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Slot Story
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By Richard Manning, Jr.
It was years before I understood the appeal of casinos, and why so many people
found pleasure in travelling to the Nevada desert to spend their hard-earned
money on games of chance. Twenty-one years, to be exact.
My first legal soiree with a casino happened just shortly after I broke through
that intimidating age barrier, and even then I didn’t do it in a way that most
people would consider proper, myself included. First of all, it was a family
trip, and considering that the delicious wonder of beers on tap and
professionally made cocktails had been freshly revealed to me, having my
relatives along was as much fun as it sounds. Call me a wimp, but I was just
not prepared to catch a buzz in the presence of my mother. Also, instead of the
dazzling array of luminescence that poured over the skies of the rejuvenated
Las Vegas of the early nineties, I hit the dull, thin streak of wattage of
Laughlin, Nevada, which was at the time a couple of years away from its current
junior Vegas status. While on the road to Laughlin, I made up a couple of hard,
fast rules of play in order to stave off becoming a spectator by the end of the
first night. First off, there was no way I was playing a table, for fear that I
would be too worried about messing my pants, let alone screwing up by hitting
on 16 with a dealer showing a 5. Secondly, anything slot machine over a nickel
was too rich for my blood.
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After settling into town and eating my weight in peel-and-eat shrimp, I
wandered into the colorfully carpeted gaming floor of the Edgewater casino,
armed with an advertisement laden winnings bucket and a crisp five-dollar bill.
I was quickly sucked in by the intrigue of a nickel machine that allowed you to
play five lines for five coins. Paying no mind to the fact that I about to
willingly plunk down a quarter a pull, I fed my Abe Lincoln portrait to the
machine, and slapped the spin reels button like I was trying to lay waste an
unsuspecting insect. A couple of cherries accompanied an orange, giving me an
extra nickel to go with my small sense of accomplishment. The trio of lemons I
hit a few pulls later netted me an extra fifty cents, followed shortly
thereafter by a dollar’s worth of nickels, courtesy of three plums. The machine
proceeded to show no signs of stubbornness over the next several plays,
shelling out money like a dying philanthropist. My jawbone began to feel
punished from the prolonged smile on my face. The looseness of the slot
eventually captured the attention of an elderly couple, who temporarily stopped
their play from the bank of slots behind me in order to cheer me on.
After about an hour of steady winning, the machine unleashed its apex of
generosity, tossing out three blue 7’s along the first line, and spitting 50
dollars worth of nickels into its trough. As my fingers turned black from
dumping handful upon handful of silver coins into my trusty bucket, one
cheerful thought resonated loudly and clearly through my head; “So this is what
the fuss is about.” That single slot machine was loose enough for that one
evening to make me a patron of Nevada for life.
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Casino slots, one arm-bandits, or fruit machines, as the
British call them. Any one of these conjures the thoughts of blue haired ladies
with their pocket-books neatly tucked under one arm while the other arm is
feeding nickels and pushing buttons at a high rate of speed. Slots do play an
important part of the casino.
Slots account for over two-thirds of casino revenue for the US. These machines
have been around for quite sometime, and their popularity still holds. A car
mechanic Charles Fey created the first slot machine in 1895. He named the
machine the Liberty Bell. The grand payoff was fifty cents.
They were quite popular from the start, but it was not until the 1930’s that
the machines started to pop up through out the US. In Las Vegas they were
installed in some casinos to keep the wives and girlfriends of the high rollers
entertained.
People enjoy slots because unlike other games, the player does not have to
require skill, and you can play at your own pace. There are two types of slot
machines, straight slots and progressive slots. The straight slots payout a
predetermined amount and the progressive slots have a jackpot that’s based on
the percentage of each coin played.
Slot machines offer a wide variety of which to play. The denomination of
choice, how many reels, amount of pay lines and how many coins can a person
play at once. Quarter and dollar machines are still quite popular, and
depending on the casino, you can find nickel and even penny machines.
Some casinos have the VIP area where the high rollers can enjoy the $5, $25 and
even $100 machines. Casino slots offer a fun gaming experience with many play
possibilities for everyone.
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