After I got divorced, I drove the kids from our home in Ohio to Napa California so they could spend the summer with their mom. On the way back I was getting tired and found myself pulling into Reno NV. I had never been in a casino before so I thought getting out of the car and walking a bit might help wake me up. I figured I had $40 I could lose so I decided to play slots. I ended up on the $1 slots. I started noticing that the machine I was on would pay out about every 3rd or 4th spin. I started putting in 2 or 3 dollars on these rolls. I won a few and lost a few and when I had $13 left of the original $40, I put in $2 and gave it a spin. I suddenly had bells going off, lights flashing, and nothing coming out. Never having been in a casino before I was a bit confused. The woman in charge of the machines asked me what I had and I told her. She said I won over $1500. I asked where it was. She laughed and said with amounts like that they have to fill out tax forms for it. Eventually the manager came out and had me fill out a form and walked off, leaving me there with bells and lights drawing a lot of attention. A few minutes later she came back, turned off the bells and lights and started counting out $100 bills into my hand. I won $1620. My trip was paid for.
The post script to this was hours later, just before leaving NV, I stopped at a truck stop for breakfast. While I ate, I played video poker on the machine at the table and one another $50. Breakfast and gas paid for.