PAIGE FROM USA

I was 18 and my college roommate and I took the midnight Greyhound from LA, which dumped us on the Las Vegas Strip at 5 am. With only an ice bucket of coins we'd been hoarding for months, we started walking LV Blvd., making the most of every casino's free booklet of coupons - Free roll of nickels, free matchplay, free souvenir, free hot dog, free drink. It was pretty easy not to spend a penny.

Luckily, we found a motel off-strip and got a room before continuing our stroll. By dinner, we had about $30 and sat down at the Stardust and started playing $2 roulette. I'd wait for five or six blacks and play a red, and win. I’d wait for a bunch of reds and play a black, and win.

In an hour we had $800! This was serious, serious money to a broke 18 year old college student in 1980. We fled, saw David Brenner, had a huge dinner and went to bed happy and with $700 still in our pockets. Wow. The guys at school were going to be blown away.

So, being stupid and 18, before we caught the bus the next day, I asked Dave, "So, if we could make $800 starting with $30, how much could we make starting with $700?!"

Good question. And the answer is that we shared a 40 cent ice cream cone in Barstow and hitched a ride from the bus depot in LA back to school where not one person believed us.