Column: Win or lose, it’s no gamble
When I was a boy in New Jersey, we lived less than a mile from Monmouth Park Raceway. It is a really beautiful track and a place my entire family visited on a daily basis. To say that my family likes to gamble would be an understatement.
Both Anne and I love to go to casinos. Not only are they beautiful but we find the slot machines to be a lot of fun. We are far from alone in this love but I do think we play with a different attitude than most.
We realized early on they didn’t hire all those employees, buy expensive machines and build beautiful buildings and roads for me to beat them. Therefore, Anne and I developed a philosophy so we never leave unhappy. We expect to lose but never more than we can afford. With retirement, that would be a little less each year.
Furthermore, I only know two people who are ahead of casinos and they both live on Shelter Island. Nineteen years ago, one of them won eight and a half million dollars and the other took $45,000 in a lump sum 10 years ago and he doesn’t go back enough to ever give it back. Since those days, casinos have changed their philosophies dramatically and you no longer hear of this type of winning any more.
Yet there are more casinos today than ever and no matter what you hear about the economy, the casinos are all packed. Aqueduct Raceway recently decided to boost its weakening income and put in slot machines. Aqueduct is now pulling down an extra $500 million dollars a month. On our trip to Florida, we noticed casinos are advertised everywhere along the highway. Anne and I stopped twice in Florida and once in Atlantic City.
Slot machines have changed through the years and people seem more captivated than ever. In my home on Shelter Island I have a slot machine, or “one-armed bandit,” dated 1906. In this machine, you put in a quarter and pull the handle, allowing three wheels to turn. If you hit, the quarters come out of the bottom of the machine. That was pretty much the way they worked until 50 years later, when you could put more than one quarter in the slot but you still had to pull the handle and the quarters would come out when you won. Also, up until 40 years ago, you could only get this thrill in Las Vegas, until Atlantic City entered the picture.
Today, you hardly touch money and you don’t pull handles anymore. Gradually, with the help of the computer age, the machines changed and buttons replaced handles and paper vouchers replaced money. No more collecting dirty quarters and carrying them in buckets around the casino.
In my mind the funniest thing of all is the quarter machine in use over 100 years ago is now considered expensive. The most popular slot today is the penny machine and it easily uses up half the space on a casino floor. The two cents is next, then the nickel, dime and then the quarter.
It is mind-boggling how many different types of entertaining games can be played on these machines, along with free games among the extras to be won. With each visit to a casino I find at least 20 new games that I have never seen or played. It usually takes about four hours before we tire of playing and we are back on the road.
People pay a lot of money for their entertainment. This is one of ours, and remarkably, sometimes we even win.
