Gambling
Las Vegas! It probably speaks to everybody’s imagination. That’s why it got listed on my bucket list quite some time ago. For many years we have been talking with friends to go to Las Vegas one day, but it never became concrete so far. Doing a roadtrip in Colorado, Utah and Arizona made it come so close, that we decided to go for it and spend a day in Las Vegas.
We had the chance to visit casino’s in other countries before and gambled during those moments. The very first time I really enjoyed it, however, during sequential opportunities I didn’t anymore. It’s simple, you can’t systematically beat the bank, so it always results in loosing your money. However, being in Las Vegas, I do think you can’t avoid gambling. We played on some slots and roulette. The minimum bet for roulette tables is 25$. (you also have tables of 50$ or 100$). It started with some wins and instead of stopping, we played till our (predefined) budget was gone. At 25$ per bet it goes really quickly! Certainly if you are not experienced and have no strategy except putting some money on the simple options like odd/even, red/black or first 12.
We enjoyed way more observing people. We have seen people loosing hundreds of dollars in a couple of minutes. We have seen how their mood changed from euphoric to frustrated in a couple of minutes. While observing we realised that you can increase your odds by building up experience and have a strategy. On the black jack table we even saw people have a small card with what where the best options trying to beat the bank.
On roulette the experienced people divide their bet on almost the entire field. They put on single numbers, on 4 numbers and many more options. It quickly adds up to a couple of hundred of dollars per bet, but with this strategy you can also increase chances to win and keep on playing, trying to gain… But let it be clear that our advise is to have some fun, stick to your predefined budget and then walk away, resisting the feeling of willing to gain back your money!