THE HORROR OF SLOTS
Slot jackpots can bring out the worst in people
By Frank Scoblete
When it comes to slot play you will occasionally hear a winner scream out loud his or her joy at seeing the money roll in. More often than not you won’t hear anything as many slot players can actually be the silent types.
There must be thousands upon thousands of interesting or bizarre stories surrounding the slot machines. Yes, many people know about the big winners of outrageous jackpots, but there are other stories – not about winners but about those people who… well, who had interesting incidents within the slot world, some of these of the horrifying kind.
Take these two elderly “ladies” playing in Atlantic City at a hotel that no longer exists. One of them had dyed blue hair; the other had dyed red hair. Both had to be in their mid-70’s.
The redhead was playing a machine for about an hour when she stood up, called over the change person (yes, this was somewhere in the olden days of the 1990’s) and asked the change person to watch the machine as the redhead had to go to the bathroom. She gave the change person five dollars.
“Save this machine because it’s going to get hot,” said the redhead confidently.
She went to the bathroom and the change person wandered off. You see the change person was not fluent in English, something the redhead had not realized as she counted out five singles for the change person.
The blue-haired woman came over and sat at the machine and started playing. In a wonderful moment of synchronicity, the redhead arrived back at the machine when it hit a nice-sized jackpot for the blue-haired woman.
“That’s my jackpot!” screamed the redhead. “That’s my jackpot!” The blue-haired woman gave a withering look at the redhead,
“Go away. I won the jackpot fair and square.”
“That machine was being saved for me!” screamed the redhead. “You can’t save machines,” said the blue-haired woman. “Where is that change person? Where is she?” screamed the redhead.
Just then, the change person entered the aisle.
“There you are!” yelled the redhead. “Tell her that this machine was being saved for me and that jackpot is mine. Tell her! Go ahead, tell her.”
The change person had a confused look on her face. “Well, speak up woman,” said the redhead. “This one thinks that win is hers when it is mine. Tell her right now you were saving this machine for me.”
“You can’t save a machine,” said the blue-haired woman matter-of-factly.
“Tell her; tell her.”
The change person shook her head. She was somewhat lost in this conversation and she started to walk away.
The blue-haired lady started to put some more change into the machine. And that’s when it happened. The redhead pushed the blue-haired woman’s hand away from the coin slot with great force for someone in her 70’s. The blue-haired woman took offense and cursed out the redhead and then, bam!, they simultaneously exchanged punches.
Since the blue-haired woman was seated, the redhead’s first punch knocked her off the chair. She hit the floor hard. That didn’t stop her in the least. She army-crawled directly at the redhead and grabbed her leg, upending her.
Since both were wearing dresses what happened next was not a pretty sight. They rolled around, dresses askew, and then started pulling each other’s hair out. There were clumps of red hair on the floor and clumps of blue hair on the floor and I wondered if I should run over and separate them. Thankfully two security guards came over and with some effort were able to untangle them. You could actually see the bald spots where the clumps of hair on each of their heads had been torn out.
Both women started yelling at each other and they tried to go at each other again, but the security guards kept them apart. I could see the change person’s head come out from behind the slot machine at the end of the aisle. It quickly went back. I felt sorry for that woman because she had little idea of why such chaos had ensued between these two combatants. Well, at least she had made five bucks.
At a certain point both women quieted. Heck, they must have been exhausted from their battle.
“Ladies,” said one of the security guards. “You can’t save machines unless you have someone sit at them.”
“There, you see, you dope,” said the blue-haired woman.
“Clarissa,” said the redhead. “Don’t you dare call me a dope.” (Clarissa? Clarissa?)
“If mom were alive she’d beat your butt!” said Clarissa.
(Mom? Mom?)
“Jackie, why don’t you go somewhere else? You always ruin everything,” said Clarissa.
(Jackie? Jackie?)
“I do not,” said Jackie.
And they parted and went their own ways.
My lord; they were sisters! Sisters!
All the best in and out of the casinos!
Visit Frank’s web site at www.frankscoblete.com. His books are available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Kindle, e-books and at bookstores.
