Lesson 1: It's hard to beat the house

WALLY HALL
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

LAS VEGAS -- There's no questioning the hook is there.
The bright lights, the chimes and bells, the sound of cold, hard cash crashing into the metal trays.
The Razorbacks, like millions and millions before them, were pulled into the casinos.
For the majority, it didn't take long to look at that hot horseshoe.
Not every player tried, but many did, and just walking through and casually visiting with them, it was obvious there was very little thrill of victory and a lot of heartbreak of loss.
Under age or of age, most tried the slot machines or the tables or both, and as one so humbly asked after dropping $100 in two hours, "You aren't going to use names, are you? I don't think my parents would be real happy."
Another said: "Just write I broke even."
Another said: "Man, my mom will kill me if she reads I was gambling."
Well, in this case, I've been there and done that, and the loss of the money is enough. Not to mention what it does to the ego.
That part has to be especially tough on an athlete who is used to competing. You just keep saying they can't do that to me and you get up, square up and fire at 'em again.
With the same results. You can't beat the house.
It is like Tennessee in the Arkansas game.
And I can identify.
In all my trips here, the strongest memory I have is going to bed hungry, two pennies in my pocket, and having made that lousy long-distance call home with a plea, "Dad, could you wire me some money to get home on?"
He did, but with a warning: Don't make this call again.
So in this case, since there are no crimes or accusations, only embarrassment and that sinking feeling in your stomach that you did something you promised yourself you wouldn't do, no names will be mentioned.
Besides, most got a taste of what it was really like and decided finding entertainment elsewhere was a lot less expensive.
Maybe Brett Shockley, Caleb Perry and Kenny Sandlin had the right idea.
They arrived at 1 a.m. Saturday, rented a car at the airport, drove up and down the Strip, popped in and out of a few of the upscale "cities within a city," as Sandlin called them, and then mapped out a plan for Saturday.
They slept from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m., jumped in the car and drove back out to the Strip, where they rode a roller coaster at the Sierra. It goes from zero to 60 in four seconds, does a loop, a spin or two and then fires you home backward.
They rode it five times.
"Now I'm tired of the casinos and the neon and ready to get work on football," Sandlin said.
Which was exactly what Houston Nutt had hoped.
"That's why they had no curfew the first two nights," he said. "We wanted them to get Vegas out of their system.
"From Monday to the bowl, we want their undivided attention because we still came here to win this game, and that won't be easy."
By late Saturday night, more and more players were hitting the reality wall and wanting to get to game preparations, if for no other reason than to get their minds off the casinos and their fiscal losses.
Although it did seem a couple of players had golden touches.
Every machine one guy played -- and he was playing for dollars -- spewed out coins, and every 10 or 15 minutes he was cashing in and putting the green in his wallet until he had more than $200 in winnings.
The other put a single quarter in a machine, just to say he played, but that turned into six quarters, then 30, and eventually a small bucket full.
"I'm finished," he said, but a few minutes later he was seen dropping a single quarter in a single machine.
When he lost, he walked away.
Of the Razorbacks who tried their hand, all walked away, most a little lighter in the pocket than they had been.

This article was published on Monday, December 18, 2000

RETURN to main page

Copyright and permissions
Copyright © 2000, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved.
This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.