Horror Stories Of Going Broke In Vegas Go Viral

Going broke in Las Vegas sounds like it's every bit as bad as you'd expect.

As OutKick readers are well-aware, I love Las Vegas. I go at least once a year, and have never had a bad time. Every single trip has been epic.

I've also managed to never go broke while in Sin City. The same can't be said for other people.

Reddit users share stories about going broke in Las Vegas.

An absolutely incredible Reddit thread of people explaining how they lost it all in Las Vegas is blowing up, and when I say it's a must-read, I mean it's a MUST-READ.

Check out some of the wild stories below, and hit me with your thoughts at David.Hookstead@outkick.com:

• When I was 22years old I went on a bender and blew all of my money accept for $1. I had maxed out my credit cards and couldn't reach anyone to send me money. Long story short, I ended up walking with my carry on bag from the Flamingo to the airport in order to catch my flight. It was 100 degrees out and I was super hung over, worst walk of my life. Learned a valuable lesson about making sure I had cab fare.
• Long before I lived here, I came to visit while on R&R from Afghanistan, St. Patty's Day 2010. I wanted to go home to Chicago for my two weeks, but my wife had moved her new boyfriend into our house, and to quote my 1sgt, "we aren't letting you turn a 2 week R&R into 25 to life, so anywhere but Chicago." I had about 20k in deployment pay saved up at that time, and rather than give her a penny in our impending divorce, I chose to come to Vegas, and have a blowout. Among the things I did that two weeks, I put 1k on black (lost), got a jacuzzi suite at the MGM for a week, bought 2 full kegs (1500$ each) at Nine Fine Irishmen's 3/17 bash, then stood on top of the kegerator they had on the brooklyn bridge replica and shouted "Free Beer 'til it's gone or you are!!", and a visit to Cheri's (i was headed back to the 'stan and newly single). The last three days of my two weeks here, I was flat broke, and camped out at the USO in McCarran, sleeping on a recliner in the media room. Mission accomplished.
• So broke we had to walk from The Stardust to the airport. Good thing we left a $20 in the car to get out of the airport parking lot. There was no such thing as ATMs in those days. We left The Stardust at like 2 in the morning.
• Probably my first trip to Las Vegas for CES circa 2002 or so. We were staying at the old Hard Rock where the Virgin is today. The entire week I was playing table games and up probably about $1,200. The last night I caught a case of full-blown stupid because they took all that money back. Then I get bit by "I’m gonna make this back and catch up" bug, and end up losing another $1,000 on top of that - all done in about five hours before my flight. I’ve never made that mistake again.
• When I first started coming out here looking for work. It’s nearly impossible to get a good food service job when you don’t live here so initially I had to pretend I was a resident and that cost me a lot of back and forth money for interviews. It was my final interview for a great spot, and I had no money for a hotel room so I had to just keep moving from casino bathroom to casino bathroom, sleeping in stalls until I would get kicked out and move on to the next one. I’ve never been so happy to see the sun come up. Now, 14 years later, whenever I stop to pee in certain casino bathrooms I’m like "awww, remember when you slept in here back in the day?" Keeps me humble.
• Got pickpocketed at edc back in 2016 so I had $0 luckily I had some joints I was able to sell for food money lol
• I was drunk on my birthday and took out $3k to play blackjack and blew it all in an hour but didnt give a sh*t til the next day when i saw my bank account.
• Was barely getting by at a call center after I finished college. When I finally got a job in my career, I quit immediately and got down to $8 a few days before my first paycheck at the new job.
• Around 1998, I stayed at the 4 Queens for days and was stripping at one of the clubs. I pulled out like $5500 from my credit cards and spent it all at Binion's in one day over the summer. I got kicked out. I was so broke and drunk. I remember being so depressed. I was also a college student in Texas. I didn't make a lot of money stripping... Maybe about $400/night.
• I was living in LA in 1983 and doing contract work with my cousin. One Saturday morning, he and one of our buddies decided that since I had never been to Las Vegas, we absolutely had to go RIGHT NOW. We paid our bills for the week, took the remainder of our $1k paychecks, and hit the highway in cousin's girlfriend's VW Beetle (minus the girlfriend - she knew it wasn't going to end well). As was foretold, we were completely broke by late afternoon and didn't even have gas money for the return trip. Cousin had to call his girlfriend and have her wire us $20. Back in those days the cage at the Barbary Coast was also a Western Union office. We eventually got the money, filled the tank, and spent the rest on beer and smokes.
• Back in 2018, fresh out the military with 12k in savings. got a rental car and drove all the way to Sheri’s Ranch at Pahrump and paid 2k for an escort. came back to Vegas and got a villa for me and my friends, gambled around 3k and lost it. Then spent the rest on expensive restaurants and Molly.

Here's some free advice that I can't believe needs to be said out loud, but I guess it does after reading those horror stories.

Do not gamble money you can't afford to lose. Don't do it. It's not worth it. Gambling should be fun. Going to Vegas should be fun. It should be a trip full of ice cold beers, blackjack, solid food and time with the boys. It shouldn't change your life at all.

I've never once returned from Las Vegas and found myself in a bad situation - mental, financial or otherwise. You know how you find yourself in trouble? Pull out a bunch of money you can't afford to lose and blow it. That will quickly ruin your trip.

My strategy is simple. I take out as much cash as I want to gamble, and I don't ever draw more money out of an ATM. Not one penny. When it's gone, it's gone. If I come back with some left over, great. If not, no big deal. Be smart, have fun and don't ever do something to end up on a Reddit thread like this one. Hit me with your best Las Vegas stories at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.