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Haunted Casino

 

Hello. I've been reading these stories for a while now, and I suppose it's time to share one of mine. This isn't my first experience, nor is it my most recent. Some of it is second-hand, but from a reliable source. Enjoy!

Quite a few years ago, I took a job working at a casino in Colorado. The area was considered a historical district, and many of the buildings had an "Old West" theme. Casinos were considered part of the history too. By itself, that tiny little town has a bit of a reputation for haunting - there's an old cemetery at the top of the hill, and there were many gruesome gold mine accidents. The old west was not a gentle place.

Anyway, I worked as a cashier, and after a few months I started hearing some stories about the building I worked in. The cocktail waitresses mentioned certain cold spots, especially in the basement, and nowhere near vents or other obvious things. There were random power outages. While power outages aren't uncommon in the mountains, they don't often happen in clear, warm weather.

Once in a while a few of us would wander over to another casino. It had the only room in town with only built-in table slot machines, and no one played them. It was sort of the casino-workers' bar. We could drink there in peace, without the constant ringing and flashing lights of our workday. Over time I struck up a friendship with a few of the security guards. They were about twenty years older than me, and mostly former military men. One night one of them started talking...

Every casino has tons of security cameras mounted into the ceiling. In the cashier cage alone, I counted forty of them. There are people up in a little room watching the live feeds all day, making sure no one cheats and that no minors sneak inside. He was walking around, not long after the casino opened, when the surveillance (the "eye in the sky") radioed him. They said there was a child walking around near the front door on the first floor. He took off to catch her. Not even children are allowed in the casinos, and if the gaming commission caught one, the casino would be fined some huge amount. He got to the first floor, walked around, and radioed back that he didn't see any kids.

Surveillance said she was there - a little girl, with a yellow balloon. He was standing RIGHT NEXT TO HER, yet couldn't see her. He was pretty shaken, and not long after, the girl disappeared.

My friend didn't want to talk much about it, when I asked, even when I offered to buy another pitcher of beer. I asked what she looked like, and he didn't know. I asked if surveillance had saved the tape - and there he got really dodgy. He said the tape had been destroyed, taped over. I was horrified. He said that the managers didn't want that kind of publicity for the casino. They thought it would scare people off. (As I got to know the managers, I could tell they were the kind of people who would do that)

I talked to a couple other coworkers who'd been working there that long, and they corroborated his story. Weird things continued to happen there, now and again, as well as other casinos up and down the street.

I haven't been back since I moved, but I suspect they still go on, perhaps even more so since they did some modest remodeling. Several other new casinos moved into the area as well - I have no idea if they have problems today.

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generalchaos (2 stories) (141 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-13)
[at] LouSlips - yeah, ok. You got it. *dingdingding* BlackHawk/Central City can be pretty creepy. You gotta figure, with having been a HUGE gold mining area, and mining accidents, and being in the Wild West... There are plenty of ghost stories of the area.
I didn't experience much myself while I lived around there, but I did hear quite a bit.

The casinos there don't all have hotels attached. Some are bigger than others, and I'm aware that some of the bigger, more well-known casinos have built there. The casinos can be big or small. The idea was that casinos were were a "historically accurate thing, so they could be built to fit with that theme.

[at] Fanny - EWWWWWWW... That's awful.
Javelina (4 stories) (3749 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-12)
[at] Fanny,
Holy crap! That's disgusting! At least they made an exception for bloody money! I can't believe they don't make an exception for other soggy money. It's still a bodily fluid...blechhhh! I think I'll go and shower now.

Jav
Fanny (2 stories) (105 posts)
+2
13 years ago (2011-09-12)
Jav,

I can relate to working at a casino. I was a table games dealer for two years. There is absolutely nothing worse then someone handing you a wad of wet sticky money. YUCK! Unless there is blood on it management will make you accept it and the ACGO rules state that as a table games dealer your not allowed to touch anywhere on your person while on the floor. So basically someone hands you a wad of nasty money and you can't wipe your hands... At least in the cage you can run straight for the hand sanitizer!

That was off topic sorry 😊

Best,
Fanny ❤
Javelina (4 stories) (3749 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-12)
[at] Lou,
I learned my lesson already Lou. I'm not going out in the desert anymore until the issues at the border get straightened out.
All I've found lately are shell casings. I'm not hanging around to find the teeth.

Jav
LouSlips (10 stories) (979 posts)
+2
13 years ago (2011-09-12)
GC,
Sounds like Blackhawk to me... Had a few creepy feelings there myself.
Jav,
Better be careful with that metal detector...you'll be stumbling upon somebody's gold fillings one of these days.
Granny,
They aren't hookers... They are vertically challenged entrepreneurs.

Lou
Caz (342 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-12)
Generalchaoes...Silly me... I thought 'all' casinos were hotels! 😆 I did find the insight into working in casinos very interesting and have worked as a cashier several times in my working life! Thankfully though, I've never had to handle money that a customer had extracted from a 'dodgy' place! I still couldn't wait to scrub my hands at breaktime though! I did have one experience with 'extra' dirty money! It was a Friday night in Oxford St. [London] and I'd just finished work and collected my week's wages! We were paid in cash in those days [70s]. A yound woman snatched my purse out of my hand and ran off! I took off after her, screaming 'stop thief' at the top of my voice! A black London cab pulled alongside me and the cabbie [London cabbies are the salt of the earth] and asked me what was wrong! When I told him, he chased after her and by the time I'd caught up with him, he had her 'cornered' in a side street! Between the two of us, we managed to keep hold of her until the police arrived! The police found my purse on her [empty] and she told them she had passed the money to a friend! However, after giving my statement at the police station and being told that this woman was 'wanted' by them for 'soliciting' amongst other things, I was told they had recovered my money from her, but I would have to leave it with them for several days as it was 'evidence'! When I went back to collect it, the officer gave it to me in a plastic bag! He then told me [with a wry smile on his face, that they had found the money 'hidden about her person' and advised me to take it straight to a bank and change it without touching it! Arrrrgh! Needless to say, I took their advice! 😆
generalchaos (2 stories) (141 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-12)
[at] Caz and Geetha - I don't know of any that committed suicide right at the casino *I* worked at, but I know at least a couple had died there of natural causes.

The little town these casinos are at is at around 8500 feet. Denver is at 5000, and many people don't acclimate well. The air is thinner, alcohol hits harder, and there's this condition called altitude sickness... A friend of mine who dealt blackjack told me of one older man who won - then in the excitement, had a heart attack and died right at her table...

There may be suicides at the hotels, however... I just don't know about those. A lot has changed since I moved from that area.

Thanks for washing your bills.:) You never know where they've been. Take a look at your coins, too. Sometimes something interesting pops up.
DragonStorm80 (1 stories) (440 posts)
+1
13 years ago (2011-09-12)
Woah remind me to get my senses on next time I am at the casino! 😆

Good story, awesome replies, I will NEVER cash in money at the casino without washing the notes first 😆

And yes I DEFINATELY want to go to Las Vegas! 😊
geetha50 (15 stories) (986 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-11)
Hi Caz,
I know many people do crazy things when they lose all of their money, including suicide but I didn't stop to think about the ones who did that at the casinos... That's food for thought!
Caz (342 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-11)
Hi guys, I read these stories often, but don't often comment! However, I just had to say something here! Wow! Not just a great story, but great interesting comments too! Reading them also made me wonder how many people may have committed suicide in these casinos, after having 'lost their shirt' at the tables! I did feel sorry for the little girl though! I hope she's found peace now!
geetha50 (15 stories) (986 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-10)
I live in Toronto, Ontario in Canada but if I ever come to the states I will let you know...
generalchaos (2 stories) (141 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-10)
Well, geetha, if you live in the area - near Denver or Boulder, let me know and I can tell you where it is privately.
I don't live there anymore - I live in Washington now.
Javelina (4 stories) (3749 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-09)
Oh yeah, I once found four counterfeit ten dollar bills. That was pretty cool. And as soon as I got security over to the booth that was it for my shift. They spent the next three hours tearing through all the cashier booths while we all sat at the sports bar.

Jav
Javelina (4 stories) (3749 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-09)
[at] generalchaos,
Oh for sure! I was interested before I became a cashier, but once in the booth it was like I hit the mother-lode!
I had an older lady bring in a roll of mercury dimes once and I tried to talk her out of it. Not a chance man! She wanted to gamble, so in the end only I won on that deal.
Then it was the clads, I've still got a lot of those old coins I collected while I was a cashier. Now I own a metal detector that I bought that for meteor hunting out in the desert but I've found a whole lot of coins with it too.

Jav
geetha50 (15 stories) (986 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-09)
generalchaos,
I get what you are saying. But I don't mind going and doing some investigation and see what I find. With to many people at the casinos, they probably thing I was crazy.
zzsgranny (18 stories) (3329 posts) mod
 
13 years ago (2011-09-09)
JaveL That sounds like a great idea, but you know what happens to old casinos here... They implode them 😆...I fear The Sahara may be the next one to go 😢
generalchaos (2 stories) (141 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-09)
Oh, and geetha50 - I would have LOVED to get some evidence of haunting myself... But I was just a lowly cashier, and while the place wasn't open 24/7, it was busy and loud nearly ALL the time, even on slow days. Slot machine ring and jingle every few seconds whether or not someone's playing... I didn't really have an opportunity, and had I tried, it probably would have been seen as "inappropriate" and gotten me into trouble during a time I could not have afforded financial difficulties.
generalchaos (2 stories) (141 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-09)
[at] everyone - yeah. This incident happened between '92 and '97. I have no idea what the origin of the little girl was, and I'm certain the security guard wasn't joking with me.

[at] Javelina - totally! I had people pulling hot, sweaty bills out of all kind of places... Socks, bras, tops of thigh high stockings... My hands started drying out from all the sanitizer I was using constantly!
That said, there were not a few of us cashiers who were also coin collectors. I had one little old lady come in with a JAR of old silver dollars, and cashed them in for playable coin. I told her I was sure they were worth something more than one dollar each, and she said "Oh, I don't care. They're all too worn out too be worth much... You can buy them, maybe they'll be worth more when YOU get older." They were from the 1910s-20s...
So I did. I had to share, a couple of the other cashiers caught wind of it. I saw a old $2 silver certificate come through (yeah, one of us bought it) and a few buffalo nickels, and even an old hollowed out nickel. Casinos don't come immediately to mind thinking of places for coin collectors, but yeah... Those and banks.

There's another quick story - I never really heard much about it, except another casino up the street had a painted portrait of a woman's face on the floor. The story I heard was that a young man was hired to decorate the casino, and painted the image of his beloved girlfriend/fiancee/new wife who had died recently of TB or childbirth... Anyway, as he finished it up, he died. They say late at night near the portrait you can hear their voices, whispering to each other.
Javelina (4 stories) (3749 posts)
+1
13 years ago (2011-09-09)
Why would they ever leave? There are unending sources of energy, every where you look it's nothing but lights. They surely can't be lonely. If anything, it's probably too crowded!
And now that ghost hunting is so popular, I can't believe someone in Vegas hasn't already thought of buying some of the real old casinos and re-opening them for nothing but ghost hunting. They could rent out the rooms for even more money than the fancy ones charge.
You know people would flock to something like that.

Jav
DARKNESS (3 stories) (2022 posts)
+1
13 years ago (2011-09-09)
Hey Jav I never really like going to the casino probably because I suck at gambling lol, although I do alright at betting on horses lol.
I was just thinking can you imagine some of the big casinos there, if they were shut down for one day and nobody was in there, the amount of residual energy that would still be lingering around! Geez
Javelina (4 stories) (3749 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-09)
I'm from way back in the old days. We would drive up to Vegas and stay at the old school casinos for the night and end up never even going to the room.
They don't have windows or clocks in the casinos That way you don't notice the sun has come up (or gone down again). The food is cheap, but good. As long as you are gambling, your drinks are free. They do whatever it takes to keep you from leaving.

Jav
Javelina (4 stories) (3749 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-09)
Oh, you still go to Vegas, but after the first few days are played out, you get the locals like granny and PIP to take you to the local hang outs.
That's where the real fun begins!

Jav
DARKNESS (3 stories) (2022 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-09)
I know what you mean Granny it's like certain suburbs here, just keep driving through unless you want to get robbed and stabbed! Lol!

So that were we all go when Aussie, Stacey and myself come over to visit you all! 😁 😁 ❤
zzsgranny (18 stories) (3329 posts) mod
+1
13 years ago (2011-09-09)
DARKNESS: When you live here, you learn the places to avoid like the plague... The Strip and Downtown are places we go when we get company 😆
DARKNESS (3 stories) (2022 posts)
+1
13 years ago (2011-09-09)
I would love to go to Vegas one day I'm sure there would be thousands of stories of hauntings there!

Granny do you go there very often? Why can I picture you at a slot machine with a pina colada? 😆

Great story generalchaos, thanks for sharing.

Dan
PrettyInPain (3 stories) (153 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-09)
zzsgranny- Dag nabbit, how could I leave out the hookers? And Freemont Street experience is awesome! The only reason I'd roam very far from that area would be to go to the Griffen. That place rocks! 😁
zzsgranny (18 stories) (3329 posts) mod
 
13 years ago (2011-09-09)
PIP: You forgot to mention the hookers! 😆...I love it downtown, as long as I'm within the Fremont Street Experience! LOL...
zzsgranny (18 stories) (3329 posts) mod
 
13 years ago (2011-09-09)
Jave: The "feel" of the Downtown casinos is definately different than the ones on the strip... I really have no idea why Bugsy would be haunting the Trop, because his casino was the Flamingo, but anyway 😆 I think that story is BS... That hallway is creepy though... 😨
PrettyInPain (3 stories) (153 posts)
+1
13 years ago (2011-09-08)
Jav,

Haha, the only thing downtown Vegas is crawling with is bums, drug dealers, and numerical streets! 😆
Javelina (4 stories) (3749 posts)
+2
13 years ago (2011-09-08)
[at] zzgranny,
I would think all of the old "downtown" Vegas would be crawling with spirits. But it's the outskirts of town I'd really be spooked about. You just know there has to be unmarked graves out there in the sticks.
OK, now I'm starting to scare myself! 😨

Jav

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