I was hanging out with my girlfriend (Amanda) last night, around 9:00pm, and our friend Ariel came in and asked us if we wanted to join her and some of her friends on a trip to the casino. I had never been to a casino, let alone been presented the chance to gamble, so I immediately accepted the invitation. So myself, Amanda, Ariel, and three other friends (Spencer, Lucas, and Jacob) departed from Ellensburg and drove through Yakima, through Wapato (which is the smallest town I have ever driven through), and eventually wound up in Toppenish (another random town). The drive was a little sketchy because we were driving on a variety of backroads, one of which was called "N. Track Rd." Jacob and I are determined to "borrow" one of the road signs sometime before we graduate. On the way to the casino we drove past a drug deal in-action, which was interesting and ironic because the road where it went down was the same road that Spencer lives on. Spencer is from Yakima, so he was familiar with the area, so we just followed him during the drive.
The drive took about 50 min, not horrible. Once we got to the casino, it was pretty surreal. There were no parking spots except for this section that was covered in loose gravel, but we took what we could get and parked there. Walking into the casino, my nose was immediately attacked by the smells of cigarette smoke. It was tolerable, but not pleasant to say the least. I started with eleven dollars, the only cash I had in my wallet, and thought that it wasn't going to last me very long. I quickly went through my first five dollars in a matter of minutes and surely thought that I was going to make the drive back to Ellensburg with an empty wallet. There were some instances where I would win, nothing more than two dollars, but it was enough to keep my "gambling spirit" alive.
As the night progressed and my cash supply slowly dwindling down, I became more cautious. My strategy was to only play one cent slots, but play with a large amount of lines to increase my payout if I had won anything. Towards the back corner of the casino I noticed a "Wheel of Fortune" section, a game-show that I am very familiar with considering I would watch it with my mom on tv almost every night. I decided to press my luck and by that time I only had about four dollars left. I put it all in the machine and prayed that I would win something because I was betting forty cents per spin. After my fifth spin, I saw my machine light up (I had gotten the Bonus game). I was trying to listen to what the game was telling me, but I later found out that the machine was muted. The bonus game was fairly simple, you picked letters which corresponded with the puzzles shown and the more letters you found, the greater multiplier you received. After the puzzles were "solved", a large wheel on top of the machine would spin. On it were a variety of multipliers, ranging from 10x to 500x. Just like on the show, whatever the wheel lands on is the amount you get. The game decided to be very generous to me and decided to land on the 500x multiplier. I ended up turning my four dollars into nineteen after that one round. After cashing out, I proceeded to take five of those dollars and continued playing, ending up winning an additional twenty-six dollars.
I entered the casino with eleven dollars and left with forty. For my first time gambling, I thought that I did quite well. Ariel left the casino with twenty-five dollars (she was the only other person who won any money that night). Jacob, Spencer, and Lucas all lost money (Spencer and Lucas each losing thirty dollars, with Jacob losing forty). Amanda didn't gamble, but enjoyed watching Ariel and I win, as well as watching everyone else lose. On the drive back home (about 2am) we stopped at Miner's in Yakima. I celebrated my win with a large curly fry and then we all drove back to quaint, little Ellensburg.
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