However, when we hit a royal, the limitations of the machine and/or
the policies of the casino require a handpay. I am not requesting any
services from any casino employee.
The last couple Royals I hit, oddly enough, were both on the short pay Bonus
Poker machines at the Splash Bar at the Riviera in the middle of the night.
(Can't remember if I've reported this before.)
Because there's no little light that comes on when the machine locks up, I
had to ask the bartender to get on the horn and call someone over to take
care of the payout. Both times, I thought that was worth a $20 tip. (Which
they seemed happy to get...I had read that the bartenders seemed to think
they were entitled to $50 or something like that on a $1000 Royal, but I
didn't get that impression from these guys.)
The first time I hit, the Riviera had a customer serice "policy" that they
left a stop watch running at your machine to show the amount of time between
when they first stopped by and when you actually got your money....I thought
that was worth $10 for that attendant, and since I was handing out money, I
gave another $10 to the change person who was supervising the whole thing.
The second time, the attendant delivered a "Winners Club" tee-shirt as part
of the process, and I thought that was worth a $10 for him...again, I was
giddy enough at getting a Royal that I gave the change person a $10 also. I
even tried to give the guy in the Sport Coat who was supervising the whole
thing a $10 but he didn't want it. (Now, THAT'S enough to make you feel like
some kind of idiot with this tipping business when you try to hand out money
to people who either don't want it or aren't supposed to take it. It
reminded me all of a sudden of an old Monty Python sketch with the "crass
American" arriving at an English resort and throwing handfuls of tip money at
everyone he ran into, whether they worked at the place or not.)
So, do I have a point to all this?.....oh yeah, I guess my feeling is that
the Royal is the big score that we're all shooting for in this VP
business...the reason most of us have broken the old "short coin" habit and
now play faithfully five credits at a time...the reason we've learned the
strategy...it's probably the point where we turn from having a "losing trip"
to a "winning trip"...it's probably the only time when people actually come
up to you and look happy and congratulate you and pretend they're your friend
(or is this revealing too much of my normally pathetic life?)...and, just
like when the CW delivers your "free drink", it's the time when you get to
follow the ritual of acting like a "player" and spreading some money around.
I suppose if I just wanted to sit there and watch credits accumulate when I
won something, I'd stay home and patronize the on-line casinos. I don't tip
the person when they do a machine fill when I'm cashing out my paltry profit
for a session...I don't tip when I bring my little cup of quarters over to
the change booth and get back a little folding money...I don't tip the person
who sneaks up behind me and scares the begeebers out of me when they suddenly
reach in and grab my ashtray to empty it...but, I will play the game and tip
everybody in the vicinity on a Royal.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]