How I Was Bitten by the Roulette Bug...The Tragedy That Ensued...With Pictures

[rjeaton1]

I was recently talking to a friend of mine (that I made here in the forum) and I was sharing with him the story of how I got hooked on roulette.  After telling him the story (that ends badly) he said I should share it with others, as it may inspire them to not make the same mistakes I had....so here goes.

Attached at the bottom of this post are some pictures of my W-2G's.  In case you don't know what a W-2G is, it is a tax form you get when you win over $1,200 all at once....I have blurred out all my sensitive info (social security number and drivers license number).

I had been playing roulette for awhile when this story begins...I just hadn't ever used a "system" or "method" or whatever you'd like to refer to it as.  I would just sit down at the table with my girlfriend and we would casually make guesses as to what we thought was going to come out based on...well...whatever we felt like basing it on at that present moment.

Now, here where I live (Northeastern Pennsylvania), I don't have access to live dealer table games unless I want to make a 2 hour drive to Atlantic City.  What I do have access to less than 20 minutes from my house is a casino called Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs and a little bit further away is another casino called Mt. Airy Casino Resort.  Both of these casinos offer roulette...but only in the form of Bally's TouchBet Machines.

These are electronic representations of the roulette table and are powered by RNG's.  One seat for one machine.  You can take as long as you'd like to make your bet...this was great for my girlfriend and I when we were making our "guesses".

Anyway, there was one trip we made to the Borgata in Atlantic City.  We were staying for two days.  I had the bright idea one day after my girlfriend and I had made $60 or so at a roulette table to go back to our hotel room and get my laptop out to search for "better ways to play roulette".  As I'm sure you can imagine, I had about a million and a half pages of reading material.  Finally I settled on what I thought was a good idea at the time...."The Martingale"...haha...man oh man...

But, I didn't lose on that trip we took to the Borgata.  In fact, I ended up leaving with a profit of about $200.  When I got back home, I read some more...and then some more...and found out before doubling my bet over and over again on red that it just simply wouldn't work.

What you've read so far is just about the end of the good news.  Just a bit more...then the tragedy, lol.

I thought to myself, "why not come up with a system of my own".   I needed some material to base this on, so I kept reading.  Then, I came upon "The Law of the Third" and how I'll probably die before I would ever see 37 numbers come out in 37 spins....and POOF...my system arose.

Ready for this?  If you're new to roulette, please keep reading.  If you're a seasoned roulette player, keep reading....the reason I ask you to keep reading is what you're about to read not only do I have proof of...but you'll see just how CRAZY a person can be when they think they cannot lose....it's quite sad what I did, but at least I learned.

Anyway...here is the system I devised based on the information I provided above...I'm laughing as I type this...man it kills me to know I did this...oh well...

Bet on every single number as it comes out with a progression.  For example: Spin 1 - 23...bet on 23...Spin 2 - 17...bet on 23 and 17...etc, etc.

Here was the progression I used (well, pretty close anyway)...Ready for this?

[table=,]Amount of Bet,# of Sq. Bet On,Single Bet Amount,Total Bet Amount,Profit/Loss if Won
1,1,1,5,30
1,2,2,7,28
1,3,3,10,25
1,4,4,14,21
1,5,5,19,16
1,6,6,25,10
1,7,7,32,3
2,8,16,48,22
3,9,27,75,30
4,10,40,115,25
5,11,55,170,5
9,12,108,278,37
14,13,182,460,30
23,14,322,782,23
40,15,600,1382,18
73,16,1168,2550,5
[/table]

So, I proceeded to use the system above.  I did this for OVER A WEEK without a loss...I was up almost $8,000 or $9,000....I'm not kidding, look at the picture I've attached below...I made those bets...crazy crazy bets....I was winning "jackpot" amounts literally every 45 to 60 minutes.  A "jackpot" amount is any amount over $1,200 in a single win.  Now, keep in mind, when I would "win" that jackpot amount, it was actually only a profit of anywhere from $2 to $5 (depending on if I was playing sidebets at the same time as "the system").'

Like clockwork, just about every hour, I would have to be hand paid by a slot attendant.  On the W-2G forms below, you'll see "type of wager = slot machine"  This is because I was playing a roulette machine...not a real table.  However, these machines are NOT programmed to only pay out a certain percentage of the money put into them.  They are by law, regulated to produce truly random numbers without taking into account any bet amounts or bet placements.

So, when you're using one of these "roulette machines" if you have a win of over $1,200, you cannot simply press "print ticket" and go away...a big alarm goes off and lights light up and everybody begins to look at you, wondering why in the h3ll you would ever put over $1,000 on a single spin of the roulette wheel.  The funny part is, nobody watching ever understood that I actually only made a profit of $5 to $10 on those crazy stupid spins of mine.

It got to the point where I was playing and I had 2 slot attendants standing withing 10 feet of me at all times...I'm not sure if they were there to try and distract me, see what I was doing or just to be ready for when they had to do a "hand pay" again.  (hand pay me my winnings in cash).

I was going to the casino every day, with anywhere from 40 to 60 one hundred dollar bills in my pocket (as I figured "hey, even if I do go past the 16th step of the progression, I'll just put some more money in the machine and win anyway").

I forgot to mention that I started with only $500...please, nobody try to replicate the little success I had...I was UNBELIEVABLY lucky now that I look back upon those fateful days.  Anyway, here is where it all goes awry....man oh man...

So, I go into Mohegan Sun and start to play as I usually do (I went to Mohegan instead of Mt. Airy as I was rotating casinos on a daily basis...sometimes switching between casinos half way through the day)

It was going well, quick wins without jackpot amounts.  Winning repeatedly on anywhere from the 5th to the 9th step of the progression...over and over again.  Then, I got to a point of the progression I hadn't ever gotten to before...the 17th step....now, I'll go ahead and do the math for you on this one...first off, I hit the table limit.  The table limit on the machines I was playing at mohegan were not capped as a table max...but a "per number" max.  

This maximum was $99 maximum on each number.  Want to know what I did?  I went ahead and put $99 on 17 numbers...that's right, a $1,700 bet...unfortunately for me...I won....I'll explain why that was bad in a second.

First, I'll tell you that even though I won that bet, I was down roughly $800 or $900...I can't remember exactly...but it was enough to knock a bit of the wind out of my sails...I mean, you cannot imagine what your heart feels like, how sweaty your palms are, how badly you're shaking when you have that much money on the table all on one spin....then the crazy feeling you have afterwards....

But...remember how I said unfortunately?  Want to know the first thought that went through my head?  "Wow, that sucks, I'm down $800...OH! Wait!  The table maximum at Mt. Airy Casino is $495!!  I'll go there from now on and I'll never lose!!"  (the "per number" maximum is actually 99 units...same as mohegan, but what Mt. Airy had that Mohegan didn't was I could change my unit value from $1 to $5 and still put 99 units on as many numbers as my Bankroll would allow).

So, I decided to take the rest of the day off and go to Mt. Airy the following day.  

To make what is already a long story shorter...I lost it all....plus $2,000 of my own money....all of it folks...plus some...You can't imagine what my girlfriend was saying....you cannot imagine what my drive home felt like....you cannot imagine how hard it was to sleep....and how hard it was to get out of bed the next day....awful...terrible really...

I haven't made a mistake like that since...I test the h3ll out of every system I come across and I've learned to cut my losses early if I do choose to play a system...sometimes, I lean a little bit too far on the side "stupid", but nowhere NEAR what I had done in the past.

So please, before you go and blow a ton of money because you too think you have "the casino by the groin"....don't, lol.

As for the pictures, they are below.  There are only 3 of my W-2G's here, but if you'd like to see more I've got twelve more that I managed to not lose.  I've made a promise to myself to not lose them as they are a "keepsake" of sorts...to remember what I did and what not to do again.

[rjeaton1]

You can actually see how often/quickly I was winning jackpot amounts by looking at the following info:

At the top of each slip you'll see "slip number  = #"

Those slips are are in a book that is used by the ENTIRE casino.  So, if they're on slip 1 and somebody wins a jackpot amount.  That person gets slip one.  At the very same time, somebody on the other side of the casino wins a jackpot, they'll be receiving slip number 2.

I didn't notice this until just now, but you'll see of those three slips I posted, two are just 5 numbers apart...that's from the WHOLE casino playing...that's how quickly it was happening.

[sean43]

Thats a massive shame Rj. Always look out for your posts and systems as they always seem the best.

Have you given up on roulette all together now?

[MATTJONO]

rjeaton1 I love your story.

I can imagine how you felt when you lost mate iv lost alot of money over a longer period of time all on electronic roulette in the bookmakers, however I havnt been on them for over 18months now and cannot understand why it took me so long to ban myslef from the bookmakers as I was losing pritty much all my wages each week I got paid (the shop I worked in was around 50 metres from the SADBLOKES bookies)

but rjeaton I have a feeling that you will get your $2000 own money back and alot more in the future, this was just a big lesson learnt for you and I think we all need one of those to realise the power of roulette.

the    even left you in your dream for awhile let you win and win the jackpot then take it all off you in the space of 10 mins.

thankyou for sharing  

MATTJONO

[purple]

Sorry to hear about your losses but thanks for sharing your story with honesty.
Consider this also :Even if you win negative progression systems unless you also have a sensible money management plan you'll end up a nervous reck forking out more money than you won at the doctors!
Only gamble sensibly knowing that no matter how good you are you can't go on winning and winning. Period.
I keep saying this but for me 'TheRouletteWinner.com' book by Lee Tutor is by far the best book I've read on the subject of how to win at the roulette as an investor.

[Skrizy]

Never ever use progression!! u will win some and LOSE some MORE, that is NOT a good strategy!!

Kind Regards,
Skrizy.

[Kingpin]

Thank you for Sharing your story with us, it is very important that we remember to share the bad ones aswell as the good ones. It takes a lot of courage. I respect you for that.

Good luck in the future.

Best Regards
Kingpin

[Shorty]

Good story, hopefully everyone will take it on board.

[VLSroulette]

RJ, good thing is you learned. This is the first step to get away from the "perfect loser" figure Manrique talked about.

The "perfect loser" never learns. He simply takes a beating, replenishes wealth and there he goes for the beating again.

Hopefully your story can make others have a minute for reflection and not making the same mistakes. This is why this community is here, to help each other; and sharing experiences does help.

Many thanks.

[rjeaton1]

@...well...everybody, haha...  Thank you very much for your kind words and support.

It doesn't mean I am done with roulette, I just figured I should share this story with everybody.  I'm pretty sure that all too many times there are people that are thinking along the same lines as I was (I can't lose)...and there story will probably end up the same as mine.

I'm certainly going to continue playing...but I have to say I test a lot more than I play now, haha.

The comment by Purple was funny, "spending more money at the doctor"...

Also, Mattjono, I've read a lot of your threads, and I'm pretty sure that you do know how it felt (not calling you a loser, but you too have shared with great honesty some of your more tragic experiences...it's always good to have these stories mixed in along with the good ones...keeps us all grounded).

As far as being the perfect loser...Although it was a bad experience to lose all that money, it definitely prevented me from being the perfect loser.  I don't think I could stomach those feelings again, haha.

[Phishalot]

Nice story. In Delaware we also have those machines. I like you had thought I could go to the machine and pull $500 + a day from these machines. I was not as agressive as you, but I did hit a couple for over the 1200 W-2G. I forget to put my comp card in alot and the day this happened I had forgot it at home. The comp card if in the machine will record your wins and losses. Anyway the card had me up for about $200 at the end of the year. I filed my taxes, had forgot all about the 2 big wins. Iget a letter back from the IRS saying I owed them more money. I couldnot figure out why and niether could my accountant. So he calls them up and they tell him that my income has to be increased by $2700. He tells them I have losses to of set it. They say I do not. Anyway they won, like always. Hope you had your comp card in when all this went down. If you did not I would try to document as much of the play as you can, before you get your letter. For some reason the IRS thinks everyone always wins when gambling.

Sorry if this is more bad news, just wanted to warn you.
Phishalot

[rjeaton1]

Thanks for the tip Phishalot!  Luckily for me, after my first day of playing this system (I had won only 2 jackpots my first day, as I wasn't "confident" that I had the holy grail...until the second day, haha).

Anyway, after my first day, I got home and looked up what a w-2g even was (as I didn't even know...I hadn't ever gotten one before).

After realizing my winnings were taxable, but I could write off my losses up to the amount that I'd won, I was sure to get a comp card.  I didn't ever forget to use it.

However, I also learned this valuable tip (for those of you paranoid about using comp cards)

Every machine or table has a serial number on it.  If you log the following information, the IRS will generally accept it as an alternative to a Win/Loss statement generated by the casino:

Serial Number of Machine, Time of Day Play Started, Time of Day Play Ended and (this part would be awful) every bet wagered on the machine whose serial number you have logged.

Oh, and for those of you still reading this thread, I forgot one interesting piece of information about my roulette story.  The total amount of money wagered in that week or so....ready for this?

In that week, between both casinos, I wagered (money actually laid down on the table) over $70,000.

Now, obviously I don't have 70k to just blow at a casino.  But, because I was placing such ENORMOUS bet amounts, bet always winning it back, I was more or less "churning" the casinos money back and forth between my hands and theirs.

[hot vegas night]

I can not believe people are actually falling for this.   Come on people, wake up and smell the coffee.   Rjeaton already admitted he changed the information on those w2 tax forms.   No one is going to be up over $8,000 off of $500 and give it all back, plus $2,000 of their own money,  unless they were a complete and utter moron.   I have seen rjeaton's posts before, and he is a very smart guy with good systems so I do not buy this story for a second.   It was obviously a joke from the beginning, I am amazed I am the only one here who realized it.

[rjeaton1]

I can not believe people are actually falling for this.   Come on people, wake up and smell the coffee.   Rjeaton already admitted he changed the information on those w2 tax forms.   No one is going to be up over $8,000 off of $500 and give it all back, plus $2,000 of their own money,  unless they were a complete and utter moron.   I have seen rjeaton's posts before, and he is a very smart guy with good systems so I do not buy this story for a second.   It was obviously a joke from the beginning, I am amazed I am the only one here who realized it.

I sincerely appreciate you saying "I'm a smart guy with good systems".  I really do.  However, I'm going to have to burst my own bubble on this one...I'm admitting to being a "complete and utter moron".

I've never posted the details of this horrific story before, but if you'd like more proof, I'll point you to the VERY FIRST post I EVER made on this forum.  You can find it here: nolinks://vlsroulette.com/full-systems/inside-number-system-wins-within-ten-spins-not-betting-every-spin/msg54242/#msg54242

Read that, you'll see I mentioned the story told here in that post.

The point of this story was this:

When you think you cannot lose, you'll behave in a manner that only a complete and utter moron would behave in...as I did.

I lost that money...all of it.  I'm telling you I couldn't sleep for weeks...and then when I did sleep I didn't want to get out of bed...sometimes I wouldn't.  My girlfriend had plans for that money...I had plans for that money...I had plans "for the thousands" I was "sure" to make...I'm telling you Hot Vegas Night, it was a terrible experience...

However, from the ashes of that experience rose the roulette player I am today.  The first system I posted on this forum (ten spins to win...linked to above) came from the fact that I didn't ever want to experience "gambling pain" like that again.

Had I not taken that huge loss, I wouldn't have bothered to learn any more about the game...and I also wouldn't have come up with any systems of any value...from that experience came the "smart guy and good system maker" (as you referred to me) that posts here today.

Go ahead and really examine those forms...they are not doctored.  I only had to blur out my Social Security Number and Drivers License Number.  If I was capable of doctoring forms so they looked that perfect...I'd probably be in another line of work, haha.  Those were my wins...if the casino gave out w-2g forms for losses I'd be putting those up here too.

In fact, at the end of the year, I'll be able to get my Win/Loss statement for each of those casinos.  I'll put those up on this thread too.  

[Proofreaders2000]

Hey RJeaton.  I understand where you're coming from.  I took it on the chin financially until I finally wised up and used better money management as a new bettor.  

I hope newcomers to roulette and gambling understand the moral of your story.  As I've learned it can be a very expensive lesson.

On the other hand, I am glad you are here at VLSRoulette.  I (as well as many others) are just as anxious as you are to see how new ideas for the game fare in testing.  It takes courage to continue after those early losses described in the w-2's.

[Proofreaders2000]

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