How do you gamble in Las Vegas as a first-timer?

Start with slots or a low-limit blackjack table, get the free players card first, and bring a fixed amount of cash you are happy to lose. You must be 21, and security will ask for ID.

Before you play

Sign up for the casino's players card at any desk on the floor. It takes two minutes, tracks your play, and is how comps and free-play offers find you later. Under-21s can walk through with you but cannot stop at a machine or a table.

Slots

Feed cash into the machine, pick your bet, press the button. When you cash out, the machine prints a paper ticket (a TITO ticket) that any other machine or the cashier's cage will take; do not leave it behind. Slots are also the worst odds in the building, so treat the money as the price of the time.

Tables

• Blackjack is the one to learn first: few decisions, and the dealer will help on a quiet table. Buy in by placing cash on the felt, not in the dealer's hand.
• Minimums are commonly $15 to $25 a hand on the Strip in the evening, higher on weekends. Downtown and the older casinos still run $5 and $10 tables, which is where we would send a first-timer.
• Craps is the most fun and the most confusing. Watch for ten minutes, then bet the pass line only until it makes sense.
• Free lessons run at several casinos in the late morning; ask at the players club desk.

Etiquette

Hand signals at blackjack (tap for a card, wave to stand), no phone at the table, a chip for the dealer when you are winning, and a dollar or two per drink for the cocktail server even though the drinks are free while you play.

The rest of the first-visit orientation is in first time in Las Vegas; tipping amounts are in who to tip and how much.