My turn to win the big one finally arrives

I hit my first major gambling jackpot this week and it was exhilarating and kind of frightening at the same time.

A few weeks ago my area was hit by a tornado. It was rated an EF0 but the cloud was huge and appears that it could have been so much worse. The twister formed not that far from where I live and it was scary when things got dark and hail pounded the windows.

There were homes and vehicles damaged in the area and I believe it is probably the closest I have come to losing everything or suffering major damage.

Since then when trying to make a decision, a thought comes to mind and it is, a tornado could blow me away tomorrow so do it.

So a friend and I went to one of the area casinos this week as I wanted the steak dinner.

When we arrived and got the menu I started thinking do I really want to spend $42 on steak. Then I thought a tornado could come tomorrow and blow me away so I’m getting the steak.

After eating it was time to play. I put $20 in a machine and it was stale. I tried a second machine and again it was full of worthless spins.

So then I wondered to a third machine. It was new to the casino. I didn’t get the name but the theme is scratch off tickets and it features Scooge McDuck, the Moneybags guy, the Red Ruby lady and I believe the Neptune woman.

So I set the screen to four ducks as I love the quacks, and begin playing. After a while my $20 had increased, decreased and increased again. I one point I had $64 and I told my friend if we leave now I would be $4 ahead. She always shakes her head at my thought process. 

But then I stated, “You know a tornado could come tomorrow and wipe me away so I’m playing.”

I continued to play and I hit a bonus round which consisted of red spins, which is a screen of scratch off tickets. After several spins one of the tickets had the wheel bonus.  So the wheel appeared. It had all of the rubys that represented jackpots and the word Frenzy which represented the grand jackpot of over $20,000.

I looked at the word and the amount and told my friend I would be very happy if I hit the frenzy. 

Then I hit spin.

To my complete amazement, the wheel stopped on the magical word and suddenly I was the lucky winner of a $20,759.12.

I was stunned, amazed and shocked that I hit that much on a $2 bet. Management arrived and collected the needed information and returned a short time later to tell me my prize was ready.

They rewarded with me stacks of $100 bills that we counted and placed in a Fort Knox bag. I was in such a state of shock that I placed the loose change in the tip jar, only to think later that was rude.

Security offered to escort me out to the vehicle, but I located my friend who wanted to stay, but I was too excited and a tad frightened that I would be targeted by some desperate soul. So I was like let’s go.

I didn’t not want to walk around the casino with stacks of 100s.

We left, I secured the wad, took a few bills and we headed to another casino where I promptly lost, but I figure a free play will arrive.

There was no sleeping that night. My mind was racing with thoughts of paying bills and other things I could do. Finally daybreak arrived.

I searched the wad for  * notes and found a few. I pulled them out and headed to the bank where I deposited a cool $19,000. I didn't even take the time to stamp Where's George? on them.

Then I came home, paid bills and bought stock. Next goal is grading some cards.

I have been playing the slots for 21 years, and never had hit like that. It is probably a once in a lifetime thing for me, but you never know.

But I’m glad that the tornado scare, scared me into making the decision to adopt the gamble like you are dying mode. It paid off and instead of a storm blowing me away, a casino win blew my debt away.