Gambling and working as a dealer

I was a gambler living in Vegas. I was a craps dealer at the same time. Gambling took down a lot of people I knew in Vegas. I had rules I followed.

1 Pay all bills first. Rent, car, food, insurance and such

2 Never chase lost money. I went into the casino with cash, drivers license, and social security card. The social security card was needed to get paid out more than $1199 on slot machines. I left the atm card and credit cards at home. If I lost I walked out just short the money I risked. It was too easy to get more money out of an atm and continue to lose.

3 Only 1 alcohol drink. The rest was water or pop. Gamble sober

I would play craps, blackjack and slots. Craps was a $100 shot. Blackjack had a $200 bankroll. Slots were $100 bankroll playing $5 machines

I would never take more than $300 in at any one time.

I learned to do a quick count as a dealer. When the cards went house favor I stopped until the next shuffle. $15 initial bet press to $25 if I won. Take a $25 win. Then press to $50. Take a $50 win, press the next win to $100. Keep ratcheting up as long as I won. What I did soon as I could was take the money I invested off the table. It is called rat holing. Once I had the seed money I would play until I got to $500. At $500 I would walk away a winner. If I had more than $500 I’d play the excess. I would often lose very fast, but I played to win if the table turned player favor.

Craps I played like the table would go crazy in my favor. I started betting $22 inside. 5,6,8,9. Press every other time the inside numbers hit. 5 times I won over $10,000 in 12 years. Craps is a fun game when the table is hot. Normally I lost. Just the times I won would make up for the times I lost.

Back in the 90’s the high limits slots were at 99% payback. I’d try 10 times. I won some pretty good money on these. Best was a $30K win. It would let me take home a few $100 pretty often.

I also played the video poker machines at the stores and gas stations. Just quick attempt to win enough to get back what I paid for gas or groceries. Lots of people did this.

I am up from my time in Vegas. I was lucky. I won more than I started with. Now away from Vegas I rarely gamble.