I started working in the Black Hawk/Central City area as a
blackjack dealer in 1994, and ended up working in several of
the casinos that had been set up in some of the older
buildings (the oldest I worked in was circa 1874).  I took
the common transportation for employees up the mountain from
Golden (buses), and had several years to talk to other
people about their paranormal experiences in the old
gold rush era buildings.  I was skeptical, but very curious.

Then I had my own experience.

It was a snowy night, and most of the customers at the
Golden Rose Casino in Central City had decided they had
better get down the mountain before the weather got any
worse.  It was only about 9 o'clock in the evening, but the
place was quickly emptying.  I  was, as I said, a blackjack
dealer, and I was standing at a "dead table" (no pun
intended) - no players, just a dealer standing behind the
table.  The blackjack pit was on the top floor of the
casino, and I faced the big mirror behind the bar located
next to the pit.  The bartender had just finished cleaning
up in preparation for closing, and I was chatting with him
as he leaned on the bar (facing me) and finished his
paperwork.

There was a gap in our conversation, and I (of course) was
checking my appearance in the mirror.  My head and shoulders
appeared in the mirror just above the multi-tiered rows of
liquor bottles behind the bartender, and as I was checking
my hair, I was shocked to see five bottles from the top row
simultaneously crash to the shelf of bottles below that,
which then crashed to the glasses stacked below that!  The
entire mess then crashed to the floor.  The poor bartender
leapt on top of the bar from the noise and chaos, and the
entire blackjack pit came to a halt from the deafening
noise.  After he assured himself that he was not going to
die from a heart attack, the bartender stared at me and
asked me what had happened....after I had recovered my
senses somewhat, I told him what I had seen.  I also
reminded him that the bar area had two surveillance cameras
on it, and told him that someone should review the tapes,
because I couldn't quite believe myself what I had seen.
There was always the possibility that the bottles had
vibrated their way to the edge of the shelf because of a
refrigeration unit below the shelves.  Coincidentally, the
tapes from the cameras were pulled immediately and reviewed
by the bar manager because of the damage that had been
caused.

The bar manager spoke to me about an hour later, since I had
been the only one to see what had actually happened. I told
her everything I had seen, and then asked her if she could
tell me what the tapes had shown.  She said the both tapes
verified that, before the crash, the bottles were located
all the way to the back of the top shelf (each shelf was
about 10" deep) and were tight against the mirror behind the
bar. She took a deep breath, and then quietly said that it
was as if someone had placed a flat piece of wood behind the
bottles and pushed them over all at the same time.  There
was no indication of any movement of the bottles caused by
vibration.  She did tell me that she was going to put the
tapes aside as evidence for the owner of the casino, but
admitted that she also wanted to keep them as evidence of
the strange things that were happening in the casino.

This same night, three other "ghostly" things happened in
other areas of the casino, all of them caught on
tape.....but that's another story!

Well, what do you think?
 

- Belle

Another story was submitted in response to this story:

I saw the story from the dealer in the Golden Rose Casino.  She is right.  There is something there.  I went gambling in Central City about ten years ago and the Golden Rose was one of the places I went. I am sure of this because I made such a big deal about it.  All my friends thought I was nuts.  And until now, I have had my own doubts, since it was such a small incident.  I had just lost money (of course) at the blackjack table upstairs.  I turned toward the stairs and glanced in that same mirror. Suddenly, my reflection became completely obscured, as if smoke were in front of it. Not all of it, just my face.  I could still see other parts of me clearly. At the same time, I got cold.  I mean, I felt it all the way down to my bones.  It was enough to have my friend come and see if something was wrong.  Then the smoke was gone, my reflection cleared, and I was no longer cold. It lasted maybe fifteen seconds. This happened in the winter, so the cold might have been a draft from outside.  And it was past my bedtime, and I had been drinking, so I guess I could have just imagined the rest.  However, it does coincide a bit with what the dealer experienced.
 
R.

©2005 R.M.P.R.S.