Slot Play Warning

CINDY: The slot machines are the kings and queens of the casino games. Fully 65 to 90 percent of individual casinos’ revenues come from slot machines. Heck, the men, and women who play the machines are actually the true kings and queens of Lady Luck’s landscape.

ABBY: And the casinos know that too. The worldwide existence of casinos today is thanks largely to those machines. In the United States alone over 60 million players go to casinos on a regular basis. Wow!

CINDY: And most of those players play what used to be called “the one-armed bandits.”

ABBY: Very few players call the machines that any more. Most don’t even know the old version of the machines had those “one-arms.” Time passes everything by.

CINDY: Today’s machines are marvels of computer wizardry and special effects. You can be a 50-cents to dollar player just by playing a penny or nickel or dime machine.

ABBY: Slot machines are multiple line machines, multiple games machines, multi-level machines, many based on movies or television shows or books (many children’s books too). The game ranges are immense. Just check out website casinos and you’ll see the hundreds of different slot machines being offered to the public. Many multi-level machines.

CINDY: And the public sure loves playing them!

ABBY: But slot machines have inherent problems for some players and such players have to be aware of the negative situations they can face if they are not careful.

CINDY: Slot machines can gobble down money fast – more money than the players think they are actually betting. The more money put into a machine, the more likely the player will be behind in their slot-playing career. That is, of course, true of any game of chance. The more decisions, the better for the house.

ABBY: Sometimes such players will not even recognize exactly what they are doing in terms of how much they are actually betting. Slots can hide the reality that is right in front of the players’ eyes.

CINDY: I sometimes think of the relationship of some slot players to the machines they play as a mystical one – the human and machine becoming one gestalt entity. If you check out long-term slot players at the machines, some do look as if they are in an altered state of consciousness. Playing slots is a joyous experience for them. (I don’t know if the machine is feeling anything.)

ABBY: There are some really fail-safe systems that slot players must use to keep their play in check. The worse thing that can happen to a slot player (actually to any casino player) is not being fully aware of what they have lost recently or in a single day, week, month, or year. They may experience that awful feeling of “waking up” and thinking “I lost how much?”

CINDY: I prefer not playing those multi-level machines. I like the more old-fashioned kind. I could go back in time to old San Francisco and play those really early machines.

ABBY: That’s just your age talking.

CINDY: It talks a lot!

ABBY: I think all slot players should keep a record of what they lose and win on every trip. They should also know how much real time they experience playing the machines. Doing this will keep them grounded.

CINDY: I like the mysticism idea but one does have to be grounded. Slot machines can be like lightning in many ways. The winning large hit can be overwhelming. But the losing large hit can be overwhelming too and that comes piece by piece over time.

ABBY: Keep your head about you and do not play for such long times that you actually lose sight of the length of time you are playing.

CINDY: Unless you have inexhaustible funds, casino play of any kind, has to be somewhat contained. Playing is fun; playing too much might not actually be too much fun.

ABBY: Slot play should never become a horror for a player.

CINDY: Never.

This article is provided by the Frank Scoblete Network. Melissa A. Kaplan is the network's managing editor. If you would like to use this article on your website, please contact Casino City Press, the exclusive web syndication outlet for the Frank Scoblete Network. To contact Frank, please e-mail him at fscobe@optonline.net.