgeting of funds and much better luck!) and then every year after that…sometimes twice a year! I have made most of my trips in January, because my work slows down then and I call it my “decompress in Las Vegas time”. I have been once during a summer with my wife. She doesn’t care to go again, she says she has been once and that is enough for her but she lets me take my Las Vegas trips and doesn’t give me much grief about it. It is a self-funded trip from local card game winnings; the rare lottery win and year-end bonus money…the college and retirement funds are safe!

    Of my 12 trips, 14 now, 7 have been solo…this is my preferred method. I have made 7 other trips with the guys, family and my spouse…they were fun but I would rather have this time to myself. I do what I want, spend what I want, drink and eat what and when I want. Other solo travelers out there know what I mean! I probably will only make solo trips in the future…at least until my bride is ready to go back again. Then we will go all high end and I’ll share with her all the fun, shock, and awe that I have experienced in the trips that I have made over the years.

    Most of my stays are 4 nights and I have stayed at the low end (Hooters, IP and Plaza) to mid-range places (Ballys, Luxor, Bills, Flamingo), with the nicest places being Paris and Planet Hollywood. I have not paid for a room since 2004; I just take advantage of what offers I do get, based on my low roller play ($400 to $500 per day). I have also not paid for any airfare since 2004; I have used reward points, converted hotel points and the occasional airline credit card points offer to cover my flights.

    I am one to take full advantage of a bargain or discount! In recent years, I have used both the LVA MRB and the ACG coupon books to some success. I also pre-buy Groupon and Rest.com certificates for possible use while I am there. I have rented a car on all but 3 of my trips and now feel that I have scouted and roamed around enough. On future trips, I will shuttle, cab, bus, UBER and monorail if I need to get away from the local walking areas.

    I am an incessant planner for my Las Vegas trip. I try not to book or start too early because the obsession takes me away from other important things here at home, but once my comped stay and airfare are booked…it’s ON!, no holds barred…I am in major planning mode! Counting down the days to the end of our busy work season and counting down the days to Vegas Decompress! (there is an app called Dreamdays for this countdown!) Oh by the way…as all of you major planners know…the plan goes to crap in the first 6 hours, then its freestyle the rest of the stay!

    I do enjoy a higher end steakhouse meal once per trip, usually eaten at the bar. I do imbibe a cocktail or twenty and will enjoy them my whole day as I walk from casino to casino. I enjoy them free while playing, bought with 2 for 1 coupons at casino bars, or stopping at the store for a cold tall one to walk with…I also spend time visiting a dive bar or two. Shout out to the Stage Door!

    I do not care for Blackjack, I am not much of a slot player, and most of my machine play is VP, Keno and the Craps machine. I do play roulette, I play lower end poker tournaments, some cash (1-2 NL) and alot of the carnival poker games…Let it Ride and Three Card Poker. Some success with both but they have to pay for all that neon from somewhere right? Guess you can say I “gamble” for that big hit win!

    I spend 75% of my time on the strip with a night downtown and an afternoon at an off strip property (Hard Rock, Ellis Island, Silverton, etc.) to round out the other 25% of the time."

    like i said HOOKED!, wish i could squeeze in a 2nd trip each and every year. Have been able to make a few jaunts to Harrahs Cherokee to scratch the itch!

    Freez
     
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  12. Jade88

    Jade88 High-Roller

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    My sister in law asked us if we wanted to go back in 03. We came in at night and i was in love instantly. So much to see and do. I won on a few slots and knew i wanted to come back to get married. It's been a great love affair ever since.
     
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  13. shokhead

    shokhead No big spender unless eating drinking having fun!

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    My dad taking me in the early/mid 60's. I hang around the pool all day and he played poker.
     
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