Corgimom: My First Vegas Trip

One of our readers, Corgimom, shares her first Vegas Trip experience…

In 1991, I was working handicapping horses (no lie) for a company that also did golf tournament videos. I was in my late 20s and had a knack for reading the forms and checking horses and conditions before the races. We had a pretty good system (a handicapping computer that counted points). I learned to do the same calculations system by hand so we didn’t have to run the risk of getting caught in the casino with the computer.

We stayed at the Maxim, where my boss was comped. The Maxim (now the Westin) was decidedly old-school, with a tiny casino. The Maxim seemed to be right out of the 70s – Rooms had round beds, mirrors on the ceiling, red velvet round couches, even a round, red and gold tiled shower located right in the middle of the suite.

Seeing my first slot machines on this trip, I was fascinated. I was amazed at the airport slots and the sounds I encountered making our way to baggage claim.

At the hotel, I gawked at all the slots jammed into the low-ceilinged casino. And at the people crowded into the narrow rows, all playing the slots. The Maxim’s crowd was very much older than the demographic I expected to find in Vegas. I expected businessmen in suits playing blackjack and smoking cigars. Instead, there were walkers, wheelchairs and oxygen tanks lined up behind slot machine stools.

During the day, we played the horses at the Hilton from 11:15 am until 6 pm or whenever the last race on the west coast ran).I had my head down doing the handicapping all day, but loved looking up at all the sports screens during breaks. My boss instructed me never to play the slots or any of the “carnival” table games, so I only played craps outside of the racing bets. He also placed many sports bets but didn’t share what the bets were. He frequently went to the window to place bets and came back with wads of cash from time to time.

Before we went to Vegas, he made me learn a craps system called the Silver Seven. It involves betting the “don’t”. He asked the pit boss for a $1000 marker for craps each night. We played almost exclusively at the Maxim. After a big win, he would pass me a $100 chip and I carried a handful of them around with me during the evening. I would cash them out at the cage later – he only took a few chips to the cage himself, since he didn’t want the casino to track his winnings by handing in a large amount. He never failed to cover his marker. He must have had a great rating since the pit boss always wrote us out comps for breakfast and lunch. Dinner was at the gourmet rooms (Michael’s at Barbary Coast, Bally’s Steakhouse).

I only had enough free time to walk around for an hour or so every day and was amazed at how big everything was – I remember trying to walk through Caesar’s and getting lost trying to find a way out. Of course, I made the rookie mistake of looking down the street and saying “Caesar’s doesn’t look that far – I can walk it in a few minutes”. I walked about four miles trying to find a cheap tee shirt for my boyfriend.

On our last night, my boss let me choose a casino to try my hand at craps, since he didn’t want me to attract attention as a new “don’t” player at the Maxim. I chose the Excalibur since it was brand new and the façade was particularly striking back then (before all the themed casinos opened up). I did okay at the Excal, bought in for $100, cashed out $400 in craps – all the winnings went to him, and he also purchased all the chips. At the end of the 3-day trip, he gave me a “share” of the winnings ($400). I didn’t have to pay a penny for anything while I was there.

Most close friends would never guess my past history with Vegas. I did actually produce golf tournaments for this company and it helped me get started as an event planner – producing at least four events each year in Vegas between 1998 and 2010. And now I have more than 50 Vegas trips under my belt.

This trip did NOT induce the Vegas obsession that I had for two decades. That obsession started on my 3rd trip to Vegas in 1994, on a trip I shared with my husband and my parents. I’ll save that story for another day.

[Cover Image: collage by Michael Movestro, using images by Gaming Museum | Mark Hillary]

Corgimom answered the call to be an Author For a Day at Vegas Bright. We’d like you to be an author for a day as well, so drop us an email. The subject is your first Vegas trip. So write aat least three paragraphs and include original pictures (if you have them, if not, we’ll dig some up). Don’t worry that your writing isn’t good enough, or that you’re not a grammarian, it’s ok, I’m an Editor…I got your back! -Michael Movestro, Editor in Chief

Corgimom

Sometimes blogger, frequent traveler. Always up for a trip to Vegas.