Soul-Crushing Las Vegas Gambling Story Goes Viral

A Las Vegas tourist suffered a brutal gambling experience, and his story is going viral.

It's not a secret that I'm a fan of Las Vegas. In fact, I think Sin City is probably my favorite city in America. It's an awesome location for a little degeneracy, gambling and beers with the boys.

It's the highest of highs and lowest of lows. Unfortunately for one man, it sounds like he experienced that emotional swing in the worst of ways.

Brutal Las Vegas gambling story goes viral.

A person took to Reddit to share a story about someone thinking they'd won several grand…..when that wasn't what happened at all.

"Just wanted to share that I was playing at aria the other day and a man next to me went nuts when he sat at a machine and got a decent line hit. He put in $20 and the coin show started and he won 5500 credits. Problem was this was a penny slot. He started yelling and calling to his wife saying how he just won $5500. Other people came to see and immediately saw he had misunderstood and I decided to break the bad news to him that 5500 credits on that machine means $55 not $5500. Others immediately backed me up and you could see the color drain from his face. He said how that wasn’t right," the Reddit user wrote in the now-viral post.

The man went from thinking he'd won $5,500 to realizing he'd won just $55. Brutal. It's hard to feel bad about winning $55, unless you just got the euphoric rush of thinking you'd won several thousand.

People were also quick to jump in with stories of their own. Check out a few below:

  • I had an employee quit her job because she bought a scratcher she thought she had won $20,000 on. She actually only scratched off 4/5 spaces. It was a losing ticket.
  • I was in Vegas for a Kentucky Derby, the guy next to me had Monarcos for the win. He started shaking and looked like he was going to faint. I said "calm down, sit down, let me get you a water." Finally, I asked how much he won. He said "I'm not sure, $12,000, I think." I look at the ticket, he won $1,200. He snapped out of it pretty quick.
  • I remembered long long time ago. I was high as sky and I hit 10,000 credits on a slot machine. I thought it was 10k until my friend pointed it out. $100 bucks is 100 bucks.
  • In a similar vein, I hit for $200,000 once. Wasn't betting the max bet, I won $200.

This is why I stick to playing table games. There's no mystery about what's coming on blackjack tables. It's just you, the dealer, the beer in your hand and whatever demons you're trying to crush. You push your chips and hope for the best.

With slot machines, I truly have no idea what's going on or how to even win. Slot machines seem like a massive waste of time and clearly, they confuse people. Not only do some people get confused, but they get their hopes up only to get crushed moments later.

My best advice? Ignore the slots and hit up Ellis Island or El Cortez for cheap blackjack. Just do it and thank me later. Are you a Vegas fan? Let me know your thoughts at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.

Written by
David Hookstead is a reporter for OutKick covering a variety of topics with a focus on football and culture. He also hosts of the podcast American Joyride that is accessible on Outkick where he interviews American heroes and outlines their unique stories. Before joining OutKick, Hookstead worked for the Daily Caller for seven years covering similar topics. Hookstead is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin.