Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Set your story in a casino.

Posted in Adults on Jan 6, 2023

Submissions are closed

Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or use an email address:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 33 stories

The Lord Hath Taken Away

Submitted to Contest #180

The sound of the horse hooves clopping on the dead earth helped me forget the ranch. I followed the horses to the scrapyard where the animals weaved through the burnt-out husks of Nissan Maximas and Scania trucks. The horses trod more lightly in this constrained space. They neighed when they struck their shanks against the metal. They neighed when they were confused which way to turn to be free of the cars. I thought I'd follow the horses wherever they led as I had no place to be. They were wild horses.But before I knew it the horses had gal...

23 likes 9 comments 9
Read story

Playing Alone

Submitted to Contest #180

PLAYING ALONE    She was half my age wrapped in a gold dress. She sat beside me, buying into the game with five hundred dollars. My blackjack table had nine empty stools and she picked the one that put her thigh against mine. I tapped for another card and busted out. She patted my back in sympathy.    She waved off the dealer ignoring the game. “You’re in here a lot.” She said, touching my ring hand. I anted with my free hand.    “I got nowhere else to be.” I was dealt a king, the dealer had a ...

20 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Final Gamble

Submitted to Contest #180

Jack stood at the mirror, hands resting on the edge of the white porcelain sink as he watched his reflection stare back at him. The muffled sounds of music, slot machines and crowd chatter pressed against the bathroom door, exploding into second-long symphonies each time it flung open to welcome a new patron. The air pulsated with swells of positive energy and potential, an invisible invitation to a shot at becoming one of the so-called lucky ones. Jack had felt a similar euphoria in this casino every weekend for the past ten years, but toda...

18 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

One Last Gift

Submitted to Contest #180

Roxanne Guinevere Reardon never had the chance to get to know the woman who had given her such a mouthful of a name, but she knew that it had something to do with her father not being at the hospital the night she was born, during a spring blizzard in midcoast Maine. Roxy, as she was commonly known, was nearly a teenager before she thought to wonder at her origin story, but by then, her mother had been dead for years, and her father in prison for her murder. The only person she could ask was her Aunt Brenna, and she was too busy raising Roxy...

17 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Take a Gamble?

Submitted to Contest #180

Malory awoke and turned towards Benjamin. Her outstretched hand moved without impediment and dropped atop the comforter. Rolling back, removing the eye mask that blocked the lights of the Las Vegas strip, the clock read 3:17.It was too much. She rolled out of bed and went to the drawers, where hours before, she had unpacked before she and Benjamin had joined his entire family for dinner. She hadn’t wanted to come on the trip at all. Benjamin pretended it was all fun and games for him with his family, but Malory knew that it was different for...

16 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

Play the Card as She Lies

Submitted to Contest #180

You never hit on seventeen. Everybody knows that. Unless you’re me.            For most people, the fun is in guessing right and beating the dealer. I know every card in the deck before she’s shown. I call the cards “she” because I can read them before they fall, and they never lie.            I discovered my unusual talent at age 5. My 1st grade teacher held up flash cards with pictures of animals. I named the animal before she tu...

15 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

Sex on the Beach

Submitted to Contest #180

Everyone knows the Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway is only good for one thing—regret. It boasts a whopping three-point-nine stars to its Google reputation, but Stacy argues about three-point-seven of those stars can be attributed to inebriation and cognitive dissonance of the highest degree. Nevertheless, the top review never fails to make her laugh.  “4/5. Fun place, but the bartenders are a hit or miss.” Stacy, bottle-blonde, tip-finessing prodigy, is the hit. For one more night. Wren, the sad excuse of a bartender they’ll be l...

15 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

What Happens in Vegas

Submitted to Contest #180

Dana could feel the morning light shining through her closed eyelids and it made her eyes ache. What a night. She must have left the blackout curtains opened before going to bed. Her head felt heavy and fuzzy from the night before. She laid there trying to decide whether to get up and close the curtains to get a few more hours of sleep or just pull the blankets over her head and call it good. As she scootched her body further down under the covers, flashes of the last couple of days ran through her mind. It was only a few days ago when Dana’...

15 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

The richest thing on earth!

L J

Submitted to Contest #180

He was tired of cleaning up after people. His job sickened him more every day. Casino housekeeper..blah..He cleaned up champagne smelling vomit, cocaine sprinkled blood, even a diamond -encrusted stiletto heel from ...one of those. Women...He'd wanted to be a blackjack dealer; he practiced every day. He said hi to the casino bosses, he even wore a bow tie with his housekeeping coveralls. He'd come to Las Vegas with stars in his eyes.". I am gonnna be rich, someday. I can feel it!". He had his good luck charm, a new poker chip that he found o...

15 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

The Gambler

Submitted to Contest #180

The Gambler Kage Griffin sat down at the blackjack table with $10,000 worth of chips he’d just won from craps. Tonight was his night. He was going to start earning back all the money he’d drained from his children’s college funds. He motioned to the waitress who was wearing a tiny French maid costume, “Double scotch on the rocks, honey.” “Sure thing,” she smiled. It was a challenge to file a sexual harassment complaint when she was showing half her boobs, she reminded herself. Plus, this was a customer who obviously had a lot of money t...

15 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

The Poet, the Gambler

Submitted to Contest #180

It is said that the glitz and glamor of the city casino rivals the shine of the stars themselves and that humanity, like moths to a flame, is too foolish to resist when the dazzling gates open forth. Humans like to pretend they’re better than the creatures that surround our world, but even those at the top of the chain fall for a carefully placed trap and some cheese. This night in question drew a greater crowd, for word had gone far that tonight would be one to remember forever. Within these gilded halls resided a man, a Great Gambler, know...

13 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Monte Carlo

Submitted to Contest #180

There are many casinos in the world but none that felt as special as ‘le Casino de Monte-Carlo’. The exterior could be described as classically beautiful and palatial, while the interior envelopes you in elegance and sophistication. Being close to the Italian border, it received a fair share of the wealthy patrons from both France and Italia. Not including the international jet-setters or the mega-rich, who moored their sleek yachts in the harbor. Appearing to be part of the scene, I wore an Armani Tuxedo, gold Blancpain watch and, diam...

12 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

Hit or Stay

Submitted to Contest #180

The only game I know how to play is blackjack. But knowing how to play is very different than knowing how to win. Gambling isn’t something I get a thrill out of. However, since my somewhat close friend, Keith, is getting married in the Spring, I agreed to spectate as he and his brother test their fates on the tables. Keith and Terry are hypermasculine, the football type, but they are both under six foot and constantly express the regret I should have for not trying out as a six-foot-two introvert with mild haphephobia. The Mills Lodge C...

12 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

that's just show business

Submitted to Contest #180

tw: brief mentions of body image-1956Cindy is 14.  Sometimes, when I close my eyes at night I see a woman.  She drips with jewelry and burgundy silk.  Gold lays on her neck softly, coiling around her wrists in dainty loops. Her hair is in pins and her teeth are the color of paper.  I see her now, on the stage. She’s swaying as she sings; her voice comes from deep in her stomach.  In the heart of the stage, her body doesn’t reflect the spotlights that hit her; she soaks them in. The beams wrap around her, sliding unde...

12 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Easy & Slow

Submitted to Contest #180

Jack sat at his bench, as he did each night, and he considered smashing his head through the keys. No. This time, he wished the weight of the piano would be too much for the stained carpeting to bear and the gorgeous 1969 Steinway would fall all the way down to the first floor as a result. That’s where the ugliest, cheapest gamblers played. It would crush a few of them - if he was so lucky. Things were so different, now. Jack didn’t enjoy these recurring violently insipid thoughts and he really didn’t enjoy the pleasure it brought him. But, ...

12 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story that hinges on the outcome of a coin flip.

Adventure – 68 stories

Start your story with someone having a run of bad luck.

Angst – 42 stories

Write about someone losing their lucky charm.

Mystery – 24 stories

Write about someone whose luck is running out.

Character – 44 stories

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel