ONLINE GAMBLING AND CASINO GUIDE

Just when you think you’ve seen every gambling scenario imaginable …

This morning, I had to drag myself out of the house and back to the grocery store because I had forgotten to pick up a few items yesterday.  I jumped in my Porsche with a double-barreled carb and a 357 Hemi (ask me about it!), and headed west to the area near Commercial Center.

Almost immediately after walking through the front doors of the grocery store, the overhead lights went out.  I was momentarily confused and disoriented.  I’ve been alive for a long time, but I can’t remember ever being in a large supermarket when the power failed.  This was a first for me.

A few seconds later, emergency lights kicked in, and the whir of cash registers and other machines broke the silence.  I was still standing near the entrance, just observing this scene, when directly to my right I heard someone exclaim “Oh no!”.

Fearing that something terrible had befallen someone, I walked over to the casino area of the grocery store.  Yes, just about every store in Las Vegas has gaming machines.  It’s part of our charm.  I guess.

When I got to the gaming area, I found about three people sitting in front of dead video machines.   Apparently, these people had been in the middle of video gaming sessions when the power went out, and it was obvious that the machines were not hooked up to any kind of backup generators.

I approached one player sitting closest to the entrance and asked  “Did you have money in the machine?”

“Yep”, she said.

“Can you get it back?”, I asked.

“I dunno”, she replied.

Please excuse the highly technical nature of the above conversation.  Clearly, the player and I are both elite intellectuals, and as such, the nature of our exchange would be considered over the heads of mere laypersons.

I looked up at the other two players in the room, and they were both just sitting in front of their machines with blank, confused expressions on their faces.  Being the inquisitive and curious type, I was tempted to ask each person how much money they had on their respective machines, but even I have some semblance of social appropriateness.

Even though the main lights and power were out, I was still able to proceed into the store, pick up a few items, and check out at one of the registers that was running on generator backup.  In total, this took me about 20 minutes to accomplish.

After paying for my merchandise, I walked back to the mini-casino to see if the players had yet been paid. They had not.  There was no way for the slot cashier to ascertain how much each respective player was owed.  All three of them were still sitting in front of their blank machines, under the watchful eye of the cashier.  I believe they were instructed to stay in their seats.

Instead of bothering the same person, I approached a different individual and said “when the machine comes back up, are you still going to have the same amount of credits before the power went out?”

“I’m not sure”, he replied.

Again, for those of you without a graduate degree, I apologize for the complexity of the words.  If you drop me an email, I will be happy to provide you with the Cliff’s Notes version of the conversation.

Alas, I could not wait around for the resolution to this situation.  I had to get going lest my perishables spoil, so I walked out of the store with more questions than answers.

For instance, what if someone hits a Royal Flush on one of these machines, and it goes down?  Is this considered a “machine malfunction” which “voids all plays and pays”?

Could a “power outage scenario” be used for malicious intent?  Let’s say you own a bank of these machines, and one of your slot employees calls you and tells you that someone just hit a big payout.  Couldn’t you just order that employee to flip the ciruit breaker under the desk?  Without witnesses, what is the player’s recourse?

I know there are cameras in the ceiling, but those exist to protect the house, not the player.

“Ooops, the power outage erased the tapes too.”

For some reason, I have always assumed that all gaming machines had fail-safe backups.  Especially for power since this is the lifeblood of all slots and Video Poker machines.

For Christ’s sake, the computer on which I am typing this is plugged into a 1,500 Watt UPS with a redundant firewire backup, and all I have on it is porn.

I would not even be able to fathom plugging a dozen gaming machines into a simple wall outlet.  Especially given that they keep people’s cash in escrow.  In my opinion, slot and video poker machines should have the same technical and tracking requirements as ATM’s.  It’s not uncommon for people to have hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of dollars invested in these gaming boxes.

Also, I’ve never understood why people play these store machines for hours when there are large megacasinos a mere one mile away with drink service and comps.  Even though I saw someone hit a $20,000 payout with my own two eyes, I have never been exceptionally confident in grocery store casinos.  To me, they are the equivalent of playing in an Indian Casino within the Las Vegas city limits.

Seriously, some of our local video games are starting to scare me.  The subject of video game security and redundancy is something I concede that I am woefully ignorant about, but it is something which I intend to explore in greater detail.

Until such time as I feel that I have educated myself a bit more on the subject, I highly doubt that I will be playing any machine at this particular grocery store any time soon.

Instead, I’ll confine all of my video play to the Monte Carlo where these types of problems could never occur.

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