Posted on: January 19, 2024, 02:14h.
Last updated on: January 19, 2024, 03:08h.
The Guinness World Record for the most casinos gambled at in a 24-hour period — 74 in 22.5 hours — was set by Las Vegas tourists Kimo Ah Yun and Gary Meyer on Oct. 19, 2017.
On Oct. 4, 2023, John and Kristina Mehaffey took on that record. It was a fitting way of celebrating their 21st wedding anniversary, the Las Vegas podcasters reasoned, since it meant their marriage was old enough to gamble.
We gave ourselves seven-and-a-half minutes to spend inside each casino,” Kristina told Casino.org’s Scott Roeben on the new episode of his Vital Vegas podcast. “Because we were so familiar with the properties, there were some we were in and out of in less than three minutes.”
The couple prepared by performing two rehearsal walkthroughs, to make sure they had the timing right, then meditated for several hours in their hotel room at the Plaza beforehand.
Their official attempt began at the Golden Gate at 5 p.m.
“Knowing every doorway where the machines are, and just everything about downtown made it so quick to do in a short period of time,” Kristina said.
A driver whisked them to North Las Vegas, and then to the Strip, which they speed-walked from south to north.
“The Strip was a little easier because we did it literally in the middle of the night … 3 a.m., so it’s really quiet out there,” Kristina said. “We didn’t have to elbow crowds out of our way as we were marathon-walking.”
No More Bets!
After hitting a bunch of casinos west of the Strip, they circled back to Circa, placing their final bet at 1:15 p.m. the following day — a little over 20 hours later. They had visited 93 casinos, smashing the previous record by a head-spinning 19 casinos.
Or so they thought.
There was a hitch, which they discovered only after contacting Guinness with their receipts in hand as evidence. The couple only played machines, and that wasn’t Guinness good enough.
“Their standards require table gameplay for it to be considered,” Kristina told Roeben.
Ah Yun and Meyer’s Guinness World Record would stand.
At least the Mehaffeys came out ahead. According to Kristina, they put a dollar in every machine, which totaled only about $80 since they also had some free play. But she also won $134 on a Caveman Keno slot machine at Barley’s Casino and $80 on a 10 cent bet at Tuscany Suites & Casino.
“We had a blast doing it,” Kristina told Roeben. “It was a lot of fun … It was so surreal at times. It literally felt like I was walking through a dream at that time. But we’re really doing this. And yes, yes we are.”
