We played a bit of the slot machines at first, playing a $5 in the machine and making $15 back. Not a bad investment. Although it was one of those complicated machines so neither of us had any idea what exactly we were doing on it. We took our $20 and went to the tables. My friend wanted to play some craps, which she had recently learned to play in Vegas. At one point she told me she was actually up several hundred dollars, so I thought this might be an interesting game to make some money on. (And before you say anything, I know that the house wins on most of the games, and the point of going to a casino is to gamble with money I can afford to lose. That’s why I had only brought $80 with me.)

By the time it was time for my friend to shoot (that’s the person who throws the dice in craps), I thought it might be fun to play as well. So I tossed in $60 and got some chips back. I played a few conservative bets and won a couple of them, but then my friend “seven’d” out, so it was my turn to shoot. And wow, did I ever shoot! Apparently I have the touch, because I was shooting for almost 30 minutes straight. The dude next to my friend was betting on the field (that’s a bunch of the “odd” numbers that aren’t supposed to come up as often), and I kept throwing those. Then I went on a roll and was throwing all sorts of 6s and 8s, another great way to make some money. And then the 7 came up so I was done. But wow, did I have a blast! I think I might have even doubled my money at that point, and instead of at least taking out my original $60, I kept playing.

Everyone else at the table couldn’t shoot to save their lives, and so I ended up losing all that money. But I had fun, as did my friend. We left the casino at this point and headed out to do some dancing.

A few hours later we came back to the casino and played some more craps. Yes, I know, we probably shouldn’t have done that, but it was such a great nice up to then that we wanted to play some more. If you haven’t played craps before, I highly recommend it because it’s a very social, nice game. The players are cheering for you because if you shoot the right numbers, they win. So there’s a little more comraderie than at most table games. Anyways, the same crew was working the table, so we were welcomed back with open arms. I dropped $50, and ended up making $65. Again I had the chance to shoot, and was even MORE on fire than the first time. There were a few guys down at the other end of the table who must have made some mad money off me because one of them gave me a $5 tip when we were all done. It looked like they were betting all the 6s and 8s again, with odds, which means you earn more money each time it comes up.

All in all I lost about $40 total, which I think isn’t bad. Unfortunately that last session was cut short as the crew had to close the table at 3:30am, so I guess it’s not a bad thing, since I was up $15 on that go-around. I won’t tell you what my friend lost, as I know it was a lot, BUT, she knew she probably would end up losing it all, and so that made it okay. While it was a chunk of cash, it wasn’t her mortgage payment, or the last few hundred dollars in her bank account. It was her play money, the money that is annoying to lose, but isn’t a matter of life or death if she lost it. That’s the way you’re supposed to gamble. You must go with money that you can afford to lose, because chances are, you are going to lose it. The cliche is definitely true: the house always wins. But if you go with your fun money, then you don’t mind it so much, and you might even have a bit of fun in the process.

This is an official post from Adventures in Debt.

But can you believe that I’ve actually not been to the library yet? That’s because I borrowed some books from my sister’s mother in law. She had the next books on my Book List, so I was able to borrow them. But they are hardcovers, which means they’re a little difficult to handle on the subway. Paperbacks are the ideal, or at the most, a softcover large book. Hardcovers though, are very tricky to deal with.

Right now I’m on the last of the borrowed books, which means it’s time I take advantage of the freebie books from my local library. I rediscovered it about 10 years ago, and have been having fun ever since. As a teenager I lived at the library, heck, my sister even worked there! But university life sucked the “fun reading” out of me as I was a literature student, which meant I was always reading some book for class. It was hard to then pick up a “fun” book, you know? So I stopped reading as much. Sure I read the odd book here and there, but nothing hard core.

Then a friend of mine a number of years ago reminded me of the library, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I tend to browse the sci-fi and mystery sections for paperbacks. I don’t even really look at the title or author much anymore. I read the back, and if the synopsis sounds mildly interesting, then I’ll grab it. My shelf is looking quite bare right now, and as I finish off the last hardcover book in my borrowed books, it’s definitely time I truck my butt on over there and pick up something. Perhaps tonight, but definitely tomorrow. Wonder what I’ll find there? Aaah, that’s the joy of the library.

This is an official post from Adventures in Debt.