Chapter 3: The Casino

Overall I had a good time, even if I didn’t get to do everything I would have liked to. We were due to return home Saturday so Thursday night the three of us women sat around the table discussing the past week and what we should do on our last day.

“So Kelly,” you’re 21 now - right?” Tammy asked. She knew perfectly well I was so I just nodded and waited to see she was going with this.

“Ever been to a casino?” Tammy asked, looking at my mom with a twinkle in her eye. Actually, I never had. Pennsylvania doesn’t have any casinos and even though a couple in West Virginia were only an hour away or so, it just wasn’t something that my parents were into all that much so we had never even discussed it before.

“Oh wow, that would be SOOOOO cool!” I exclaimed. I looked at my mom who didn’t seem as thrilled by the idea. It wasn’t like she was morally against gambling or anything; I just don’t think it was something she enjoyed all that much for whatever reason. I reached over and held her hand. “C’mon mom, can we go?”

My mom heaved a sigh and agreed so the discussion turned to where the nearest casino was. how long it would take to get there, and other such things. Tammy explained that the only place gambling was allowed in Oregon was on an Indian reservation with the nearest one being a couple of hours away. My mom wasn’t too thrilled about the long drive it until my aunt told her about a couple of small towns on the way that featured great shopping - always the perfect temptation for my mom!

Friday morning came early and we left right after breakfast to get a head start on the shopping part of our trip. Tammy was right, each town offered its own unique stores and shops and we spent the entire morning and part of the afternoon spending money - a hobby all three of us had in common.

It wasn’t until the middle of the afternoon that we finally reached the turnoff to the reservation. I was excited at the prospect of my first casino experience and I thought when I saw the sign that we were finally there. Well, it turned out that it was another half hour or so by the time we wound our way through barren desert until we finally dipped down a steep mountain road and before us was the casino!

At first glance I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. Compared to the casinos I’d seen back home and on TV, it look tiny. A couple of tour buses were in the parking lot along with maybe twenty or thirty cars and that was it. We parked and went to the entrance. The guy asked for my ID and he smiled at me when he looked at my driver’s license. He was pretty cute and I thought to myself maybe there was more to a casino than gambling!

Once inside, it wasn’t much more than it looked like from the outside. It was almost entirely slot machines with one small area to the side with a poker table but the lights were off and nobody was around it. Off to the side were some stairs that led up to what I later found to be just more slots. The one thing that turned me off was all the people that were smoking - it was like being in a smokestack! The thing that struck me the most, though, was the noise! It was a small area and with all the slots ringing and making sounds it was almost deafening at first. People seemed to be having fun, though, and so I figured we may as well make the best of it.

My mom and aunt went to a window where they took out a few hundred dollars from their credit cards. I was surprised when they were given all bills as I expected to see a bucket of quarters. My perception of slots had always been putting in quarters, pulling a lever and then watching the wheels spin until all the fruit lined up. Well, I guess I was a generation too late! These machines took bills and instead of a lever, there were just button to set your bet and then make the video “wheels” spin.

My mom and Tammy gave me some quick lessons on slots to get me started. I found that most didn’t have fruit but instead there was an incredible array of machines with every theme imaginable. I guess it was more efficient but somehow I felt cheated! As I played I learned quickly that it WAS a more efficient way to take my money as the dollars seemed to be disappearing faster than the credits I was earning.