My very first encounter of Las Vegas was many years ago, blimey, it must be at least thirty years ago, how time flies. Sorry, I digressed a little there. Now where was I? Oh yes, I was in my twenties and together with a small party, we were on a fly-drive holiday/vacation when we descended on Las Vegas. My wife was with me but had absolutely no intention of gambling and just wanted to see her beloved Elvis or at least someone else she idolized. Needless to say, Elvis wasn’t to be found so had to settle for Glen Campbell another of her idols. I on the other hand was bedazzled by the bright lights and the buzz of the Casino’s. I just wanted to get into the action. You see, coming from the UK there was absolutely nothing like it and thirty years later there still isn’t.  The nearest was the penny arcades and the bright lights of Blackpool, a far cry from the glitzy Vegas.

Having taken in the Glen Campbell show, it was now my turn It was time to tour the Casino’s. I had an agreement with my wife (who apart from playing bingo hated gambling) that I would have a budget to gamble with and when it’s gone, we are gone.

Walking through the doors of the first Casino we ventured into what was a jaw dropping experience. The flashing lights and clinking of coins dropping when someone had a win on the slots, it was awesome to see hundreds of people feeding these hungry machines as if there was no tomorrow. Each and every one of them hoping to win the jackpot and drive away with their pockets stuffed with cash in the brand new Corvette or motorcycle suspended above just about every row of slots. Mindful of my budget, I resisted playing the slots.  Somewhere in the Casino you could hear cheers as someone rolled the dice playing Craps.  Wow! Welcome to Vegas!

Wondering round the Casino to the more sedate area where the table games of Black Jack and Roulette were being played, it wasn’t long before we were being offered free cocktails and coupons, even free meals. Anything to keep us in the Casino.

I together with my wife watched as people played Roulette, never having played before I was keen to understand the game. My wife on the other hand was keen to leave. It just wasn’t her cup of tea! Okay I said, lets move on, there are so many other Casino’s to visit. Gathering together the rest of our party, I left that Casino without spending a dime!  As we left the Casino and it’s air conditioned building, the stark contrast of the warm desert air was another experience never to be forgotten, the heat rising up from the pavements /sidewalks just hit you, even though it was around 11.00 p.m. it was great.

We carried on walking down the strip for a while all brimming with excitement, the bright and colourful flashing lights, the people and the warm evening just made it perfect. Then we came across the “Stardust” casino I am not sure if it is still there, but this turned out to be our favourite. The ambience of the place was just right, not so noisy as the previous one but equally as exciting and this time, as we walked into the Casino I made straight for the Roulette tables. I wanted to play Roulette. I watched for a while as I had done in the previous Casino and then decided to give it a go.

Nervously I placed my low denomination chips on the table, choosing four favourite numbers and red or black, not sure which, but surprisingly, I won! wow! my very first bet at a live Roulette table and in Las Vegas at that. I say it again I won! Beginners luck I know, but it happened again and then again. I couldn’t believe it. I played the table still with the small chips, for around an hour - hour and a half and ended up winning more than three times what I started with. Not only that, whilst playing, some guy came up to me and said “I have been watching you, I like your system”  lol system? I had no system, it was pure intuition and luck. I just grinned and said thank you.

Taking a break from the tables, we wondered into a seated lounge area, there was a big screen on the wall displaying a board of numbers and every few seconds or so, one of the numbers lit up, this was “Keno” a game somewhat similar to Bingo except that you mark a card with your chosen numbers on., nowadays, it would be likened more to the lottery. The card is numbered 1 through to 80 and you select from between 4 and 10 numbers. The more numbers you pick that are correct, the better your winnings. This was the perfect game for my wife, as she loved her Bingo and yep, you guessed it, we spent the next hour or more playing Keno.

Mind you, I didn’t mind, I had a scantily dressed cocktail waitress keeping me, I mean us :)  topped up!

Sooner or later, we began to feel hungry, we had been out for quite some hours and had not eaten a thing but the answer was at hand - we had a voucher book which allowed us to eat free at the Casino - amazing, these guys think of everything to keep you in their casino. We sat down and enjoyed our free meal whilst dropping a few coins into some slots in the restaurant, but having eaten we suddenly felt tired. It was time to go to bed - at 4.30a.m.!

My first visit to a Las Vegas Casino had to come to an end and what a fun filled and enjoyable experience it was too. We even left the Casino with more money than we went in with, which in reality is something I never expected. If I am honest, I put this down to my wife’s insistence that we only take a limited amount of funds with us to the Casino and the resulting cautious betting. This lesson has stayed with me throughout the years and subsequent visits to Las Vegas have also resulted in enjoyment to the full. You only have to take a short walk around the side streets of Las Vegas to find pawnbrokers displaying items that people have cashed in to fund betting when chasing losses. Don’t let this be you.

We still had one more night to go in Vegas before our itinerary would take us on to Yosemite and beyond. We had already been to the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam on our way here. We were on a holiday of a lifetime and Las Vegas took centre stage in my book.

Viva Las Vegas

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Graham Maddison
Copyright © Graham Maddison-2009