HARVEST ADVENTURES FROM AN ADDICTED CHIP COLLECTOR

BY RICHARD “REGGIE” GUMMER
SOME PEOPLE HAVE COMPULSIONS TO GAMBLE, SOME TO AMASS FORTUNES AND OTHER’S, THEY JUST LIKE TO WRITE STORIES; YEAH, THAT WOULD BE ME. I WAS NEVER VERY GOOD AT IT ; BUT I HAVE DONE IT OVER THE YEARS JUST THE SAME.
IF ANY OF YOU WANT ANY INSIDE INFORMATION ON ANY CASINO THAT I’VE BEEN TO, I WOULD BE HAPPY TO TELL YOU WHAT I CAN.
REGGIE

A GUEST AUTHOR’s HARVEST STORY

Southern California Indian Casinos

By Steve Gobel

I had been on vacation visiting family in San Diego, driving back to Las Vegas. I decided it would be fun in the middle of the night to try to hit all of the Indian casinos along the way. It wasn't planned, it was a spur of the moment thing once I was on the road. I'd left at 7pm. So I got on my cell phone (while driving alone, Bad idea...) and tried to find casinos and maps to them. I found one that I'd not yet passed. Off the freeway up in the hills on a two lane "road". Took a wrong turn somewhere and got totally lost. An hour later I'm finally back to the freeway. A few miles, and Oh! that's the turn off I was supposed to take. Back to the hills. By this time it was well after 9pm or so and it was getting foggy on the road. Soon I'm doing 5 to10 mph and wondering if they'll ever find my car (and body) at the bottom of the ravine, as my family didn't know I was going to be taking side trips. After forever, the fog becomes brighter, the parking lot lights of the Casino have been found! Can't remember this many years later which of the casinos it was.
I'd never really been out just to harvest, and was surprised/annoyed that they would not sell chips from the cage. I had all of $20 on me and did not want to gamble. I just wanted a $1 and a $5. But, I did not want to disappear back into the fog bank empty handed. Cheapest Blackjack table was $5. Sat down. Won a hand. Bit by the bug, instead of running away with my "free" chip, I played it. Blackjack! A snapper is now mine. Played a few more hands and gained several more $5 chips. Asked the dealer to change a $5 for $1's so I could tip him. Gave him two and walked with three. [Yes, I'm a Beap Chastard.] Back to the cage, same lady who wouldn't sell to me. Cashed in $30 on my $20 buy-in and kept the rest. She knew she should have sold me the chips...
Fog didn't seem so bad on the way out. I hit the freeway, this time after doing more research on my phone prior to leaving the parking lot, so as not to be a menace on the road. I stopped at 3 other casinos on the rest of the trip. 2 of them also required play and my luck held out, leaving with free chips and a few extra dollars in cash from each. It was almost a disappointment when the other one sold me the chips from the cage! Made them seem expensive somehow, even using my winnings from the other places. And I'd had to stop and put an extra $20 in gas in my tank for all of the side trips. At 5:30 a.m. I realized that I was still a 3+ hour drive from home and I'd better get going before sleepiness made me more of a menace on the road than cell phone surfing. Most fun I'd had in a long time, and every time I flip through my collection, seeing those chips still brings a smile to my face.