There’s a gambling story that crops up every now and again about a man in Las Vegas and we thought it had a good moral to it. Would you think you’d lost half a million or just a tenner?
Here’s the story –
A young gentleman and his wife were on honeymoon in Las Vegas and were both keen roulette players. Having saved up $5,000 to have a week of betting and living a decent life in the Nevada desert they went about their leisure activity with great haste and after the first three nights were flat out broke in terms of their betting bank. They had a few dollars left to enjoy food and drink and the wife being the reasonable one stated that they spend the rest of the week enjoying more simple pleasures. (If they exist in Vegas!!)
On the fourth day the groom found a ten dollar chip on the floor of his hotel room and whilst his new found wife was showering he decided to place a bet for the fun of it. Entering the floor he thought of his hotel room number where by his wife was still showering. Number 12.
He placed $10 on number 12 on the first roulette table he came across and to his surprise won $360. He attracted a lot of attention with that win and in the excitement of it all let the number ride. $360 on number 12.
It came in again!
He now had $12,960 in his possession. Amazing he thought. The pit boss came over and told the gentleman that he’d not be able to let it ride again as the table limit would be exceeded so he’d need to move on. Unable to find a table that would stand his bet the gentleman moved on to another casino further on down the strip.
He was still receiving a lot of attention and assumed that word had got out that he’d won a lot from a small stake of $10.
Arriving at the next casino he managed to find a table that would accept a stake of $12,960 on the one number. He stuck with his number and went with 12.
It came in again.
He now had $466,560 in his hand in chips. He’d had loads of attention before he walked in but now he was the centre of attention.
He wanted to ride it again.
The casino pit bosses pulled together and looked at the man. At this point they had heard of how he’d come into so much money and decided to let the bet stand on number 12.
The wheel spun with the potential of the casino having to pay this man over $16 million should it come in. You can hear the ball dropping from here…
clink…clink…clink…clink… “number 17”
He’d lost the lot.
Absolutely gutted he had to walk back to the hotel and explain to his new wife where he’d been all night.
Walking back to the hotel he couldn’t believe how many people were still staring at him. How did so many people know that he’d won so much money but come away with nothing?
He arrived back to the hotel room and told his wife he was sorry for having been so long.
She asked where he’d gone?
“I found some money and thought I’d have a spin on the roulette whilst you showered,” he said.
“How much did you lose?” she asked.
“Oh, only $10” he replied.
“Oh that’s okay,” she replied,
“I hope you didn’t lose that $10 in your green dressing gown though, that would be shameful.”
And there you have it. Shameful that he was wearing a green dressing gown or that he lost nearly half a million dollars?
The moral of the story here is that it doesn’t matter how much you’ve won make sure you keep yourself in reality and check yourself. Once we make a profit let’s not decide to give it all back! Especially when we’re still in our dressing gowns!!
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