When you live in Las Vegas you get to the point where you don't really play the slots or the table games much, well at least that's the point where I've gotten to. I’m just not a big gambler – I like my money too much to just toss it away I remember I used to work with some women who would talk about how they went to the casino and lost $200 in one night. That used to blow my mind – how could you lose $200 in one night and still be able to eat. I don't know how they could do that because if I lost $200 in one night, one week, or even in one month I would feel it. I would be missing that $200. As I said, I'm not a big gambler but I do go to the casinos to eat, to watch movies, to see concerts, etc. Most theaters here in Vegas are located in casinos so it's hard not to go to any - the thing is you have to be able to go in and do what you got to do without putting money in the slots or laying it on the tables. I’ll admit that sometimes I do put in a few dollars but never more $20 in a machine just to see what happens – hey, someone has to win. It’s almost like the machines are calling for you to play

Tony (that’s me): I’m not going to play

Machine: Come on ding,ding, ring you know you want to play. Ding, ding, ring. One pull can change your life.

Me: I’m just going to the movies

Machine: Ding, ding…imagine what a big million dollar check would do for your lovelife.

Me: Hey, my lovelife is none of your business.

Machine: You might win the big bucks, then you can tell your boss to shove the job up their…ding, ding, ring

Me: Humm, maybe playing $20 won’t hurt

Machine: Now, you’re talking.

Me: $20 is not going to make me rich or break me – right

Machine: right. Now feed me…uuuummmm…I love it when you put your big fat paycheck into me…

Aside from the machines “calling to you” The casinos have many ways of getting you to play. One way is by using players cards that you use to earn points when you play the games. After a certain amount of points you start to get offers for free gifts or chances to win "bigger" money. Recently one of the casinos had a promotion that they called "The Cash Cow" and you would get a small ceramic cow - if your cow had dollar signs on it then you got to draw a money slip from a barrel to see how much money you could win.

I decided to go pick up my cow and see if I had a chance to win "bigger" money. I picked up my mom after work so we could both go to the casino and see if we were big winners. The line was really long for this particular promotion. As we were waiting in line my mom noticed that a lady who was playing one of the slot machines had dropped some money. She walked up to the lady and told her. I watched as the lady looked at my mom strangely and thanked her. The lady picked up the money and just had this surprised look on her face that would not go away. I almost started to believe that was her normal everyday face. From where I was standing I could see that she had dropped at least two twenty dollar bills, so I guess I would have had the same surprised look on my face if I were in the lady’s situation. My mom got back in line and we started talking. A few minutes later the lady who had dropped her money came up to my mom put her arm around her and said, "Thanks again." and she handed my mom a five dollar bill.

Now it was our turn to be surprised. Neither of us expected any more than a thank-you from the woman. We talked a little more until we finally made it to the front of the line and picked up our little cows. Neither of us had cows that had dollar signs on it, so neither of us got the chance to draw for the "big" money. After all that time in line I thought I would at least get some “little” money, but nothing so I was a little disappointed. We started to make our way out of the casino when my mom decided to put the five dollars into one of the machines that was calling her.

She played for a little bit and ended up walking away with one hundred and fifty dollars using only the five dollar bill that the lady had given her.

“Now, that’s karma” she said as we walked out.