In a city known for casinos attracting tourists, what do Reno locals think about gambling? Aimee Arellano went to a well known casino, the Grand Sierra Resort, to get a feel of what goes through the mind of Reno gamblers when wagering money. Audio feature here with script below:
Walking around local casinos, machines beep and light up.
The heavy smell of smoke can be overwhelming at first but when having fun and getting free drinks the smell slowly become less intrusive.
When no one is playing a machine, these always seem to be making noises related to promising payouts. But when the losing begins, what do people start to think?
“When you’re losing you want to believe it is rigged but I think it's all about luck at the end of the day,” Rizzo a Reno local says of his own gambling abilities.
“The most I lost was like $1400 at a blackjack table at the Peppermill,” he remembers, that big loss still etched in his brain.
Recently, Rizzo has turned to sports betting, which has become year-round, and increasingly within each game, with play by play possibilities.
“The most I have won on sports betting in a day is like $2000,” he says.
Another Reno local, Allen Palomino, also enjoys sports betting and likes to bet on his favorite teams, even though he says it may not be the best strategy with emotions getting in the way.
“I think it's the adrenaline, the feeling you can get when you can win a small amount of money,” he says of what keeps him returning to sports betting.
When does a fun hobby become an addiction though?
When you are on a long losing streak, trying to win lost money back, Rizzo said, can be a slippery slope.
“It's hard to stop because you're always thinking ‘I'm going to get it back I’m going to get it back’ but it just never comes back,” he warns others who might be thinking of getting into gambling.
Remember, he says, in the end, the house always wins.