My New Best Friend
January 11, 2009
Speaking of slot machines …
A strange thing happened to me while gambling at Bally’s tonight.
I was playing video poker when I heard a machine to my immediate right start cashing out, and cashing out, and cashing out.
Being the curious individual that I am, I decided to go over and see what the racket was about.
I saw an older lady, probably in her mid 50′s sitting in front of a slot machine, and the thing just kept paying off and paying off.
I approached her, and asked her how much she won. Being the nasty looking son of a bitch that I am, she probably thought I was trying to rob her.
Of course, I had no intention of robbing her. There were far too many video cameras around.
After she eyeballed me for a second, I quickly put her at ease with my winning personality.
Or not. She probably thought I was a nosy asshole, but she finally spoke to me anyway.
She informed me that she fed $50 into the machine and had won $8,000.
A lot of people make things up, exaggerate, and a large number of tall tales and overall bullshit is told in Las Vegas, so I always try my best to prove what I say whenever I possibly can.
It’s not always easy to do when you are inside of a casino, but I went ahead and rolled the dice this time by clicking the camera on for about 20 seconds so you can see most of the scene transpire right here … from me getting up from my machine to me inquiring about her win:
She seemed like a pleasant enough lady, but I was curious as to why she wasn’t more excited.
I mean, look at her demeanor.
“Yeah, I won eight thousand dollars.”
What the bloody hell do you mean you won eight thousand dollars???
Apparently, this lady wins thousands of dollars on a routine basis. She almost seemed annoyed that her play had been interrupted by the “jackpot” nuisance.
I guarantee you one thing … If I ever won 8G’s at a slot machine, I would drop my pants and swing my wang around in big, sweeping circles. I would invite people to hang out and take a ride.
I sure as hell wouldn’t sit there and nonchalantly watch the thing count down.
I’d be calling people on my cellphone and saying “Do you hear that? That’s the sound of me winning beeeeyaaaaatch!”
Seriously, I would show some level of excitement.
Part of me just wanted to just ask the lady for the money since it seemed to be such a burden for her.
“Well, since you really don’t seem to care, why don’t you go ahead over to my Game King and I’ll take care of this one. No really, I insist. I left my TITO ticket in the machine and there is at least eight or nine dollars left on the thing.”
Which brings me to my point.
If you win … have fun with it!
For God’s sake, do you people realize that there are folks like me who have never in their life hit a Royal Flush?
Do you have to rub it in by sitting there and yawning while your machine goes apeshit?
My machine never goes apeshit. Hell, I scream and yell when I hit quads. I look for the nearest tourist to high five. You would think I won the freakin’ lottery when I hit a 10 coin payout on a slot.
I’m all for playing it cool, but come on. If 8 large lands in your lap because you pressed a stinking button, you owe the rest of us some excitement.
At that point, you are the entertainment in the casino.
Nonetheless, the truth of the matter is that I was actually more excited than this particular winner … because I actually witnessed it.
When people win big I usually hear about it. I usually see big winners on the news, or in the paper, or on a website, or from the friend of a friend, etc, etc.
I usually find out about big winners when the rest of the world finds out about them. I rarely get an exclusive to these jackpots.
I’ve seen people win hundreds of thousands of dollars at the tables, but video game wins somehow evade me. The largest video game win I have personally witnessed was the $20,000 win at the grocery store last year.
This is probably the second largest slot machine win I have ever seen in person.
I guess $8,000 is not very much in the grand scheme of things, but, I’ll sure as hell take it.
I’ve heard tons of complaints over the last year from tourists who claim that the slots are getting tighter and tighter.
Of course, I have no way of knowing whether or not this is actually the case, but tonight, I have conclusively proven that machines do still pay off from time to time.
I don’t know if it is coincidence or not, but the machine this lady was on was positioned directly in front of the escalator leading into the Bally’s Casino from the food court.
It is one of the highest trafficked areas of the casino, and therefore one of the most visible.
I’ve heard that the “looser” machines are placed near where the most people are likely to see them, and that was certainly true in this case.
It may or may not be a coincidence, but I felt it was worth mentioning for those that may have an opinion on the matter.
Anyway, Congrats to this lady … and here’s hoping she tells all of her friends that Vegas is still paying.
Written by Macker on January 11, 2009 at 10:16 pm
I know that machine and have played it many times. It is a penny machine, the most you can win is $2748.56 which is what the progressive was at in your video. In actuality she only won 8000 pennies or a whopping $80. I have got 6000 credits once on the bonus once, the bonus area is the wheel above which is what she means when she says I won 8000 up there.
Written by Leung on January 12, 2009 at 7:38 am
Macker is right.
This lady just won 80 bucks in pennies.
Written by Rex on January 12, 2009 at 8:29 am
Well, that would explain why she wasn’t very excited.
Watch the video, though. I said “Eight Thousand Dollars?” and verified it a couple of times. At least I thought I did. I didn’t want to keep asking the lady the same question over and over.
She said she put in $50 and got “8,000″.
Hell if I know what those particular machines pay. That’s why I asked. And asked. And asked again. That thing was counting down for a long time.
If it went through all of that for eighty bucks, then yeah, it explains her complete lack of enthusiasm.
Written by mad dog on January 13, 2009 at 11:34 am
It would lock up also, not counting down the credits, correct?
That is what I’ve been told.
Never had the pleasure of this occurrence myself.