- We rented a car and decided to drive to casinos we'd never been to before, mostly off the strip. It was a Friday, and Mike and I were amazed at how many locals we saw waiting in huge lines to cash their paychecks at the casinos' cashiers.
- Paul Huyser and his family just happened to be going to Vegas for a wedding the same time Mike and I were there, so we met up with him and played blackjack for a while.
- With about two hours before we had to catch our flight home, Mike was not-surprisingly down several thousand dollars. There was no way he could win it all back at the crap table, so I suggested we just go get some ice cream. We were at the new Bellagio.
So before we get to the ice cream parlor, Mike says he'd like to play some dollar slots. I was done gambling for the trip, so I sat next to him and watched.
He was playing three coins at a time, the machine's max. On his sixth spin, a combination came up that looked like it should pay something: a 7 and two special symbols. But the machine made no noise. We scanned the payout table looking for a winner, but couldn't find the combination. Then I noticed that the service light had come on on the top of the machine. I thought maybe Mike had accidentally hit the CHANGE button, and when the attendant came over I thought she was going to ask Mike what he wanted.
Instead she said, "You hit a big one. $15,000."
It turns out each of the special symbols was a wild card that multiplied the payoff by ten. Three "natural" 7s paid $150.00, so the first wild card made Mike's payoff $1,500, and the second made it $15,000.
$15,000. FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS. On a slot. There are people who go to Vegas and all they do is play slots. And they never hit something like that. Mike's probably played only a couple hours worth of slots his whole life. $15,000. It could have easily been me; and Sherry and I had just talked ourselves out of buying a new car 'cause we couldn't afford it.
Anyway, there you go. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever witnessed in Vegas. And we were both kind of dumbfounded by it. I'm still having trouble believing it, and I was there.
