Have you stopped patronizing the Hilton hotel?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Jun 29 2007, 02:35 PM) [snapback]470211[/snapback]</div>

My wife taught me how to play slot machines.

The first time we went to a casino together (I had never been to a casino before that), after about five minutes I won about $100. "Great!" I said, "Let's cash in and get a really nice meal somewhere."

With a horrified look, she said, "NO! We're not here to win money! We are here to PLAY SLOTS!"

And so I dumped most of it back in (having always been fascinated by random numbers, it was pretty fun). We actually did walk out of there that time with more money than we put in, but that was a fluke.

Our method: We'd walk in with a set amount (say, $100 for each of us). We'd think: "We are never going to see this $100 again. It's the cost of entertainment, like a movie ticket. A $100 movie ticket. If we win, great, but that's secondary. Most of the money we win (if any) just lets us play longer." Then when the $100 is gone, we go on to something else (usually food related).

 

Forty years ago, I was in Europe. In a tiny restaurant in Austria there was a slot machine that took small coins, maybe worth a quarter or so. I had always wanted to play a slot machine. There was a man feeding money into the thing for about 15 minutes. When he finally sat down I went over to it, put in my coin, pulled the handle (slot machines had handles in those days, and little wheels that actually went around) and watched the wheels go around. Then I sat down. The man who had just finished giving the machine his rent money (or whatever) told me to keep playing. But I had no need to keep playing. All my life I had wanted to play a slot machine. Now I had played one. I didn't need to play twice. And I told him so.

In another place in Austria there was a game that was a cross between a slot machine and a pinball machine. It took a small coin, worth less than a nickel. The coin dropped onto a plunger, then you pulled the plunger and released it and it shot the coin up and over and then into one of several columns, where you either won a few coins, or lost your coin. But since you won fairly often, and the coins were so nearly worthless, you could play for an hour for a couple of dollars.

When I was in Vegas this past winter (to see Cirque du Soleil) I decided to play a slot machine again. But they no longer have handles that make wheels go around. They are all video games, with such an array of buttons to gamble in different ways that you need lessons to figure out what's what. Back in the old days you just dropped in a coin and pulled a lever. I dropped a dollar in one that did have a handle, but it wasn't a "real" handle. The handle just operated the button to activate the video (i.e. fake) wheels. It was no fun at all.

However, coming out of a show I saw a promotional slot machine on the walkway outside the casino, and I took a free pull, and won a ticket to the Follies Bergere. I imagine they give away a free ticket so you'll have to buy another, but since I had nobody to go with, it actually was free for me. Mostly it was naked girls prancing around. Naked girls are nice to look at. But the high point of the show was the comedian. There was another free promotional slot machine, but I didn't win anything at that one.

Cirque du Soleil was worth the trip.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Jun 29 2007, 04:44 PM) [snapback]470344[/snapback]</div>

I think that's a pachinka game.
My Dear Hubby told me what they were, when our neighbors showed us the one they found in some antique store...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rae Vynn @ Jun 29 2007, 04:47 PM) [snapback]470345[/snapback]</div>

A google search turned up Pachinko games. The ones the search turned up are a little different, because they use steel or lead balls. The one I played used your actual coin as the "ball." But otherwise, yes, it is similar. Thanks for that name. I'm going to do some more searching later, when I have time.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Jun 30 2007, 10:07 AM) [snapback]470597[/snapback]</div>

My friend in junior high had a pachinko machine that used coins. This was way back in the very late 60s. (Her dad also had an entire, small, room with floor to ceiling shelves that were filled with paperback books. I read his entier Ellery Queen and Agatha Christie collection. It was my own private lending library.) They had a lot of exotic stuff because he traveled a lot.

I'll bet you can find a vintage machine that takes coins. But unless you're a really good shopper, it won't be cheap.

My other friend had a fabulous Mah Jong game set. They taught me how to play a rudimentary survival version of Mah Jong.

I asked my Dad to teach me Pinocle once. He said I was too young. I'm 52 now and still don't know how to play.

I loved the slots that took tokens or coins, had a handle and the wheels turn. I hate the new video ones. Especially the noise...er...music...er....theme songs? Some of them don't even take coins any more. You put paper money in the slots like a reverse ATM and get a certain number of plays. No fun at all any more.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Jun 30 2007, 09:20 AM) [snapback]470620[/snapback]</div>

I don't even know what Mah Jong is. I think you play it with tiles.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Jun 30 2007, 09:20 AM) [snapback]470620[/snapback]</div>

Me neither. I think it's related to bridge. The husband/father in The Katzenjammer Kids played pinocle.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Jun 30 2007, 09:20 AM) [snapback]470620[/snapback]</div>

And if you win, or have any money left over, you get a paper ticket that you take to the money booth. Or, I think you can get a card, like a credit card. You pay to charge it up, then gamble on it, then if you haven't lost everything, you take it to the money booth to salvage whatever you have left.

Not only this, but the games are so complicated I could not figure out how to play them, and I could not find anyone to explain them. And there are no manuals to explain them. I'm actually surprised that they didn't have an instruction sheet in the rooms. I guess they figured that anybody intelligent enough to figure them out from an instruction sheet was not dumb enough to dump money into them.