In The Cards: An Early Stint with Youthful Gambling

Welcome to our first blog post about living the Casino Life! We appreciate your interest in this topic! In this post we start with the story behind when the Casino lifestyle and gambling world were introduced to me (Cole Turner).

I remember from my childhood there were many days I would be at our local dog track with my dad. He loved greyhounds and the thrill, excitement and anticipation for his next wagering win! We have adopted 4 greyhounds directly from that local track where I grew up, but I digress. That will be a discussion for another time.

As I remember, I had spent a lot of time with my dad at the dog track watching in amazement of how fast those greyhounds soared around the track attempting to catch the fake rabbit. Often the sounds of other wagers yelling and rooting for their selected greyhound to win the race were what I heard. A few laps around the track and the race was completed in which a selected few people were the lucky winners of that race. The unlucky patrons would angrily toss there losing ticket to the ground. As strange as it sounds my dad would have me go around and pick all those losing tickets up in which he would check every one of them. Picking up the tickets is what is my most common memory of time spent at the track with my dad in my youth.

This was our retired Race Greyhound Earl. R.I.P.

On a few occasions my family would go play bingo together. What I remember most about playing bingo is when my dad would buy “Pickles”. Pickles were like a scratch ticket only you would pull tabs on the ticket to see if you won or not versus scratching for the results. I loved pickles and found them entertaining.

I also enjoyed it when I was given the opportunity to help my dad scratch his scratch tickets. He was a superstitious man and would always hand me his lucky coin he preferred for scratching tickets. Over the years he won a $25.000 and two $1000.00 scratch tickets. Those times were exciting.

Pickels

Once in a while my family would head into the mountains to enjoy a day at the casinos tucked away deep into the hills, Black Hawk, Colorado. Of course, my brothers and I weren't old enough to enjoy the casino's full experience, but we had fun playing in the arcade while mom and dad tried their luck on the slot machines. Every 20-30 minutes dad would come to the arcade and refill our little bucket with a fresh number of quarters to keep the arcade party ongoing. My brothers and I had a lot of fun playing arcade games in those days.

Black Hawk

Image by Nattanan Kanchanaprat from Pixabay

Moving many years forward, my oldest brother and his wife were getting married in Lake Tahoe, California. I was almost 21 years old back then and of course while there for the wedding we indulged in the local casinos. My middle brother was 22, enabling him to sit at the Roullet table with my dad. It wasn't long as I stood behind my bother and dad watching thm place their bets when a casino pit boss approached me asking for my ID. After reviewing my identification card, I was asked to leave the casino floor. I was so frustrated with that being I was so close to the age of 21 and not being able to participate and share the excitement with my dad and brother! I angrily and sadly left the casino floor to go watch a movie at the in-casino movie theater. It was a lovely wedding. We all had a blast celebrating my brother and his wife entering holy matrimony.

With all this said one could say I was introduced to Casino Life at a young age. I'm ok with that and have no regrets or spite for anyone. I enjoy the thrill of gambling to this day and have no remorse or regrets for choosing to have the Casino Life as a part of my life. My wife and I consider Casino outings as a delicacy and enjoy the entertainment factor of playing slots and blackjack at the Casinos we like to frequent.

Stay tuned here for future posts here where we will discuss more of our experiences living Casino Life. The good times and the bad alike will be covered within more posts soon to come!

In the gambling world you win some and you lose some, that’s the name of the game and the territory that is accepted and comes with that lifestyle. Instead of looking at how much we won or how much we lost, we choose to focus on whether we had fun or not. If we had fun, it was time and money well spent.

Until next time, thank you for reading and take care!

See you soon!

Cole Turner- Passionary Concepts LLC

Lake Tahoe

Talking with Cole Turner