My first trip to Las Vegas

My first trip to Las Vegas very nearly never happened! A few of my friends had booked up and invited me to go with them so I said sure why not, I was 22/23 at the time. The day before I was due to leave I had to go on a drive to Austria so obviously we had less than 24 hours to do the round trip. We must have left around 5a.m. on the Monday morning and arrived in Austria around 8 hours later so thats 2p.m. local time just in time before the banks closed. We would go to Salzburg as that is probably the closest place in Austria to get to, if it was the other side of Austria you could never get there in 8 hours! It may seem like 8 hours is not enough time taking into account catching a ferry also, but the distance is 600 miles and as soon as you are on the continent you drive as fast as you like. At worst they will stop you and fine you, you cant get points on your license! Hitting speeds of 130-150mph for long periods and you get there in no time!

When we get back to Calais first we had a run in with the French police about having a boot full of money which we had reciepts for luckily. Nowadays you simply cannot have large sums of money and hope to keep them if stopped by any police force in the world. Also the weather was rough so the ferry was not crossing, it soon calmed down enough and we managed to catch it and drive back to London. I arrive home at 5a.m. and have two hours to pack my case and get ready and leave for the airport. Not ideal but plenty of time. I find my suitcase and try and open it but the combination is locked, I can't remember the code and try all kinds of numbers that won't work. The clock is against me so i decide to start from 000 and work my way up, I have nearly done every combination when I lose my head. I throw the suitcase against the wall and start throwing all my clothes down the stairs. I regroup and decide to start over one last time, I had gone from 000 to 900 and felt gutted. I carried on then on the LAST combination 999 it opened, naturally that is when I remembered changing it to 999!

I catch the plane with no more setbacks and am looking forward to visiting america again (had previously been to California 3 times and New York once). I had no idea what to expect but was very excited and did not sleep on the plane. There was a connecting flight to catch which took a few more hours to catch but eventually I arrive in Las Vegas. The first thing I notice are slot machines everywhere in the airport, then when we caught a cab to the hotel I was amazed at the sheer size of everything.

I throw my case in my room then headed straight for the MGM with my friends, I had now been around 48 hours with no sleep. I see all the fancy cars you can win on the slot machines and throw $100 bill in one, I last for 8 hours with the same money. My friends had long left me when finally after around 55 hours of no sleep I felt tired. I cashed out after EIGHT hours around $100 up. Then went back to my hotel and went to sleep.

I woke up after a few hours and hit a few black jack tables and made around $2000. Then we headed for the pool where we was staying, my friends said it was an unlucky casino to gamble in and they never won there. I had $10000 for around 10 days and had already made $2000, easy money! Then I decide I will prove my friends wrong and slip off and put $100 on red. (Now this is where this blog entry gets a bit exciting!) It came on black, so i decide I can put $200 on red and win, again black. I have no money left so go up to my room and bring a few thousand back, $400 on red.,....black, $800 on red.........black, $1600 on red.....AGAIN black. I am now $3100 down and go back to my room to get MORE money, I come back down put $3200 on red and once again black comes in. I am now down $6300 and have around $6000 left for 9 days, my friends have now caught up with me and I ask one if he will loan me if i put the money on red and it doesn't come in. I say no pressure if you say no I will cut my losses. He says no problem, and i put the last $6000 on red......BLACK....

Welcome to Las Vegas, yet another moron who does all his money on the first day, $10000 down that easily. I became just another Vegas statistic! I still went on and managed to have a great trip even if it was too much gambling orientated. I wish I played poker back then! That ladies and gentlemen is the first day I ever spent in Las Vegas, 24 hours and Vegas drew the addict out of me onto the tables!