Gambling Fun

Gary and I went to West Wendover Nevada for a four day gambling trip. We went with two other couples from Hardin. One is our neighbor. We had a great time and had alot of fun. We came home with more money than we started with. Not a great lot but it was more. Made alot of rookie mistakes but we learned.


We left here Saturday morning, we had some running around Billings to do before getting to the airport. We ate breakfast at the Muzzleloader, wanted to have a good filling meal as we would be eating a late supper. Our flight left Billings at 2:00 pm and we had to check in 90 minutes before. We parked in long term parking and waited for our friends at the ticket counter. We checked in at the airport, got our seat assignments. Gary and I both had aisle seats. The flight left Billings at 2:00 and we arrived in Wendover at 3:30. On the plane they raffled off some coupons for a free buffet and then we all played for the bag of bucks. You write your seat number on a dollar bill. Once they gather all the bucks, they will then draw one and if your seat number is called, you win the bag of bucks. None of us were lucky. We were losing before we landed.


We arrived in Wendover, got off the plane on the the bus to our hotel. There are three huge casinos, Montego Bay, The Peppermill and The Rainbow. We stayed at The Peppermill. That is the one in the middle. Besides you pay $10 more per person to stay at the Montego Bay. We got checked into our hotel. Got our packet, we each got coupons for gambling, meals, a free cocktail and the gift shop. We also got a players card and instructions for leaving. We didn't have to pick up our luggage, it was delivered to our room. We did go up to the room to check it out and also to find it. You have to get on the right elevator as these hotels have wings. With nothing to do but gamble, we walked around to check it out.


The first night Gary didn't play the machines. When he found out he could bet on sports,he was getting all the information he needed to bet on the football games. I got my instructions on how to play the penny machines. Before I would always lose my money in nothing flat on those machines. I had better luck with the poker machines. The first night I played my original $20 the whole night.


Sunday we decided to go to The Rainbow casino. We did play some of the machines earlier in the morning, but I was losing so I quit playing. Gary paced his bets on the football games. I also betted on the games. I had no clue what I was doing anyway, so why not. We went to the Rainbow, Gary found the area with the sports on and he was able to watch his games. I was playing the machines. My luck changed here at the Rainbow. I won $50 on one machine,so I cashed out and went to a different one. After about two hours I decided to give it one more try. I put $10 in a machine. It didn't take long when I cashed out with $140. I had hit some wilds on a bet that I won $136 worth of credits. That was good enough for me, so I cashed out. I had won smaller amounts here and there all day long. We didn't gamble all day and night, we did take breaks. The casinos are close enough that you can walk, there was a Burger King in between, so we would go there for a coke and just get out of the casino for a while. We went back and gambled some more. I won $60 more on a machine. We ate dinner at the Steakhouse. We had a coupon for buy one entree and get the other one free up to $30. We finished watching the football games for the night. We didn't win anything on football.


Monday we decided to go to Montego Bay to gamble. Gary and I both bet on the NBA games. This time Gary found out how to bet from some of his sports buddies. I bet on one game and he bet on another. We both did all right during the day. Our luck changed for the better during the evening. Our luck was better at the Rainbow, so we decided to go back there. Sure enough after playing the machines I cashed out with $100. I could have won more but we were getting ready to eat. This was our last night together so we all ate the buffet at the Rainbow. It is called the Rainforest buffet and they have stuffed parrots in trees. You get the sounds like you would in a rainforest. Mom and I had stayed at this casino when we were coming home from Napa and ate the buffet.

After supper Gary and I made our way back to Montego Bay. Since we placed our NBA bets there if we won we had to redeem there. Lesson learned, place your bets at the casino where you are staying. I won on my bet $38. Gary's game was the late one. We decided that since this is our last night that we would splurge on gambling and play the $1 machines. First we found the penny slot machines. We only played the ones with 9 lines. We both won, I won $50 and Gary won $60. We also got our free cocktail at Montego. This was one of the coupons we had, I had a margarita, Gary had a Jack & coke.

Since his NBA game was still going on and it was getting late, after 11:00 pm we decided to play our $1 machine. We found the slot machines with 9 lines. We both put in $20 because we would have played it anyway. I cashed out with $70 and Gary cashed out with $60. Gary said that he could check his ticket in the morning. Our flight didn't leave until noon anyway and we could get on the shuttle. If he didn't win then it was ok.

Tuesday morning arrived. Remember I told you that we each got those player cards. Gary never did put his in the machines. I did and I earned enough points that our breakfast was free. Nothing in the paperwork said that these were could towards meals and the gift shop. We did get a free meal out of it. We finished packing, checked our luggage in at the hotel. They took the luggage up to the airport for us. With time to waste, played some more machines. We didn't have any luck. We are just not morning gamblers. Soon it was announced that the bus arrived to take us to the airport.

Arrived at the airport and it took them a while to get all of us through security. First you checked in and the lady would check your names off her list. She had a hard time finding names, but they weren't listed in alphabetical order. Then we went through the security and we had about an hour wait before we could board the plane. The other couple that wen with us stayed at the Rainbow. It was a long time before we saw them at the airport, we were getting worried that they didn't get on the bus. They got to the airport just in time. As soon as they went through security we started boarding. They were the last ones at the airport, but the first ones on the plane.

Our flight left at noon and we landed in Billings at 1:00 pm. Since we were 20 minutes early we had to wait on the runway before getting to the gate. There was one man sitting in front of me and didn't like the waiting. He was grumbling about it. We got home in Hardin around 3:00.

We both had such a good time that Gary really wants to do this trip again next year. I was worried that he would have been bored, but once he found out he could bet on the games he was in heaven. Since our return he has been watching and practicing on the football and basketball games.