Heh...
While serving in Japan on a cruiser for the US Navy our ship ported in to Vladivostok, Russia to celebrate the American Holiday of Independence Day. During our three week trip to the city a bunch of us played cards to pass the time.
When we ported a large group of us went to find a casino. The first one we went into had it's lights turned off and a bunch of Russian Soldiers came in and shooed everyone out. We found a bar and had a few drinks but then two locals got in a fight and then these Russian Soldiers burst in, smashed one guys face in with the butt of the rifle and broke the other guys arm and both were dragged out. Needless to say, we were being followed.
We finally found a casino and my friend who grew up near an Indian Reservation started raking in the rubles. We were playing Black Jack and ole shifty was a card counter and they kept changing dealers, decks of cards, dealers and then we had a bit of a mob audience watching our every move from every side. All together we left with close to $10,000 in our pockets.
Then we went home and omfg the bets on the decks started to get ridiculous. Double or nothing on a double or nothing? I'll bet double or nothing on that! Very quickly our $20 per night cap turned into yellow sticky IOU's of $1,000's, then tens of thousands, then hundred's of thousands and by the time we made made it back to port everybody owed everybody 10 million dollars. When I noticed the game was getting ridiculous I stepped out and I'm glad I did because my friend who grew up near the Indian Reservation took those debts serious. Everybody else thought it was just a game and we were bewildered when he expected people, on enlisted wages, to fork over millions of dollars. Once he finally realized that he decided to be diplomatic and knock off three zeros. One guy told him to get fucked because he had a family to take care of and thought they were all doing it for fun but this other schmuck - who was leaving the ship in two months - signed his entire enlistment bonus over to him because he didn't want to be known in the Navy as someone who didn't keep his word.
100% True.