Well I guess the title says it all. I was in Las Vegas too months ago with my wife and we were on a mini-vacation. We were staying at the Paris Hotel and had planned to do the regular routine of things, take in a show, visit Red Rock Canyon, and of course test our luck.

As this is a gambling and slots game related story I will get the other material out of the way.

Now back to the real purpose of this article.

After three nights of watching my wife play nickel slots and quarter slot machines, in areas that where very crowded and in some instances, where you could not even get a seat to play I said, 'it is time to take a turn on the high roller slots'.

Yup that is right we were dropping nickels and winning pennies and had not really made or lost money. (Perhaps that was fortunate knowing that we were still gambling and had not lost the small fortune we budgeted for the trip.)

So off we went to were we thought the famous must be playing. We arrived in the section advertised as $25.00 slots - wow. At this point with the peace and quite around me I really started to sweat and sweat similar to two days earlier when I was on the Canyon climbing the hills. This was different however, I was nervous, thrilled to be in the company, or so I thought of where the high rollers rule. Funny though, no one was around except three hosts, about 40 machines all of which sat idle and my wife and I.

Hmm, what to do now. Something must be up, the area is not very inviting after all but we are here guess we have to play a little. Me now thinking at $25.00 a spin that little becomes a lot. When you combine the minimum bet amount with the fact that my wife and I have always been advised to play only maximum bets on slots minimum became in some instances, $200.00. I thought maybe they would only have one pay line but no, just like the little machines the only thing different was the size of the bet.

Just then a lovely hostess came over and asked us if we needed any drinks. Well what the heck. After all the Heineken I had just ordered may end up costing me in excess of $300.00 and I will have to drink it in 4 minutes. Scary indeed.

Armed with my Heineken we got some change, after all you have to experience what it is like to hold a $25.00 chip - they are large and heavy. You almost want to take one home as a souvenir but no stick with a fridge magnet you will save about $20.00. My wife sees a machine she is familiar with she sits down with her 8 coins (we only changed $200.00) wanted to keep that last $100.00 in reserve. Plunk and there goes one coin - pull to spin and ¡­..loser. Great switch machine, no better yet, discreetly hide the Heineken take the wife's hand and high tale it out of the section back to the secure lower limit area.

No I said if we are going to do this lets do it. My wife then puts another coin in and another - bang that is $50.00 already we are losing control. Nothing, nil, nada, zip, better yet zippo. Ok let's switch machines. Not like a crowd exists - no one is in the section except the 3 hostess. Drink the Heineken and order another one, sure that one cost $75.00.

Wife sits down plunks a maximum bet of three coins - yes the average price of a Heineken in this section I had calculated and WINNER. $25.00, one coin. Heck the feeling was awesome. Bet $75.00 wins $25.00 and yet I pushed all logic aside and we were high fiving. We lost money but felt like we won the lotto. This is weird almost sick.

Let's go again. $75.00, three coins¡­.WINNER 10 coins or $250.00.

Speechless. In what took about 5 minutes we were up more then we had been all trip and the euphoric feeling was great. Eck this is Vegas. Never did we feel this way when 600 nickels were won. 10 coins mama and we felt like billionaires.

My wife being the wise one then said ok this machine has paid twice odds are it will not happen again. Logical no.

With my new Heineken and my wife is no thinking heck lets live is enjoying her Baileys on the rocks we settle down on a new target. Still the area is vacant of all players.

Three coins again, heck you can not go back to one $25.00 bet, not with the adrenaline rush that we were having. Come up blanks on that one. Bet again - WINNER 24 coins - yup $600.00. I had never moved as fast as I did. HIT THE COLLECT BUTTON AND GET OUT OF THERE. Yup I turned to my wife and asked what she thought and before she replied she hit the collect button. While we could not believe it we had to remain composed, not to let on we had won. We took the winners ticket and slowly shuffled out.

When we reflected later on the experience we both laughed and agreed the high roller section is not for us but we now know the feeling of big stakes gambling (big to us). In a 10 minute period we were on an emotional, thrilling roller coaster like we had not felt before. We have agreed that every two or so years to visit the High Roller Slots. An interesting thought I often have is, I wonder how we would have felt if we lost that day¡­..

John Decker