It was many many conventions ago. Maybe even when we were at the Aladdin, but I don't remember for sure.

I had been building my reputation as roulette harvester extraordinaire for a few quite some time. Many of you will remember Anne Freid-Lefton, a chip collector from long ago. Several of us were sitting around a trade session and the subject of Desert Inn roulettes came up. Anne mentioned how they were nearly impossible to get. I told her that I could get them, no problem. She laughed and said I couldn't and several others agreed, they were tough tough tough to get.

The next afternoon I headed down to the Desert Inn with roulette harvesting on my mind. I can't remember who drove me down there. The first thing I noticed when I got inside was that the place looked closed. There must not have been 15 people in this huge casino gambling. That was my first clue that this was going to be a little harder than I expected. I stopped an played a little Blackjack for a while. Before heading over to the roulette table, I told whoever was with me that if I gave them the word, they should just leave without me.

We walked over to the roulette pit and were the only players there. Behind us was the blackjack pit, and there was only 1 or two people playing there. We started playing. The first thing I noticed is that WE were almost the ONLY thing happening in the casino, so all eyes were on us. All the pit crew stood around a watched us play roulette. Behind us, all the BJ dealers and pit crew were watching us play. I was being scrutinized by half the casino!!!

After a few minutes, Anne came in and started to play next to me. That helped some, but then she pocketed a roulette or two and left. That left just me again. And to top it off, they now had some roulettes missing, and knew it. I told the person with me to go ahead and leave as I might not make it out alive.

I was doing well, up several hundred dollars and had managed to get maybe 15 roulettes in my pocket. So that I could keep my profits, whenever I would hit a number, I had them give me a $25 chip and 10 roulettes. The $25 would then go into my pocket. Problem was, it would only take them seconds to discover some roulettes were missing if I cashed in the roulettes and left. They would have me in thumb screws before I could make it out the door.

Soooo, I casually asked them where the bathroom was. They pointed over near the doors and said it was right there. Acting like a rube, I told them I needed to go to the bathroom, could I leave the chips right here until I got back? They said sure, they would watch them until my return. I walked into the restroom, waited 5 seconds then walked right back out and straight through the doors.

I wonder how long they waited for me?