The Nest

Gambling wth our wedding money

Posted Monday, January 07, 2008 11:30 AM

I've picked up quite a few bad habits since moving to Las Vegas.  I know, right?  You're just as surprised as I am, believe me.  I spend way too much time in bars.  And I don't mean I go out nightly.  I mean I'll park my butt on a stool for ten hours at a time.  I smoke.  I cuss.  I gamble.

I was never a gambler.  Now, I slip a few dollars in the video machine as I wait for my plane.  I search in my pockets to find two bucks to bet on blackjack while I wait for my food.  I throw $20 on black while we walk through a casino on our way to see a movie.  I can't wait for the Wednesday night poker game at the boy's house.

But the worst is payday.  Here in Las Vegas (as I just recently discovered), the casino will cash your check for you.  You get a free drink.  You get to spin the wheel for great prizes.  You get a chance to win a free T-shirt.  This is much funner than standing in line at my credit union.

The only catch is a big one though.  After you cash your check, you have to walk back through the casino with two weeks worth of pay in your pocket.  Something weird happens.  My pocket starts burning.  Suddenly, there's a hole in my pocket, leaking dollar bills through the casino like Hansel and Gretel's breadcrumbs.  You can see where I've been.

What does this have to do with our wedding?  I've decided to save all my paychecks in our wedding fund.  Since I'm a waitress, I get paid nightly in cold, hard cash.  My paychecks are laughably small.  But the perfect amount where I won't miss them and they will grow steadily in our savings box.  If I can get them out of the casino, that is.

Sometimes, I get lucky.  The other night I threw $2 in and walked out $125 richer.  That was more than double my paycheck.  Other nights, I'll blow ten dollars of our wedding savings trying to get back to even.  I'm still a cautious gambler, I only put in what I can afford to lose.  If my check is $88 (see, I told you it was small), I'll bet the $3.  But some nights that 3 turns into $8. 

I think I'm ahead, so far.  Everytime I win, it goes into our wedding fund.  I figure easy-come, easy-saved.  Some nights, I leave the bar with the same amount of money I walked in with, even after buying drinks and tipping the bartender.  And playing the jukebox.  And buying smokes from the vending machine.  And going through Taco Bell drive-thru afterwards.  Poker night winnings always go straight from pocket to wedding box.

So I've decided to cash my paycheck only once a month.  Limit my time in a casino. I've stopped daydreaming about seeing my name on a casino marquee: Jennifer won $10,000!  I know that is not going to happen.  At least not with my measly $3 bet.

That's the thing about living in Las Vegas.  Everything is a gamble.