My first gambling experience at a casino

Before my first visit to a casino I was quite a gambling novice, the most I’d done was place a $5 bet in the Melbourne Cup. I certainly wasn’t going into it expecting to make any money and I had no clear idea of what the casino would be like. I was going into it tagging along with friends and with no real expectations of my own.

After a couple of quick drinks on George Street we headed over to the Star Casino in Pyrmont. We made our way up two escalators to get to the casino floor. When we arrived I was surprised by how stimulating it was. It was just edging past midnight but this place was just getting started. The whole floor was covered in a soft purple glow with a bright spotlight over each of the playing tables. The rows of gaming machines were obviously popular with rows of people seated at each, but my group was being drawn to the live play.

Snappy dressers play blackjack?

We strolled past the blackjack tables and were tempted to stop and have a go. We stood and watched as a smart looking man in his business suit played two very quick games against the dealer. He won one and lost won in under five minutes, with a scotch on the rocks in his hand the whole time. I half wanted to join in the blackjack play but I was intimidated by the sharp businessman who made such quick and confident decisions. I knew I wouldn’t be able to match his level the fast rate he played at or live up to his high level of confidence. We shuffled on and watched other games as we went. It was fascinating to see players too wrapped up in their games, and the excitable crowd of fellow watchers anxious to see how the game would turn out.

Roulette is where the excitement is

And then we found the roulette tables. Each of these had even more people crowded around them. These had a lot more bustle associated with them. One table in particular was ecstatic. It was all full up with loud and kooky players who must have been on a lucky streak by the sound of it. Every now and then there’d be a loud whoop or cheer and everyone within earshot would glance round to see someone celebrating or cursing or laughing wildly.

Somewhere around this point my group of friends disbanded. There was a lot going on and each of us had a lot of exploring to do. I don’t know where the majority of them went, but later on I heard a lot about how Brandy “just knew” she had to put $10 on 24 black, her very first time at a roulette table and the very first bet she placed that night, and what do you know, she won. Nicole and I missed this though, we were being drawn to the calmer side of things.

We went to the section of roulette tables with the cheapest minimum bets and seated ourselves at a table with one other duo of friends at it too. They were a pair of Canadians who were visiting Sydney for the sun. Nicole and I got settled pretty quick, this side of the casino had more of a relaxed vibe. We chatted with the Canadian boys a little and ordered ourselves two deliciously sweet cocktails before partaking in the game ourselves. We weren’t there to win big, we were there to soak in the glamorous casino experience.

We even remembered to bankroll

We thought a modest $40 would be a good betting amount for us that night. Forty dollars gave us some space to place some riskier bets, in other words random individual numbers that we decided in that moment had “come to us” as well as safer bets alternating between black and red. Our theory was that this strategy would give us plenty of time to enjoy ourselves as pretend high-rollers for the night.

I can’t even remember what wins and losses we made, there was quite a bit of winning and losing that was hard to keep a track of. The Canadian boys attempted to teach us what all of our betting options were and tried to give us the secret tips on how to win, but their guidance didn’t lead us to any major winnings of note. We ordered exotic sounding cocktails, drank, played, talked, laughed and then some hours later headed home. We didn’t make any monetary winnings or losses of note, but everyone had a night’s worth of stories to tell and listen to the next day. Without leaving the city we were from we’d all had quite the adventure.

One piece of advice is to familiarise yourself with the rules of certain casino games before you head out for a night out at a land based casino. You can do this by playing online for free or real money bets at any of the leading online casino sites. We recommend checking out our top-rated casino site’s for players from United States, which have some excellent welcome bonuses available for new players along with a wide range of online slots, blackjack, roulette, video poker and other table games.