Relationships

Losing a Large Win in Las Vegas Could Put a Riff in Any Relationship

Dismissing another person’s opinion may end up biting you in the butt

My first and only trip to Las Vegas was with my soon-to-be second husband in the 1970s. It would turn out to be one of my more memorable adventures, with a unpleasant surprises.

As a successful owner of a heating and air-conditioning company, he earned many perks due to high sales — one of them being this trip. Visiting a casino filled me with excitement as it was only a dream I never expected to come true.

Everything about this trip was an adventure for me, from seeing the hotels and casinos in the middle of a huge desert viewed from the plane to the amazing shows, slot machines in all the lobbies and bathrooms, and the Keno games we played at the tables in the restaurants.

Keno — our favorite game

All we had to do was pick eight numbers out of 80 and write them on scorecards, which were passed out by the servers during breakfast. Every hour or so, cards would be gathered, then the spinner would start pulling balls out of a drum.

The object of the game was to match some of the numbers with the ones pulled. The more matching numbers a person had, the higher the prize. As the eight balls are chosen, they are displayed on a large lit-up board.

I quickly developed a personal style of betting, even though it seemed to annoy my fiance, for reasons unknown. I’m a cautious person, and he’s a “throw caution to the wind” type of guy. He would pick his eight random numbers, and I would choose my eight favorite numbers each day.

My theory was that if I remained static, some numbers would hit eventually. I knew my theory worked in other circumstances, so there was a chance it might work with Keno.

It made sense to me as I had won a beautiful statue at the shore when I chose the same name on a spinning wheel that hit on the 7th spin.

Every morning, he would ask me for my numbers, to which I would repeat the same numbers as the day before. He would fill out one card for each of us, even though he was visibly annoyed at my choices.

My numbers are coming up!

On the last morning of our 5-day trip, after our Keno cards were collected for the next game, the spinner started pulling balls and displaying them on the board, one by one.

As I was watching the numbers come up, my heart started to race.

A few of my numbers were coming up, and when all eight numbers were on the board, five of them were the ones I chose!

I was ecstatic! I never won big like that before.

I’m out of my seat now. “George, we won! We won! We just won a couple of hundred dollars!”

The whole room started cheering. I was beaming and started to walk toward the cashier, but I noticed George was not sharing my joy.

Why is he still sitting there?

He’s a gambler. He’s in it for the win. Normally, he would have been standing in the aisle, high-fiving everyone after our big win. What’s wrong with him?

“George, let’s go claim our prize. C’mon, we won!” I grabbed his hand and started pulling him out of his seat, but he didn’t budge. Then he gave me a look as if someone had just punched him in the stomach, and his face became beet red.

“What’s the matter? Let’s go get the prize money.” I coaxed again.

He was still hesitating, then he said in a low voice, “We didn’t win,” and he turned his eyes away from me.

“What do you mean we didn’t win? Five of my numbers came up — they’re right there on the board. Look.”

“We didn’t win because I stopped putting your numbers in!”

“But I saw you fill out two cards a little while ago.”

“I was filling out both cards with my numbers, not yours.” He said a little sheepishly.

“What? Why would you do that?” I questioned, raising my voice to a nervous squeak.

“I didn’t play the numbers you gave me for the last two days because I thought it was the stupidest way to gamble that I ever saw.” He said it unapologetically, as if I were the one in the wrong.

I was rightfully upset at this point. Why would he pretend to write down my numbers when he had no intention of playing them for me?

At this point, people were no longer cheering. They heard the whole conversation between us. We made a bit of a scene. Some people were laughing, some were shaking their heads, and some were looking the other way.

I can only imagine the thoughts that went through their minds. I certainly remember what went through mine!

It was disappointing and embarrassing. Mad didn’t even begin to cover what I was feeling, but I contained myself. After all, he lost money also that day for being a condescending, inflexible, know-it-all!

(The red flags were there. I married him, anyway, but it didn’t work out!)

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