Let’s go back in time for a minute, to the year 19fj2w3ntesd – whoops, sorry, my fingers slipped on the keyboard. Anyway, needless to say, it was a time before most video slot machines, before jumbo jackpots on Black Widow, before huge handpays on Golden Goddess, before big bonuses on Huff N’ Puff… A simpler time, a kinder time, a time when the classic three-reel machine reigned supreme…
I was only 18 years old when I first gambled in Las Vegas, and definitely not the high-roller I am today. Back then, when I visited Caesars Palace for the first time, I didn’t have a luxury suite like the one they give me nowadays. Back then, they didn’t really even ID anyone, either. I walked in, and I was already home free. But the thrill was cut short pretty quickly when I dumped some money into Triple Diamond, and got back nothing in return – no serious wins, no jackpots, nothing. Very different from this more recent Triple Diamond video.
It would be a couple more years until I hit my first actual jackpot at age 20, also at Caesars. I bet just $10 (which was worth quite a bit more at the time than it is now – thanks, inflation), and can you imagine my shock in winning a full $1,500 for the very first time, before I was even legal? It sounds strange by today’s standards, but they paid me out in cash, and again, they didn’t even ask for my ID, thank goodness. This was on Double Diamond, by the way, but an older version – not like this one that you’ve seen me play more recently.
And that was how I did it for some time – no ID, a budget of only about $1,000 or $2,000 per session, and mostly losses. It was also quite the trek for me to get from my home in Colorado all the way to Las Vegas on limited means. But finally, still before I was 21, casinos (with slot machines) eventually opened up in Colorado, so this is where I would usually go to play. At first, the max bets offered here (just $5) were fine for my level of play. But over the next 19 years, as my businesses grew (and so did my gambling budget), the $5 max became pretty unexciting, at least until they raised these limits.
Indeed, any of the very early gambling I did was a far cry from the gambling I do today – back then, no $100 spins on Sky Rider, no $500 spins on Top Dollar, and certainly, never any $1,000 spins on Cleopatra! Of course, I’ll always cherish my early casino days, but, if it wasn’t obvious enough already, I much prefer my current gambling situation, which affords me the opportunity to play with much bigger bets, for much bigger wins.
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