Superstitious Gamblers Betting 12/13/14 Is Their Lucky Day
LAS VEGAS (AP) — It's rare. It's orderly. And when it comes to remembering an anniversary date, it's as easy as 12/13/14.
Saturday's Dec. 13, 2014, represents the last sequential calendar date for at least 20 years (Jan. 2, 2034) and another 89 years if waiting for Jan. 2, 2103.
If a person has a heart set on commemorating the next 12/13/14, make sure that heart can stand another 100 years on earth to make it to Dec. 13, 2114.
For cryogenic fans, it's 1,000 years until 3014.
A sequence comes sooner for math nerds with pi. The day is mere months away on March, 14 (Get it? 3.1415 ....)
The dates represent a lucky list of number for some gamblers and certainly a memorable birth date for others.
Lottery players looking for a bit of extra luck love these kinds of quirky number combos.
On Sept. 11, 2002, the winning numbers in New York State's Pick 3 game were 9-1-1. A total of 5,631 people picked the winning sequence; the combination was picked so many times, the numbers were closed out.
Maura McCann, a spokeswoman for the New Hampshire Lottery, said they anticipate selling more tickets on sequential or repetitive dates such as 12/12/12, but notes that lottery players get inspired by all sorts of things. In 2005, more than 100 winners of a secondary $100,000 Powerball prize played numbers linked back to the numbers in a single fortune cookie.
"Lottery players, kind of in a nutshell, are superstitious," McCann said.
The numbers mean less in Las Vegas sports betting books.
In horse racing , it would mean an unusual number of horses would have to run to take a ticket on 12, 13, 14, said John Avello, the director of the race and sports operations at the Wynn hotel-casino.
A roulette wheel stands to be the more likely destination for a gambler looking to chance it with the date, he said.
For many others in Las Vegas, they will take a chance by making a date for a spouse.
The Viva Las Vegas wedding chapel plans to marry 120 couples Saturday starting with Egyptian-themed nuptials followed by weddings with a touch of Tom Jones, gangsters, Liberace and, of course, Elvis, said general manager Brian Mills. The number is on pace with July 7, 2007 (7/7/7) but far from the 230 weddings the chapel performed for Nov. 11, 2011 (11/11/11).
Nevada's Clark County marriage license bureau issued its most "numerically-interesting" certificates — 4,333 — in the four days leading up to July 7, 2007, — more than half of what it typically issues in an entire month..
Nov. 11, 2011 brought in 3,300 new marriage licenses. Oct. 10, 2010 was close behind with 3,090. Expectations at the agency were high for Saturday.
Higher still, the 550-foot-tall High Roller observation wheel on the Las Vegas Strip had signed up about 80 couples so far for its free 12/13/14 ceremonies aboard the ride starting at 10:11 a.m. through 12:13 p.m.
Among them, Brandi Carrow, 37, who just three weeks prior eloped in Reno at the Chapel of the Bells.
This wedding is for her dad, Richard, who, wanting to see his daughter get married, convinced Carrow and her husband to do a re-do of sorts to renew their already fresh vows high above Las Vegas.
"We are so nervous," said Carrow of the hub-bub of a wedding in front of the entire city, not to mention her father and step-mother.
Oh, and Carrow is also "scared to death of heights."
So which anniversary date will they celebrate?
Both, she said.
"Who gets married and then gets to go to Vegas and get the chance to re-do it," she said, let alone on 12/13/14.
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Associated Press correspondent Rik Stevens contributed to this report from New Hampshire.
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