Life’s a gamble

R. Marsh Starks, Las Vegas Sun

Sunday, Oct. 15, 2006 | 7:26 a.m.

- At the Intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont Street -

Tom Dennis visited Las Vegas in 1981 and never left. After a long night of drinking and gambling, he found himself trapped in the Binion's Horseshoe parking garage with a dead car battery and $8 in his pocket. He lived in the car for 15 days before finally driving it out.

Today Dennis, 70, spends eight-hour shifts, four days a week, collecting money in a small parking lot due east of the Neonopolis and the Fremont Street Experience. "I'm bored but at least I'm not broke," he says. "The last 25 years I've been here, I've worked some, a lot for cash," he said about the odd jobs he's held. "Basically, to live here and gamble every day, you are going to wind up broke every day," he says.

"The way I see it, many years ago, when the underworld ran these casinos, they wanted a winner now and then. These big corporations, they just want people to have fun. They don't want any winners to speak of.

"I used to win an awful lot of money playing blackjack. Many times, probably too many, 90 or 100 times over the years, with a $200 start I'd win $2,000 or more," Dennis said. "The next day I'd stay up all night long, get free cigarettes, free drinks, free food and wind up going broke."

Dennis gave up the drinking and gambling shortly before taking on the parking lot duties nearly three years ago to supplement his Social Security and a small pension from his days in the grocery business in Southern California.

marsh.starks@lasvegassun.com