Results 1 to 2 of 2

Thread: Is it possible to defy the odds?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2019
    Location
    California
    Posts
    1,384

    Default Is it possible to defy the odds?

    Well, you won't know until you try!

    There’s a story Tony Carleo likes to tell about a visit he made to Las Vegas over a decade ago, when he was in his early twenties.

    “I was sitting in a casino,” he says, “and there was a crowd starting to gather around a craps table, people two or three deep because everyone wanted to see.”

    A man was betting on hard eight, that the dice would land showing exactly four and four before he threw a seven or another combination that added up to eight. It was a long-shot bet, but the man hit it, then hit it again, his $5 turning into 50 then 500. Each time he let it ride. Carleo elbowed his way through the crowd to get closer to the action. On and on the man rolled, somehow avoiding crapping out – he hit hard eight again and then once more. The crowd of people exploded. To hit hard eight once was improbable, to hit it four times in row nearly impossible. The dealer slid forward the man’s winnings, a short tower of brightly colored chips worth $50,000 coming to rest where once there had been a single $5 chip.

    For Carleo, the tale is proof of a belief that has always lived inside of him – as long as you have the balls to open yourself up wide to fate, there’s no telling what might come your way.

    From: Bellagio Bandit: How One Man Robbed Vegas’ Biggest Casino and Almost Got Away

    Of course, in Tony's case, he got the wrong idea from the experience...he ended up stealing a million dollars of chips from the Bellagio, ensconcing himself in a high roller's suite inside the very casino he stole from to live like a king, and...ended up sentenced to nine years in a Nevada prison.

    But for the rest of us, and for me in particular, it means that...anything is possible, in Las Vegas. That I've won hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes coming up from bankrolls that were depleted to the point of under a few thousand dollars, is proof of this. Don't let anyone tell you that it's impossible to win in Vegas, because it is not! I'm proof of that, and so are many others.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2019
    Location
    California
    Posts
    1,384

    Default

    One interesting note from the article about Tony Carleo, is the mention that

    Somewhere deep in the Bellagio’s computer system was a list of all the men and women who had ever gambled high enough stakes to have legitimately won so many big chips.

    My name must be on that list! because on more than one occasion have I stacked up those $25,000. "melons" (is what they were called back when I used to play with them) in winnings, at the Bellagio.
    Last edited by MDawg; 12-20-2019 at 05:37 PM.

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •