Dragon Quest XI S Casino Guide: how to get rich fast - or

DQ11 has a casino and I just spent 12 hours running the slots so I could get my big fancy sword as early as possible. I always do this in any RPG that has a casino, despite the fact that more often than not the equipment rewards will get outclassed within 3-5 hours of gameplay, which I would have passed in the time where I was gambling. BUT THE BIG MONEY SWORD THOUGH
so, what kind of optional compulsory behaviors do you employ in gaming? I don't want to exclude item hoarding, but its super generalized, so try to give an unusual reason for that one

Looking for anyone that can help provide a recap of the first 15-20 hours of the game. I was playing DQ11 back in 2017/2018, got up to the Casino in Puerta Valor and then I stepped away to travel for work, which turned into a very extensive hiatus from gaming. I decided to jump back into DQ11 for the holiday weekend and fell back in love with it almost immediately (also finally finished Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition as well).
Unfortunately, I'd been away for so long that even the very well-written in-game recap wasn't cutting it. I'm totally lost. I don't remember what spheres are, how/why exactly Jade is in my party. I remember Syl came along during a dessert kingdom, horse race scenario, but I don't remember the details of that plotline.
Can anyone provide a quick synopsis up to this point in the game, and help me get reacquainted with the story? I'm now heading into the Tentacular fight, but literally everything leading up to the Casino is completely lost on me. I remember the old guy is my gramps, Veronica is trapped in a little girl's body (and is super sassy), and that Erik broke me out of jail, and we were looking for an item that his old buddy had that may or may not have been a McGuffin.
Afraid to do a search and run into spoilers (I'm one of those gamers that hates spoilers), so hoping someone can help a Hero out.

DQ11S might just have the potential for unlimited rare items if you can redo the dupe trick in Arboria by jumping back with the 2D/3D swap feature; you can get doubles of items that come AFTER the dupe trick
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Erik's previously unique post game accessory that gives a massive boost to item drop rate? you can get a second. as well as any other powerful or rare items you get after the chance to do the trick
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Seeds? you can farm them at a rate of about 24-48 an hour (144 seeds, 3-6 hours to speedily complete Act 2) if you use all 6 character's inventory fully; you don't even need 144 seeds at first, you can grow a small amount exponentially to a point by using the trick
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also, when you swap to 2D or 3D, the chests and pots reset, so those treasures are open once more
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so, if the Arboria dupe trick can be exploited again and again, it has scary potential, if anyone who has beaten DQ11S can quickly replay the end of Act 3 (from right before giving Benedictus the orbs) to the point in Act 3 where you get the items you duped back, it'd be nice as I'm in the final moments of Act 1 right now
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Oct. 18, 2019, Edit: I've beaten the Timewyrm and plan to go back to the very beginning for a NG+ run after getting some more casino tokens; I'll have this answer soon and will make a new thread so more people can see the results

Having seen that others have taken on much harder challenges, like solo runs or only using starting equipment, this challenge doesn't seem very ambitious but it seems like it would be fun to me.
My challenge idea is to only use equipment you find. You can't buy any equipment or exchange for it at a casino. You can only buy non-equipable items.
I read about a "limited play" feature in DQ11 and it was implied that not being able to shop was one of the limits. So this many not be as out of the box idea as I thought if the developers are doing it.
I've been half doing this in games for a while now. I'd start off buying just the best equipment available at the time. Then I would only buy equipment with some special added effect. And then I'd stop buying altogether because I was still doing fine unless I died which proved I did need better equipment.
However I'm not sure the plan would necessarily work as well in every game.
DQ1: Would be the same as no equipment at all since I think only the best sword is a treasure.
DQ2: This game is hard enough at the end without having poorly equipped characters. I can't remember how much good treasure there was.
DQ3: Should be quite doable since you can change classes. If you can't find good equipment you'll at least be able to use a martial artist.
DQ4:
Ch1: I remember there being decent armour and a very good sword in the tower so it shouldn't be a problem.
Ch2: Alana is a brawler so she should be okay, but without the iron claw the end tournament might be a problem.
Ch3: You can hire those two NPCs but it might be good to bend the rules so you can buy equipment just to resell it for profit or it would just take too long.
Ch4: This one could be a problem since both girls are spellcasters and their naturally low HP and defense combined with poor armour and needing to fight two bosses seems like quite an uphill battle.
Ch5: I remember there being a good amount of artifacts around and you could just use whichever characters currently had the best gear. I wonder if the situation would ever be dire enough for using cursed weapons to be a good choice?
DQ5: This should be quite easy since you can load up on monsters and only need to equip your main character
DQ6: With the jobs system you can use many-a-paladin or ranger for non attack power based damage. I don't recall how much slimes or Lizzy are dependent on equipment. Ashlynn may as well be made of paper if you can't get her any armor.
DQ7: More martial artists. I actually got wiped out twice recently by that cloud boss in that windy temple and that was without limiting myself, so if that is any indication I may end up struggling somewhat, or grinding. And it's a long game under ideal circumstances.
DQ8: This one may get tricky. Skills are weapon based so not being able to choose your weapon will make it undesirable to level any weapon based skill but staffs. Lots of rock throwing I expect. Alchemy will allow for some good stuff but I don't recall how much of the ingredients are equipment from stores. I suppose I can just look up what the best weapon each character can find is and plan for that.
DQ9: Shouldn't be too hard since you could change class whenever you acquire a new best weapon. And since skill points transfer between classes you don't face as limited a supply as you do in DQ8.
I would have tried DQ9 first since it's the game I remember the least about and I got too caught up in gaining skills the first time that I leveled to the point where there wasn't any challenge left so this would give me a better experience. But I don't want to delete my game so I need to buy a second copy which will be easier at the convention at the end if the month. However I don't want to miss out on street passes for DQ8 at the con so I'll have to play that first. But I think I'll just go with the die-then-buy plan this time. I've only played 8 once before and it was without a skill plan so I want to play once where I get the most use our of my skills and weapons before I limit myself to likely lots of fisticuffs.