Friday, March 28, 2008

You Pay Your Money and You Take Your Chances

The first time I ever went into a casino was in 1999 when I went on the cruise. I don't want tell you how old I was then. Suffice to say I was very legal.

As much as I enjoyed the casino, my budget was much tighter than the friend who took me on the cruise. Each night when I had piddled away my allotment on the slot machines, I'd wander over and watch her play with her one armed bandit.

"C! You're up $500! Cash out! Cash out!"

"I can't. The jackpot on this machine is $50,000. I will play my initial $20 until it's gone or until I've won the jackpot".

And so it went every night. Some nights her $20 lasted 10 minutes and some nights it lasted hours. She never hit the jackpot. I almost peed my pants the night my $5 turned into $90. Which I cashed out.

C stopped by today for a Scrabble game. She is staying tonight at a casino in Waterloo and getting up in the morning to finish the drive to Milwaukee. Waterloo is not a halfway point between here and Milwaukee, but whatever, it has the most convenient casino. She has to return the rental car to the Milwaukee airport tomorrow and finish her ill fated journey.

While we were squabbling, I mean playing Scrabble, I mentioned that I'd picked up lottery tickets today. She wanted to know the size of the jackpot. She wondered if she missed something? Is the jackpot up to 100 million?

I'm throwing this out to the universe -- I would pee my pants if I won a paltry $200,000.

2 comments:

Gwen said...

If I won $20 I'd pee my pants.

Hannita said...

back in the early 80's i had a great aunt that lived in vegas and we would have to visit her from time to time. it was seriously scarring for a child to be among all the sadness of vegas. i have no desire to gamble. ever. or go to vegas.