Showing posts with label Gambling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gambling. Show all posts

Monday, March 02, 2009

New-fangled casinos

Have you been to a casino lately? I visited one several weeks ago for the first time in fifteen or twenty years.  They've made some substantial changes over the years.  I wasn't ever very fond of casinos, so I'm not the best judge, but these changes didn't seem like an improvement to me:
  • the slot machines no longer have handles to pull; instead, you push a button and the results are a digital display (i.e. there's nothing mechanical that spins around before stopping);
  • the slot machines don't take coins or coin-like tokens; you swipe a paper card (mag stripe); I don't know what happens if you win, but obviously, no outpouring of coins;
  • the roulette "wheel" doesn't turn; instead, lights just move around the wheel and come to a stop.
How is a gambler (excuse me, "gamer") supposed to have any confidence that the games are legit? Outcomes are obviously digitally determined and odds can be affected with a couple key strokes.  
There is still plenty of SMOKING.  So we didn't stay long enough to check out blackjack and craps tables.  I wonder if they still have humans dealing paper cards/rolling dice.