A Far Too Common Event For VP Players
Earlier tonight on vpFREE I read about a poster who calls herself "misscraps" and her latest trip up to Reno. She's a LV local who obviously moved there after retirement expecting to do what they all expect to do--use the casinos as their own personal ATM's while expecting all "the others" to keep the machines filled up for her. I happen to enjoy most of her reports because she regularly writes about her restaurant and show experiences, and isn't too heavy on her gambling. But this time she was, and now I see why she's a little reluctant to say so at times....
If you've read vpFREE over the years, you'd know that while misscraps understands advantage play but rarely follows its concept to the letter, she's hardly an amateur. Yet, one might most accurately say that she never saw a slot or vp machine she wouldnt't play if she had the time.
On her latest trip report she talks of going up to Atlantis for a night and then over to Harrahs Tahoe (where we just were) for one night. She enjoyed Atlantis thoroughly as it was her first visit there, AND she won about $9600 thanks to a $9800+ progressive ten-coin dollar RF she hit. Even I have to say "not bad". But then came Harrahs.
She interestingly explained how she was showered by the host with a 2600 sq. ft. super suite of some sort (and this is for one night, mind you) a free meal at the gourmet restaurant, a generous $800 in free-play, and probably more attention & smiles than she could handle--all because she said she lost quite a bit there last time, along with losing her purse (which was subsequently found but ransacked).
So armed with that cool $9600 won from Atlantis along with her starting bankroll of $5000, she confidently attacked the very poor paytables of Harrahs--and quickly hit another dollar $4000 royal flush! The stuff dreams are made of, right? I mean, I seasonally live in Southern Nevada myself now, and I can attest to how great it feels to head up north, take them for tens of thousands of dollars, and bring it back down....especially if you drive.
HOWEVER....the rest of the story makes me very thankful I'm who I am instead of just another pathological gambler who just can't control their play and are truly unable to play intelligently by setting win goals and sticking to them. In one of the sickest displays of problem gambling I've read about in a while (and believe me, this and WORSE happens often to many who will never write about it, from my own experience as an AP as well as from talking to hundreds of players in person) IN THAT ONE SINGLE NIGHT SHE LOST EVERY DOLLAR WON AT ATLANTIS ALONG WITH HER $5000!
First, kudos to the host for building misscraps'confidence level up enough so that she might have fell for the ol' host "you owe me, so PLAY" scheme. Absolutely brilliant. But can you just IMAGINE the amount of gambling sickness and uncontrollable need for action it took to waste away that amount of money in that amount of time? I'll bet she stayed up most of the night accomplishing that feat, and I'll also bet she and the hubby argued on the plane ride home. Such a wonderful trip, wouldn't you say?
As our soon-to-be-replaced President likes to say after embarrassing himself time and again with his mouth, please learn something from this "teachable moment".
