In the middle of my life, we made a few trips to Las Vegas with several other couples. For me the purpose of our trips was not to make our fortune, but to enjoy the hotels, the food and the shows.  

Gambling was an entertaining side line. I am far too miserly to enjoy seeing my hard-earned money disappear into a one-armed bandit or at a black jack table. 

I’m not a complete anti-gambler and so I spent some time each day playing the quarter machines. I have a strict 20 dollar loss limit. I am that cheap. My wife is even more pecuniary than me. She played the nickel machines and in the old days the penny machines. Her loss limit was five dollars.  I never had any big wins.  My friends told me that you have to go big to hit any jack pots. 

One trip with our friends Anne and Earl from London did have an interesting happening.  On Sundays we had a tradition of making our way along the strip and spending a roll of quarters at each of the half dozen casinos.  The four of us would enter the casino each go our separate way and meet in an hour at the front door.  The spending limit was 10 dollars per casino.  At Circus Circus, the second casino of the morning, we regrouped at the front door at the appointed time.  Earl and I had lost our 10 dollars each.  My wife had spent her five dollars worth of nickels.  Anne did not show up.  We waited and waited but no Anne.  Half an hour went by and she did not make an appearance.  Her husband became quite frustrated and mumbles about her lack of punctuality and inability to tell time.  We waited.  In about an hour Anne emerged.  Earl was in a huff and asked he why she was so late. She let him run out of steam and then told us that she had hit the jackpot and won $13,500.  She  was late because she had to go to the casino office to be issued a cheque.  Earl changed his tune and called a taxi and we went to the MGM Grand for a lobster lunch.

On another trip with two different couples, I discovered that Don was a black jack aficionado.  But he only played at night.  His theory was that the amateurs played during the day.  So, after the late night show our wives went to bed and Don and I found a table with a friendly dealer and settled in to play.  He was my coach.  We probably played from midnight until four o’clock in the morning.  As I recall, Don was down about 20 dollars and I was up about 17 dollars.  Bill our other friend played at a different table and won big.  He was invited to play at the high-stakes tournament table the next afternoon.  In less than two hours he was back to zero.

On a different trip, again six of us but a different other two couples, we gambled conservatively, saw some wonderful shows, had great meals and went downtown one night to see the laser light show.  None of us lost much or won anything.  When we got to the airport to go home of course there were dollar slot machines ready to take your last quarter. Jim had run down to his last three quarters and so he borrowed a quarter from Earl to play the slot machine just before we boarded.  The machine coughed up 20 dollars.  Jim was thrilled and gave Earl his quarter back.  Earl was not satisfied.  He felt that he was owed five dollars because one quarter of the investment was his.  This argument continued virtually every time we were all together for the next two decades. 

Our last trip to Vegas was a stop on the way to Arizona.  We flew with our brother- in-law and his wife into Las Vegas for two nights then on to Laughlan and on to Phoenix to visit friends there.  We had reservations in Las Vegas and Phoenix but not in Laughlan which was enroute. Laughlan is on the Colorado River and at that time there was only one hotel.  

When we arrived in early afternoon the line up to register was a mile long. It looked hopeless to get rooms for the night. We scouted out the lobby and I noticed a pay phone on one side not too far from the registration desk. We had a brochure for the hotel so I went to the pay phone and called the hotel number. I told the clerk that answer that we would be arriving in a couple of hours and I wanted to book two rooms for the night.  He told me that they only had a few rooms left but he took my credit card and reserved rooms for us.   was close enough to the front desk to see the clerk that I was talking to. We spent the afternoon lazing around the hotel pool and casino and about two hours later approached the desk. We were told that they were sold out for the night but they honoured our reservation.

As I look back on my life I gambled far more as a farmer than and Las Vegas or on river boat trips that we took.  We have been on several cruises and never even bothered to enter the casino on board. 

Farmers are the ultimate gamblers.  When we bought western cattle, we gambled on how well they would make the trip to our feedlot.  We took a chance on how many of the calves would survive.  Some years we had a  100 percent survival rate.  One year we lost five out of the 50 calves.  That was the profit.  Cost-in and cost-out was another big gamble.  At the time we played the cattle game, the stocker prices were very volatile and the margin was small.

Today the big gamble is the weather at harvest time.  We used to have to pull the white beans before combining them.  Once they were pulled and windrowed, they were at high risk if the weather turned sour.  We lost one field of beans.  It rained for a week after they were pulled. 

Farmers gamble on the markets too.  Selling to a grain buyer at harvest is only one way to sell soybeans.  Another alternative is to store them either commercially or on the farm.  Farmers may also set the price for their soys before harvest by signing a cash-forward contract with a grain buyer.  You win some and you lose some.  Farmers gamble on their machinery.  Do you buy or do you lease?  Will the combine make it through another season?

Soybeans and corn are two of the major world crops and our prices are influenced by the crop size and quality in the U.S. and in South America.  Those crops are highly influenced by weather in both countries. The price is also influenced by China which is the largest buyer of soybeans. 

Putting a quarter into a slot machine seems pretty simple compared to the complication of growing and marketing crops. And by the way, the quarter slot machines now take four quarters at a time.  ◊