I work as a floorman at
a strip casino on graveyard. It is usually incredibly boring on the
graveyard shift because everyone goes to sleep around 5 A.M. and
doesn't wake up until the afternoon which spans the graveyard hours.
I was watching an elderly man and wife playing the Megabucks slot
machine for a while one night. After some time the man stands up,
talks to his wife and then walks to the bathroom. The wife sits in
his chair and starts playing the Megabucks. After a couple minutes I
see the husband walk out of the bathroom and towards the machine.
While he is walking back I hear a scream. I look over and the wife
is screaming because she'd hit the Megabucks. The jackpot was at
$11,000,000. The husband
runs over to her and stares at the machine, she had only been
playing $1 not the $3 needed to take home the 11 million. This 90
year old man turned around and tried to beat his wife with his fists
but he was so old and frail he wasn’t doing any damage and not for
lack of trying. I had to call security to break up the fight. The
security guard that rushed in to break the couple up later said that
the wife "didn't want to waste money, so she only played a dollar
per spin." They ended up
winning $1,000 and nobody was seriously hurt.
~John 1994
A $10 Mistake That Cost Hundreds
I was
dealing blackjack in the back of the casino next to the bar on a
really slow day. I had nothing to do so I would watch people play on
the slot machines while I wait for a player to sit down at my table.
I started watching this guy play on a slot machine next to me and he
was down to $10 in the machine. He stopped playing, tilted his chair
forward (so to save his spot) and then walked to the restrooms.
While he was in the bathroom another man walked over to the slot
machine, took the $10 out and walked away. The slot player came back
from the bathroom and when he saw that his $10 was gone he went
crazy. He ran to our pit and screamed at my floorman, “Help! I’ve
been mugged; call security!” My floorman hadn’t seen what happened
so he thought the guy actually did get mugged. He picked up the
phone, called security and security came running over. When the slot
player told the security guard what happened the guard gave him a
nasty look and said, “Wait; if you were stupid enough to leave your
money in a slot machine and go to the bathroom, what did you expect?
I can’t help you from your own stupidity.” The slot player was so
furious that he started punching the security guard in the face. He
got in a good first punch but then the security guard threw him down
and used a taser on him. The slot player ended up going to jail for
assault, all over $10. That cost him bail, a trip back to Las Vegas
for his court date and a hefty fine. That $10 mistake cost him a few
hundred dollars at least.~Heather 2008
One Of Many Las Vegas Bar Fights
I was dealing blackjack at a special event with a live band playing. It was a small room and the band usually played at that casino so all the dealers knew the band members. That night the band members brought some friends with them. It was a fun night; everyone was happy, drunk and winning. And the dealers were making good tips that night. I watched as this drunk guy approached one of the band members friends, Dan. They talked to each other like they knew each other so I went back to dealing. About 5 minutes later the drunk guy starts yelling at Dan, and then he quickly picked up a glass off of the bar and smashes it into Dan’s head splitting it open, blood gushing everywhere. Dan dropped his drink and started hitting this guy, punch after punch. They were thrown to the floor, fist fighting like crazy. Dan’s head was still gushing blood and the floor was soaked with it. Everyone at the tables stopped playing and we were all watching this with our mouths hanging open. The floorwoman rushed to the phone to call security. A couple minutes later security was running over to us and the guy who started it must have caught them out of the corner of his eye because he stopped fighting and started running. Half of the security guards went to Dan to help with the bleeding and the other half ran after the drunk guy. They caught him and stupidly brought him back to where Dan was. So of course Dan jumps up and tries to fight him again, but he didn’t go very far because he had 3 security guards holding him back. The entire time the guy who started it was yelling, “You’re not going to press charges, are you? You’re not going to? It’s only a small cut, don’t press charges.” Amazingly Dan didn’t press charges. I would have. I think everyone there would have pressed charges. We tried to talk him into pressing charges but he wouldn’t do it. Dan ended up getting 15 stitches in his head but he was ok. Because of all the blood, the casino had to close the bar and the tables, so we all got to go home early that night.
~Heather 2007
