International expansion by Las Vegas casino operators has so far been uneven, notably in Macao. Information on different cultures’ understandings of gambling, which is scant, could be instrumental in supporting international expansion. Instead of using the common-macro level cultural comparison survey-based method, this research uses early childhood memory elicitation to focus on how individuals in three countries were initially exposed to gambling in their own families as children. This method is used to uncover the cultural code of gambling in the United States, the People’s Republic of China, and France. The analysis indicates that each culture has its own code for gambling, a code that reveals that culture’s gambling myth. These codes should help marketers understand the underlying motivations for gambling in each culture and should assist casino operators to market more effectively.