Good Morning, Bob.
Thank you for a thoughtful and interesting post.
For the "average" player, be he/she a flea or a bumble bee, I will
still disagree with you (civilly, of course).
In your particular case, your point is well taken that you are a
known and recognized VP celebrity. I do understand that when you
are in a casino, you are under the constant scrutiny of both casino
employees and other players. Therefore, in order to conduct your
business in the most expeditious possible manner, it behooves you to
be perceived as a calm and rational individual.
Under your unusual circumstances, I agree that it is best for you to
keep a very low profile, fly under the radar as much as possible,
and reserve your legimate complaints for those that are very serious.
So, in your case, we are on the same page. Our civil disagreement
pertains to vast majority of unsung and unknown VP players. For
those folks, including myself, I must stick with my original
premise.
IMO, the cage supervisor was unnecessarily rude, insulting and
demeaning during his interrogation of Brian. Had he been polite,
while attempting to garner the information he was seeking from
Brian, I would not have objected. i.e. Had he said (with a pleasant
smile of course) "You've certainly been lucky today. What have you
been playing that enabled you to collect so many $500 tickets?" If
he had phrased his query in that manner, I doubt that Brian would
have even taken note of the questions, no less posted about the
experience.
I asume that the supervisor believed that he was fulfilling the
tenets of his job description. Perhaps he became a little over-
zealous in his desire to protect his employer's bankroll. But I
don't believe that was a legimate excuse for accusing a casino
patron of cheating.
I would take the accusation that I was cheating VERY seriously. I
would also make absolutely certain that a sincere apology was
tendered to me, by a person in authority, for the insult of
intimating that I was cheating. I am also a professional person,
engaged in a financial services business. The last thing in the
world that I want, is to be thought of as a thief, attempting to
illegally obtain money from a casino!
I do agree with your premise that Brian was unusually lucky in
snaring 6 sets of Ducks in one session. I'll even go along with your
premise that the supervisor had never seen this happen before.
However, none of this negates the fact that he was egregiously
insulting to Brian.
My personal "4 Deuces best" in a long VP "career", was 3 sets in
about 3 hours, at Fiesta Rancho, earlier this year. BTW, one set was
LDW, while the other 2 were FPDW. When I cashed in what ultimately
became an $1100+ ticket, no one questioned me at all.
I cannot argue with your statement that "some of us are more
emotional" than others. I'm sure that is true. In my case, I am
generally perceived to be calm, balanced and polite. However,
anyone who has the temerity to accuse me of dishonesty WITHOUT A
SHRED OF EVIDENCE, will quickly be shown my other side!
Best regards,
-Babe-
···
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--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Bob Dancer" <bob.dancer@c...> wrote:
Okay. Let's disagree civilly. But I definitely stick with my
position. Let me tell you a little more about it............
<SNIP>
........... I accept that officially I am legally the "guest" of
casinos and that they may ask me to leave for any reason they like --
- so long as it isn't because I'm non-white, female, disabled, or
some other protected class. If casinos want to question me about
something, that's their right. If they touch me, threaten me, yell
at me, or otherwise cross the line, then we'd have had a different
situation. But in the situation at the Edgewater, we had none of
that kind of abuse.
In addition to being a "guest" of the casino, one additional factor
that affects me and not most others is that I'm a well-known
gambling personality. In addition to being a winning player, a
status several others here also qualify for, I'm a "big fish in a
small pond" video-poker-wise. In effect, I am always "on stage"
when I'm in the casino. There will often be someone seeing Bob
Dancer for the firsttime, and if I do anything loud, negative, or
otherwise attention-worthy, they'll remember it --- and often talk
about it disparageingly.......................
........... (Now Brian may not be part of this "well known gambling
personality" fraternity, but them fact that I am affected my answer.)
Please remember that this was an unusual situation. There have
only been a few times lifetime that I've collected six or more sets
of deuces on a single-line machine in the same day.................
Having 6 of these jackpots in one day is unusual. (Come on, how many
times have YOU had this good fortune?) And 50 cents is a rather
obscure denomination --- relativelyspeaking. I doubt that this
supervisor had EVER seen more than two of these $500 jackpot tickets
at the same time before. Six all at once?.......................
.........Some people are more prone to get emotional and demand they
be treated "appropriately" than I usually am (although I've had my
moments through the years). Part of that might be a difference in
personality. Part of this might be a difference in perspective due
to our differentstatuses within the casino. There are truly times
when it's right to yell and scream and demand to speak to the
president. But this, IMO, wasn't one of them.
Bob Dancer