One day on the boardwalk
outside Trump’s Plaza in Atlantic City, the
Captain saw an elderly woman who was crying. He
went up to her to see what was the matter. She told
him that she had just come from the ladies’
room in the casino where her pocketbook was stolen
while she was in the stall. “I hung it up on
the door and this hand reached over and just took
it,” she told the Captain. She screamed but
whoever had relieved her of her purse was quick
as a deer and was long gone by the time anyone knew
what had transpired. “I had just won $500,
too,” she lamented. “I’m 82 years
old,” she said, “my husband’s deceased,
my children are all moved away, and this is the
best luck I’ve had in years.” Then she
cried some more. The Captain had his limo take her
to her home in Brooklyn.
In Las Vegas, several
blocks north from today’s Stratosphere Tower
(then Vegas World), my wife, the beautiful A.P.,
and I had taken our clothes to a laundromat to be
cleaned. We walked from the Sahara, where we were
staying, and dropped the clothes off at the laundromat,
and started to walk back. Now, this was during a
time when A.P. had decided to make all of our clothing
and we were wearing matching print shirts and we
just looked so damned cute in our matching outfits.
Two huge bruisers sleepy-eyed us as we passed them.
From years of living in New York my antennae went
up.
I thought we might
be in trouble because we looked so damned cute in
our matching print outfits; cute enough to be the
perfect mugging victims. So I did what I always
do when I think someone might mean me harm, I turned
and looked them square in the eyes -- and then I
knew we were in trouble! These guys started towards
us, they were maybe 30 feet away. I whispered to
A.P. to run across the street (Las Vegas Blvd.)
when I gave the signal. I waited for the cars that
had been stopped at the light to get to a certain
point and then when they did, I gave A.P. a subtle
signal -- “Run!” I shouted -- and we ran
like hell across the street. The brutes tried to
run after us but the cars came and prevented them.
We kept running until we reached the Sahara.
The above incidents
are not that strange for Atlantic City, Las Vegas
or any other venue where gambling attracts those
of us who wish to fleece Fortune and those of them
who wish to fleece us. In fact, such incidents are
not strange for any popular tourist venue, multiple
theatre complex or large shopping mall for that
matter. Yet, some casino games and some casino-hotel
locales lend themselves much more readily to criminals
preying upon us than do others.
Gaming readers get
great advice in handling the various games in the
casino, but rarely do we get good advice about how
to handle the variety of games criminals might play
upon us in and out of the casinos. Considering that
there are two ways to lose your money in a casino:
One, by having bad luck when the casino’s edge
defeats you, and two, by having even worse luck
when some criminal steals whatever money you might
have won after you had good luck, here are 25 ways
to protect us (the good guys) against them (the
bad guys).
Protect
Yourself Against Casinos 1-5
Protect
Yourself Against Casinos 6-11
Protect
Yourself Against Casinos 12-16
Protect
Yourself Against Casinos 17-21
Protect
Yourself Against Casinos 22-25
Good
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