Las Vegas Casino Workers Share The Most Absurd Moments They've Witnessed

Casinos seem to attract an interesting bunch of people, don’t they? As these Las Vegas casino workers can attest, there are whacky and shocking things happening all the time!

[Source listed at the end of the article.]

“I work in a casino in Canada. It’s a pretty big Casino but nothing big ever really happens. A guy tipped me $3000 once which was nice.

Oh, when I was a slot attendant we were told that we weren’t allowed to let customers sleep on the slot machines because it was irresponsible gaming or something. I was walking around once and saw an old lady sleeping so I tried to wake her up. It turned out she had gone to the big casino in the sky. That was a weird shift.”

“I once saw a man collapse of a heart attack at a poker table, and then watched as the rest of the players tried to steal his winnings before security could get there.”

“This is a second-hand story from a lovely lady who was a dealer in Vegas. She was dealing at a blackjack table where you can do one of those wild side-bet things on certain rare hand combinations to get a bonus jackpot.

Anyways, one guy hit the jackpot and won $35,000. This was a big deal of course, and he grabbed his cards off the table to show his friends. The Casino immediately invalidated the play because it was against the rules to touch his cards. He did not get his winnings and was escorted out crying.”

(1/2) “I read this in an obituary for Australian billionaire Kerry Packer.

Packer was renowned for spending big at the tables, and for his generosity. During one trip, he had a table to himself and started talking to the dealer. Eventually she mentioned that she was struggling to pay her mortgage and feed her family. Packer then decided to tip her a massive amount of money, but the dealer refused (even though she was grateful).

Packer asked why, and the dealer said it was because all tips had to be shared with the dealer pool, and that his money would be going to other dealers.

Packer stopped her, and said ‘get your manager over here.’ She tried to interject, but he reiterated that she needed to get her manager.”

(Story continued!)

(2/2) “The manager turned up and Packer said ‘fire this woman immediately.’ Being the hugely powerful person that he was, the dealer was fired on the spot.

Packer then turned to the dealer and said, ‘Now you don’t have to share this with the other dealers,’ and gave her the full tip. She accepted (obviously).

Packer turned to the manager and then said, ‘Hire this woman immediately.’ She was hired right away, and got to keep the entire tip.”

(1/2) “I didn’t work in Las Vegas, but a casino in Oklahoma.

I worked the booth where people buy and cash in their chips. A man once brought a backpack full of money to my window. Like a huge amount of money. He requested $25,000 of twenties to be exchanged for hundred dollar bills.

This happens quite a bit, but $25,000 was way over the limit of what was acceptable to do without proper paperwork, so I requested his ID. All I needed it for was to type him into the system that checks to make sure he isn’t evading taxes.

But the ID he gave me definitely wasn’t him, unless he had Benjamin Button disease. The guy in the ID was in his 70’s, and the guy in my window was maybe in his late twenties, early thirties.”

(Story continued!)

(2/2) “Now, this is grounds to call my supervisor and fill out even worse paperwork, that we send to the police.

I had scanned the ID he gave me, and when my manager got there, she told him pretty much ‘obviously this isn’t you.’ He apologized, said he had grabbed his grandpa’s ID instead of his own, and that his was in his car.

He took his backpack, still with some money inside, left, and never came back. We just had 25K in twenties that remained in our vault until we got the report back from the authorities–I forget who we actually sent it to–that said our friend had knocked off the man in the ID in his own home and then robbed him.”

“Not in Vegas, but I dealt Craps for 8 years in Washington State.

I once had to shut down and sterilize a table because a guy relieved himself in the drink rail during a hot hand.

Most of the time, I just watched people who had had a few too many bounce from slot machine to slot machine.”

“I was in my city’s main casino after a night out, trying to claw back the money I spent on drinks as I do every time I go out. I was playing roulette when a guy came and put a couple of decent-sized bets down, with the majority of his stack on green.

I thought it was a ridiculous bet but he didn’t seem too bothered, and figured he was just having some fun. Anyway he wins, and seems completely unfazed by the whole thing, whereas I’m freaking out, and I’m not even the one who won.

He takes his winnings… and immediately throws it all down on red. At that point becomes a nervous wreck, losing all his composure as if it was his life savings.

It lands on black. He kneels down as if he’s winded, gasping for air. After about 20 seconds, he gets up, facial expression back to normal, and walks off. I never saw him again.

One of the weirdest things I’ve seen.”

“Where do I begin? I’ve seen a man treat himself with insulin, and then leave the needle in his leg for an hour because he won a jackpot when he first did it, so therefore it must be a lucky charm.”

“I once saw a person soil himself because he didn’t want to leave the table he was at.

I’ve seen people pass out after sitting at a slot machine for 36 hours straight, and I’ve seen other customers get mad because the paramedics interrupted their winning streak.”

“I was at my city’s biggest casino with my friend and we were playing roulette. An older gentleman came over in a wheelchair with another younger man pushing him. The older man continuously laid out thousands of dollars and placed it around the table. He’d lose it all and just throw another wad of cash out. The young man just stood behind him silently the whole time.

Pretty weird. I’m not sure if the young guy was a caretaker or a relative or what but that old man must have lost $10,000 in 15 minutes. It was almost like he was trying to lose the money.”

“I posted this once upon a time on another account, and it happened 10+ years ago at this point:

I worked at the front desk, and my sister worked in Housekeeping. She was assigned to clean one of the high-end suites…. The guests had left behind empty orange soda cans, like cases and cases worth, and confetti everywhere. The room had been booked by a single, middle-aged woman who seemed normal enough.

I can only assume whatever happened was filmed, so if anyone sees a movie scene featuring a hot tub filled with orange soda and confetti, you’ll know the story behind it.”

“There’s a great story about Australian billionaire Kerry Packer that he was at a poker table with some wealthy Texan who was complaining about Packers preferential treatment.

He said to Packer, ‘Im worth $70 million!,’ and Packer just looked at him and said, ‘Ill play you for it.’

The guy had guts, thats for sure.”

“A dealer I knew would play Keno on his break every day. One day, he won $30,000. On his next break, he ran over to the Golden Nugget with his $30k, went up to the craps table in the middle of a roll and said, ‘Gimme $27,000 Across’ and then placed the point for what he had left. The next roll was ‘7 out, line away,’ and he lost it all.

He went back to work a few minutes later like nothing had happened.”

(1/2) “I was playing blackjack with my buddies in a casino in the UK. We were having a good time, although we were being a little too boisterous for the casino’s liking. Nothing dodgy, just enjoying ourselves.

Anyway, our dealer changed to a dude called Steve, who was absolutely on his game. No hint of anything inappropriate.

Now, my buddy has a particularly good goose impression. That’s right, goose. He asks Steve if he wants to hear it. Steve doesn’t even flinch. So my buddy starts honking like a goose, and we’re all laughing and enjoying it.”

(Story continued!)

(2/2) “We then ask Steve to do his impression of a goose. Not a flicker. We ask again, and although he doesn’t acknowledge it, a brief hint of a smile breaks across his lips beneath his impressive beard. At this point we knew we had him.

Some gentle badgering later, out of nowhere, Steve honks like a goose! The whole table goes silent… And then we lose it, could not stop laughing. And laughing.

We were given a final warning and Steve was moved to a different table. Bless you Steve, wherever you are, because you made our night.”

“I once watched a guy who’d had way too much double up 8 times playing War. He started with $100, and walked away with over $12,000.”

“I lived in Las Vegas for 20 years, much of which was spent as a compulsive gambler, some of which was spent working for a company that manufactured and serviced card shuffling machines.

In a poker game I saw many years ago, an older player leaned across the layout to place a bet. His false teeth fell out of his mouth and landed on the felt. Without missing a beat, the veteran dealer removed his own set of teeth, tossed them out onto the table, and said, ‘The dealer calls.’

(1/2) “The one I watched happened early one morning, midweek, in a mostly-empty casino. I was playing blackjack at a table with a few other people. We had a roulette table next to us, opposite where I sat. The dealer stopped to shuffle, and one of the people at our table noticed that the ball had landed on ‘9’ for four consecutive spins. It had one of those signs that lights up and records the last X number of spins.

One guy at our table says to his buddy, ‘Hey, put some money on 9!’ The other guy says, ‘Not 9, 36! Four nines is thirty-six!’

So the player at our table, with his pile of chips in front of his chair on the blackjack table, stands up and places a bet on 36 at the roulette table. Before the dealer could spin, however, the pit boss intervened and told the hopeful bettor that he could only play at one table at a time. In other words, he’d have to give up his spot at the blackjack table to place a wager at the roulette game.”

(Story continued!)

(2/2) “The dealer was done shuffling her cards, so both tables were on pause until the guy decided what he was going to do, under duress of the pit boss to get both games moving again.

Blackjack had been going well, and his friend was still playing, so he sat back down with us at the blackjack table, grumbling all the while.

The roulette wheel spun and landed on 36. Because, how could it have landed on anything else? The guy freaked out, whipped his cards halfway across the casino, and was promptly kicked out.”

“My story isn’t too wild but it happened a few weeks ago and I’m still upset bc I hate obnoxious jerks.

I work as a fountain worker at a casino at the south end of the Las Vegas strip. A guy and his SO had an argument and smashed a bottle on the ground while waiting in line. He stormed out as our hostess called security. We found shards of glass in our food and display and liquid was splashed on everybody. What a jerk. The casino I work at has our own police so they found him quickly. I’m almost certain he was banned.

Sadly, overall, customers are pretty much the same everywhere else.”

“This was not in Vegas but I had a customer lose about $10k.

He’s walking to the ATM to get more money and the dealers let him know that there’s a $500 max withdraw on the ATM, but he can do a Credit Card advance at the cage for a lot more.

He comes back with $20k and loses that in 5 hands.”

(1/2) “Many years ago I worked at a casino that is on the Idaho/Nevada border. New Year’s Eve was always the craziest day of the year. The owner threw a giant party for all his high rollers, so there were no rooms available at the hotel (I worked the hotel front desk).

Tons of other people, however, would show up and attempt all sorts of bribery, trickery, and outright threats to hotel staff to get a room. The casino would be a tightly packed wall of bodies, and it would take forever to wade through it.

The one New Year’s Eve I worked, we had an elderly man pass away at a slot machine. Nobody noticed for a while, he simply slumped over in his chair with a bucket of quarters in his lap. Eventually, some woman wanted his slot machine and tried to rouse him before realizing he was gone. She panicked and began screaming. This kind of freakout is contagious.”

(Story continued!)

(2/2) “So other people around her started freaking out, but the place was so crowded people couldn’t get away. It took hours for security to make it over to this area, figure out what was wrong, calm people down, and get the body out of there.

The EMTs and cops eventually had to strap him to a stretcher and lift him over their heads to carry him out over the throng of people.”

(1/2) “One time we had a couple come in and check into the hotel with a stolen credit card. It didn’t flag as stolen at first, so we had no idea anything was amiss. Then the cops from Wells showed up looking for them. They had me page the name on the card, which was female. When that didn’t bring anybody forward, they had me page a man’s name.

A woman came forward hesitantly, and when she saw the cops, she dropped her tub of quarters and began wailing and crying. The cops handcuffed her while she sobbed, and we stood behind the counter at the front desk watching this.”

(Story continued!)

(2/2) “Now that they had arrested the woman, they had us page the guy’s name again. At this point, the dude decided to make a run for it. He went tearing through the casino, leaping over tables and stuff, with detectives chasing him.

He ran past the front desk and tried to get out of the casino but ended up slamming face-first into one the huge glass doors at the front entrance. It literally knocked him out cold. He slumped to the ground, leaving streaks of blood on the glass from breaking his nose.

It turned out this guy had broken into some old lady’s house, then beat her up and terrorized her for a while before taking off with her purse. She had lain there all night before someone found her. Once he had her purse, he decided to take his girlfriend gambling.”

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These comments have been edited for clarity.