Ever Wonder What Happens When You Don't Pay Your Casino Markers (part 1)
This week is a rare one with a guest author, who wishes to remain anonymous. In this part 1 of 2, she tells the story of what happened when she took out markers with Las Vegas casinos and didn’t pay them back. After the article, I continue my feature with a new weekly logic puzzle.
EVER WONDER WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DON’T PAY YOUR CASINO MARKERS? (part 1)
By Anonymous
We all, of course, know the saying, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” If only that were always the case. I’m here to share my story on how I made the mistake of not paying my casino markers back on time, and the dire consequences of that mistake.
Not long after I turned into an adult, as a young woman, I fell in love with gambling and Vegas. It all started when I was house-sitting a church family’s house while they were on vacation when I discovered a blackjack game on their computer. Curious, I played around with the game and grew ever more curious as to what would be the best strategy for hitting, standing, etc. This led me to an online search which led me to the Wizard of Odds website. I was fascinated that there was information online for people like me who wanted to know how best to play the game, and how to lower the house edge simultaneously. I had fun playing on the computer for fun and wanted to know what it was like to play for real. I was living at the time just outside of Los Angeles and knew Las Vegas wasn’t far away.
Sometime soon, a church friend of mine and her mother and a friend of the mother planned a short trip to Vegas and I was invited along. We stayed at the Excalibur and I was immediately taken by the themed castle and taken even more so by all the lights and the glitz and the sounds and all the excitement and fun in the air. All of this amazed me, I felt like a kid on her first trip to Disneyland. The trip was short, and I don’t even remember if I gambled that trip, but I left with stars in my eyes and my head spinning, wondering when I could go back.
As the years went by, I ended up going to Vegas several times, a few times with friends and even a few times by myself. I ended up moving into the city of Los Angeles and it was just a short 4-hour drive one-way to get there. I do remember the very first time I sat down to play real blackjack and it was at the old Hard Rock casino on Harmon and Paradise (now Mohegan Sun/Virgin hotel). I remember feeling nervous and I remember pulling up a seat at the table solo. I do believe I was on that trip alone. The table minimum was probably at $5 and this was before the whole 6/5 blackjack payouts. I cut my teeth there and played wherever I could that was within my small budget.
More time passed and I ended up joining the Wizard of Vegas forum to connect with other people like me, those who loved to gamble but also loved the math behind it. Mike Shackleford and I quickly connected and I was star-struck that the Wizard was speaking to me. We quickly became friends and I became active on the forum.
More and more trips ensued and I branched out my gambling and started playing some video poker as well. On one trip, I went to Vegas with a friend who loved to play baccarat, and I learned the game and added that one to my bag of games as well. I loved learning how to peel the cards, and eventually you’d find me giddy about winning a panda bet or the even more exciting dragon bet.
Fast forward to 2015 and my father passed away. I very quickly found out I was on his life insurance policy and came into a decent amount of money. I decided that one of the first things I would do would be to plan a trip to Vegas, and decided on 4 nights at The Mirage. I was not locked down to any job at the time so I just picked up and went once the funds became available. Well, my 4-night stay ended up turning into a 28-day stay. I quickly got hooked up with a host at The Mirage, and then connected with one at The Bellagio, and then with one at Caesar’s Palace. I had the time of my life. I was hooked up with suites, and shows, and five-star restaurants and limos and Escalades and spa treatments and you name it. I was living the life. I was playing blackjack and baccarat and video poker and drinking and staying up late and becoming a fixture in the high limit rooms. I ended up losing a significant amount of money during the majority of that trip, in the tens of thousands, and by pure luck I made back most of it in the last half day there. I did that by playing as much as I could, and playing up to $1,600 a hand in blackjack.
The itch soon came back when I was back in L.A., and I decided to make another trip out - this trip lasting 35 days. I did pretty much the same things I did during the previous trip, but this time I decided to see if I qualified for casino credit. I had a decent amount of money in the bank and didn’t entirely feel comfortable walking around with tens of thousands of dollars on me. I went through the process of qualifying and was able to be what I thought was the cool person at the table and ask for markers when I sat down. I quickly found out that I had to apply for credit at each casino I wanted to play at, that one MGM Resort would not cover me at another, and the same with the Caesar’s Properties. I did my gambling and paid off my markers when I won.
At this point things started to turn and I don’t think I was winning as much. I now had outstanding markers and I knew I had a short amount of time to pay them back. I dreaded having to go back home to what I felt was an empty life, and I made the profoundly regrettable mistake of dipping into my bank account to continue gambling - money that was set aside to cover my markers.
I left town at the end of that trip with not enough money to pay back my markers. I had the idea and intent to work when I got back home and pay off the markers over what would hopefully be a short amount of time. I was soon in contact with the people in charge of my markers, and they told me that they had to cash my checks as agreed upon. I told them I just needed a little more time. I was told I could have a few more days but that was about it, and was informed that if the markers were not paid then they would have to hand my file over to the D.A. I asked them to work with me. Unfortunately, I was not able to come up with enough money to cover my markers, and they went and attempted to cash the checks and they, of course, bounced. This occurred at more than one casino.
To be continued…
Last week’s puzzle.
There are five gopher holes in a row. In one of them resides a gopher. Every day you may inspect a single hole for the gopher. If you choose incorrectly, at night the gopher will relocate to an adjacent hole from his current location in either direction. Your goal is to find the gopher with certainty in the fewest possible days. What should be your strategy?
For extra credit, what should be your strategy with n gopher holes?
Solution…
A good method to solve puzzles like this, with multiple similar items, is to reduce the number and then look for a pattern as you increase the number of items.
That said, if there is one gopher hole, the answer is obvious, pick that one and you will be right.
If there are two gopher holes, pick either hole. If it’s empty, the gopher must move to that hole the next day. Then pick the same hole again. The maximum days it will take to find the gopher with two holes is two.
If there are three gopher holes, the fastest way to find the gopher for sure in the least time is to pick the middle hole. If he’s not there, he must have been in one of the end holes. He must move to the middle hole at night. Then pick the middle hole again. The maximum days it will take to find the gopher with three holes is two.
Things start to get less obvious with four holes. What we will do is stick with the three-hole strategy of picking a hole one away from an edge. Let’s call the holes A, B, C and D in order. To pick arbitrarily between B and C, start with B on day 1. If it’s there, great, we’re done. Otherwise, it must have been in A, C or D. After it moves, it could be in B, C or D. This mostly reduces the situation to the three-hole case. As with the three-hole case, we pick the middle hole of the three possibilities, C. If the gopher is not in C, then he must have been in B or D. After the gopher moves, he could be in A or C. We pick C again. If he’s there, we are done. Otherwise, he must have been in A and can move only to B after our turn, so we will have him the next day. So, the order of picks goes from B, C, C, B, for a maximum of 4.
With five holes we again start with a hole next to an edge, either B or D. Let’s pick B to be consistent. If he’s not in B, then he must be in B C D or E the next turn, kind of reducing it to the four-hole case. Turns 2 and 3 we pick C and D. If we haven’t found the gopher yet, he will be in B or D. At this point, we could pick either, but let’s pick D again to keep the strategy the same of going left to right and then right to left. If he’s not in D, we have reduced him to A or C. We pick C and if he isn’t there, he must be in B the next turn. The pattern is BCDDCB for a maximum of six picks.
A pattern is developing. You start one way from either edge then move one hole at a time until you’re one away from the other edge. Then go back the other direction, remembering to pick the hole adjacent to the hole on the other side twice. For example, in the 10-hole case you would pick BCDEFGHIIHGFEDCB. The general formula for the n hole case, except for n=1 and n=2, is it takes at most 2(n-2) turns to find the gopher.
Puzzle for July 18, 2024:
There are four camels, four drivers, and 20 water canisters at an oasis. Each camel may carry up to five full water canisters. Each canister holds a one-day supply of water for one camel and its driver. Full water canisters may be transferred from camel to camel, so long as no camel ever has more than five. There is an outpost a four-day distance from the oasis. Water canisters may not be refilled at the oasis nor left unattended in the desert. Camels at the oasis require no water. The goal is to deliver a letter to the outpost and safely return all camels to the oasis. How do you do it?