Traveling and Gambling

Traveling Articles by:  Claire Voyant

Traveling to the different areas of the United States on gambling trips has allowed me to take in some of the most beautiful and scenic locations that the US has to offer. My favorite place I do have to say is the Lake Tahoe area, which is located in the high Sierra Mountains range of Nevada/California and the lake itself, spans the border of the two states.

Lake Tahoe is the highest elevation lake of its size in the United States sitting at 1.18 miles above sea level it is also the largest alpine lake in North America.

The water in Lake Tahoe is 99.9% percent pure and is so clear you can see to a depth of approximately seventy-five feet below the surface level.

The area itself has some of the most breathtaking scenery that you will see anywhere on the planet.


My first trip to Lake Tahoe was in the wintertime and my husband and I flew into Reno, Nevada. When we had made our way off the plane and entered the baggage claim area we were met by a very nice gentleman that had been sent by Harrah’s Casino to pick us up at the Reno airport and chauffeur us up to South Lake Tahoe in a very nice stretch limousine that had been furnished by our Casino Host. Needless to say, the limos bar was fully stocked which made the one-hour drive up to our hotel most enjoyable.

The scenery we took in on the drive was just simply beautiful. The snow covering the landscape and the alpine setting took me back to some special memories of my childhood growing up in the Appalachian Mountains when I remember how much I always enjoyed the snow days that let us off the hook for school.

After we traveled through Carson City, NV, which is about half way between Reno and South Lake Tahoe, we started making our way up the mountain. Along the way we could see several ski resorts and snowmobile locations that we thought about checking out during our stay. We crested the top and could then see the glistening blue of Lake Tahoe, which was absolutely a breathtaking experience within itself.

We reached the Harrah’s Casino and Hotel we were staying at and was torn from checking out the area's sights to the luring of the slot machine sounds coming from within the gaming area. We got checked into our very nice suite that our Casino Host had reserved for our stay and then decided to go down and try our luck on a few of the games. My first day there I was successful in keeping my money about even with what I started with for my gambling budget.

Later that night after a very delicious steak dinner we had in the Summit Restaurant we decided to head back down to the gaming floor and try our luck again. I sat down at one of my favorite slots, the “double red, white and blue” machine. I added a hundred dollar bill in the machine and started betting ten dollars a spin and about five or so spins into it guess what I hit?

That’s right, I had just spun up one of the top pay jackpots on the machine, the red seven with two double symbols following. I couldn’t believe I had hit for $12,000 so fast after just sitting down at that machine. Needless to say after that win, not to mention all of our other smaller wins, our remaining four-day trip didn’t cost us a dime and was even more fun. We were able to enjoy many of the other activities that Lake Tahoe had to offer, like skiing, snowboarding and driving the snowmobiles through the mountains, just to name a few. We also checked out some of the other area casinos too!

To top the trip off, on the drive back to the airport in Reno, we took the scenic route up the mountain and through Incline Village where we awed at the fabulous multi-million dollar homes built there. Once we reached the peak at the top of the mountain we stopped at an overlook area and could almost see the entire Lake Tahoe surrounded by the majestic Sierra Mountains and we knew then that we would be back again. It was one of our most memorable trips and such a great feeling to leave winners!