Beloved Land of my Ancestors

Matt's birthday was a few weeks ago and we celebrated by going to Harrah's in Cherokee. This has become a tradition of sorts. Well, I guess you could say that, we've gone two years in a row.

Harrah's never fails to amaze me. I think that it's the only place left on earth where you can smoke anywhere on the property and inside the casino and hotel. The entire place is tinged with that slight smell of cigarette smoke filtered through the air conditioning system. It smells like my car. The Cherokees are fond of their tobacco, but frown upon drinking. There is no alcohol in the joint, but all the free Coke and coffee you want. And, of course, you can win money!! Its truly a marvelous place.

Having said all that, I have to say that it's true that the house always wins. Harrahs is now employing some interesting psychological techniques to keep people in the game. They have always had "rewards cards" which you clip to your shirt and insert in the machine while you play. In the old days, those cards accumulated points as you played and you could redeem the points for free dinners and things like that. The deal with the cards has changed. You still get your rewards points, but now you MUST put the card in the machine to play. Let me put that more plainly... If you want to play, you must tether yourself to the machine. You could always not clip the card to your shirt, but if you screw up and lose it you aren't gonna be playing anything again until you stand in line for an hour to get a new card. They have also arranged this amazing new system where you can't even SEE the money that you are losing. Cash is eliminated from the whole equation as soon as possible. The slot machines only take bills worth $5 or more. You bet "credits" not quarters. If you win the big bucks, its not like it is in the movies. Quarters don't start flying out of the machine, you just get more credits. If you choose to cash out, you still don't get a flood of quarters. You get a ticket printed by the machine which contains a barcode that you scan at an ATM-like machine and get crisp bills. Not a flood of quarters. I cant express how disappointing that is. If I win a million dollars at a slot machine, I want change flying everywhere!! And then I want to have buckets of change and I want to have to get a gaurd with a luggage cart to escort me to the cashier. Technology has changed the world, in ways good and bad. If you ask me, technology has stripped a lot of the fun from the slot machines, and it's definately given the house a bigger advantage. It's so much easier to spend money you can't really see. Its easier to bet "4 credits" than it is to bet a real dollar. And when you are ahead of the game, it's harder to take your money and run when you have to wait for your ticket to print and then physically detach yourself from the machine.

I'm a light-weight gambler. I never enter the casino with more that $20 and I never leave with more than ten cents. I play the nickel slots, so as to stretch that $20 as far as possible. At one point I was up $6, but I gambled that away as fast as the machine would let me. Once it was all gone, I detached myself from the machine and "cashed out". The machine was kind enough to print me a ticket for $0.00, which is redeemable at any of the cash machines located by the beverages.

I know Harrah's is trying to fuck with my head and steal my money, thats why I only play $20. However, they do give me free coffee, the small hope of winning a dollar and they let me smoke wherever I please. To me, thats a good time. Now, if they cut out the free coffee, it's over between us.