Casino Horror Stories Go Viral, Answers A Very Depressing

What's the worst thing you've ever witnessed in a casino?

Now, I'll be honest with you all that I don't spend much time in casinos. Outside my trips to Las Vegas, I never step a foot inside of casinos. They just don't do anything for me unless I'm in Sin City.

Having said that, Vegas is a blast, and I'll never apologize for cutting it loose there. You can read about my latest crazy trip here.

*READ: Porn Stars, Chaos And A Serious Injury In Las Vegas*

Casino horror stories go viral.

While I've never had a truly weird or bad experience in a casino, there are a lot of people out there who have. A viral Reddit thread exposing some of the whacked out stuff people have witnessed is going viral, and it's nutty.

Read some of the answers below, and let me know your thoughts at David.Hookstead@outkick.com:

• My MIL was at a casino in Vegas when there was some kind of altercation that involved a gun. The police told everyone to "get down". While crouching on the floor people were still reaching up to play the slots.
• Had a lady in a nurses uniform walk out the front of the casino. Stop by where I was standing and just blurt out. "I just lost my rent and grocery money." The only thing I could say was "Oh no!" She then looked at me and asked if I had any money she could borrow. I told her sorry but no.
• I saw a guy so glued to a slot machine that he just pissed his pants and kept playing. He was eventually removed by security.
• My nephew is a dealer at a casino. Going to the bathroom in their pants is fairly common in inveterate gamblers, as is not showering.
• Worked surveillance at a casino for a bit. Every time someone hit a jackpot at a slot machine we'd pull up their account. They were always, 100% of the time, down on their lifetime earnings. This included people that hit for $50K+. Worst one I saw was -$375k for the year. In July.
• I live in Australia which most people don’t know has the highest rate of gambling losses per capita when compared globally. You can gamble at any pub/bar in Australia as long as you are 18 or older. In one state alone in the last 3 months of 2024, the total losses were $2.2B. It’s very hard to watch but hard to fix as it’s legal and socially acceptable. At least when you go to Vegas it’s a trip with friends and/or family and people are having fun. No one is really having fun here, they’re like robots on the slot machines. I have regularly seen people blow through a whole paycheque in minutes and then try to borrow money to win it back. Or get pay day loans with insane interest rates. It’s a big problem here, but there’s too much money involved for anyone to change anything.
• I had a guy win 40k on a slot machine on one of his first pulls. The guy was so excited and went to cash out. The cage attendant gave him ~2k as his winning. When he asked where the rest of the money was, she smiled and said "child support". Dude had to be escorted out by security.
• Former addict five years clean here since 01/01/2020. I once had two doctor’s appointments in the same day (one was for my knee and the other was just a routine check up) but they were spaced out between three hours. Since I wasn’t at work that day, I drove 60 miles to the casino only to lose $700 in that timeframe. I did however make my second appointment so that was a plus.
• I fix/repair Pokie Machines in Australia, mostly in small rural towns and the turnover figures on the machines are astonishing. One of the Pubs has a lady that drops 40-50K a week and all the pub has to do is ask her if she's okay? Would she like a cup of tea? People get so mad when they lose on these machines that they smash the screens or play button assemblies. Absolutely bonkers and completely government endorsed.
• My first time to Vegas I went with a large group of people. One of the boyfriends started off strong at blackjack, at one point he was up $300 from the $25 he had started with. But then he lost it all, which for me meant he lost $25. That was not how he took it. And for the rest of the time we were there he tried to win the $300 back. I don't know how much money he lost, but I do know he had drained his checking account and maxed out a credit card He didn't win back any money.
• When I lived in Vegas and I was showing people around the Strip I would always point to the decor and I would ask them what they saw. Usually marble and gold. I asked them "How did they pay for the marble and gold? Not by letting people win!"
• I have one friend who goes to casinos to gamble, the one time I went with him he went in with €1000, lost half of it, then managed to get back to about €700 before we left. As we left he was real excited about coming out of the evening "up €200".
• Ive seen big losses to about 100k, but the one that sticked out to me the most was a guy who started betting 50 a hand on blackjack, lost, came back and put up another 200-500 a hand while he is shaking. He went to the atm 3 times. The last 500 he lost, as I was about to grab the chip, he held his 500 in green in the bet. I had to tell him to let go. I think he was down 10,000 that night and looks like his life saving. Never saw him again after. 
• I was a hostess at a casino about 10 years ago. I worked on the top floor and normally watched people on the roulette tables below between orders. I saw a guy turn 50k into 250k, he was awesome tipped us all and left. I carried on with my shift went for my lunch at about 1am then went to the smoking area to find the same guy that had won with his head in his hands. He ask me for a cigarette so I gave him one, I noticed he was crying. He proceeded to tell me how he went for some drinks came back and lost it all and more. It was a regular thing seeing people crying in the smoking area,but this guy really f*cked up.
• I worked at a casino as security for about a year so I have plenty of stories. But in relation to your question, I saw a guy come in with a group of friends, never seen him before. He proceeded to win 10k that night on a couple slots. I saw him come back every night for the next month. Always walking out with his head down. The casino I worked at was smallish but every decent payout had to be done with security present. So ya he went through it all thinking he had the system figured out and then some. Lots of people had similar fates.
• Worked in a casino restaurant in my 20s. I’d finish my shift walk through the casino to my car. When walking back through in the morning I’d see the same people wearing the same clothes on the same machines. Only difference it’s coffee with their cigarettes now instead of soda.
• Guy started with $300 and could do now wrong. When he got up to $5000, we asked if he wanted to go to a high rollers pit because people would jump in on his game and "mess him up." He said yes if I followed him there. In the high rollers pit he again could do no wrong, but what he was doing was chasing and bets he lost with higher bets. This worked out for him for a long time. He got up to almost 100 grand of $300 bucks. He called his girlfriend to get packed, they are going to Vegas to get married. He started losing. I told him to stop when he got to 80 thousand. He told me he just lost 20 grand and if he made it back he would quit. I told him he won 80, stop. By the time the girlfriend got there he lost it all and had $3000 dollars in markers. When she got there he got up and held her and cried.
• I'm a high limits baccarat dealer and i have many many regulars i see every single day. There's one lady who plays 3-4k a hand and gets so far down that when she hits for a bonus and makes 150k she barely cares because it doesn't even put her at even.
• I dealt in 2 casinos in Australia for a total of around 5 years. So many stories but the worst one would have to be the guy at 5am on Christmas morning who mentioned to the guy next to him that he had to be home by 7am so he could be there when his kids woke up and opened their presents, but was still at the table at 9am.
• I was a slot attendant the person who pay out jackpots to players a man told me he couldn’t go home because he spent his mortgage money there and his wife will kill him
• I worked as a dealer years ago in California. One night a guy came in with $800 to high limit, and started betting $100 a hand on blackjack. He was pressing hard and was up $250,000 in a few hours. He truly believed it was divine intervention and he was invincible, he got greedy, and lost everything back. He left down $800 after about 8 hours.
• As a card dealer, on two separate occasions - with two separate players - I took $100,000 each within a couple hours.
• Not a casino worker but on a visit to Darwin, Australia, I saw a friend of mine lose $60,000

If there's one lesson to be learned from all these stories is that you need to know when to push back from the table and leave. As the saying goes, all those mega-resorts in Las Vegas weren't built by winners. They're built by billions in gambling revenue taken in by losers.

The house always has the edge. You might be good, but nobody is good enough forever to beat the house. With enough time, the house will win.

I've played high limit blackjack twice. Got up a decent amount both times, and immediately cashed in and left. You're not getting the money back from me once I win!

Do you have a crazy casino experience? I definitely want to hear about it at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.