Jannie wasn't that interested in gambling, so she went to have a look at the shops while I hit the tables. For the first few hours I was killing it, winning a lot of money. After a while, Jannie came back to the hotel to take a nap, but I stayed down there at the roulette table. My numbers kept coming up. I had won about $20,000 by dinnertime, and I got my chips changed into big handfuls of twenties and fifties. I went up to the room and woke Jannie up to show her my winnings. We just started dancing around the room, throwing the money up in the air and jumping on the bed.

We went to dinner and I gave her some money to go shopping again. I went back to the tables. Eventually she came back and said she was going to bed, but I stayed down there to carry on gambling. My luck had turned, and by this point I had lost most of what I won earlier in the day. But I had come to Vegas prepared – I had a secret stash of extra gambling money tucked into the inside pocket of my jacket, about $30,000 in Danish currency that Jannie didn't know about.

Soon that money was gone, too. With nothing left, I had no choice but to go back up to my room and crawl into bed. I slept for maybe an hour. After that I was just lying in bed, staring at the ceiling and thinking about getting back to the casino to win back what I had lost. I knew we had a few thousand dollars of emergency money in the safety deposit box, so I nudged Jannie awake and asked her for the combination. She gave it to me and straight away, and I climbed out of bed and took the money with me back down to the casino floor.

Of course, I lost that money, too. When I came back up to the room, Jannie was wide awake and looking panicked. "Where the hell have you been?" she asked.

"I went down to have a gamble."

"But the safety deposit box is open!"

"Yeah, you gave me the combination so that I could get the money out."

"No I didn't. I haven't spoken to you since I went to bed."

She had given me the number in her sleep. After that we were up for a few hours talking about what had happened. She had seen all that money I won earlier in the day, so even though she didn't know about my secret stash, she knew I must have lost a lot of money. I was pretty unpopular that night, but I'm sorry to say that wasn't the lowest point of the trip.

Jannie lent me her credit card the next day so I could have some spending money, but I took it and went gambling again. I lost a ton of money on her card, which she was furious about, and on the last day I tried to borrow even more off her. This time she said no, but I kept asking over and over, telling her I only needed a little bit and would pay her back when we got home. She got so desperate that she wound up locking herself in our bathroom just to get away. Even then, I stood outside for a while, telling her to pass me the card underneath the door.

Already, at twenty years old, I was sick in my head for gambling. I honestly can't tell you what was going through my mind as I stood outside that bathroom door, beyond the simple thought that I needed to get some money to bet with so I could win back the money I had lost. As a serious gambler you were always doing that, chasing your losses, but by doing that, you only make them bigger. Then you have to bet even more to turn it around, and it just keeps on getting worse.