At GVR recently a regular had me turn my seat around so the back was against the machine when I left for a bathroom break.
Of course this only would work wher the seat is not attached to the machine.
The few times I've left machines that I didn't want to give up for a
brief bathrroom break, I did four things.
1. Asked a person next to me to keeep an eye on the machine for me
(I'm hitting the men's room.)
2. Cashed out any significant money, but put a couple of dollars in
the machine so it still registered credits.
3. Left my player's card in the machine.
4. Put an empty coin cup or an empty ash tray on the seat.
I think leaving money in the machine, gives the guy next to you more
credibility in convincing a would-be player that in fact the machine
is tied up.
I've had people ask me to hold their machine, but they leave none of
the above evidence that someone is actually playing the machine. Then
it becomes more difficult to convince someone not to play the machine
while they are gone -- particularly as time goes on.
If you're going to leave a machine and ask your neighbor to "guard"
it, at least leave a couple of bucks in the machine and some other
evidence you are planning on returning.
Otherwise, I'm not going to risk getting into a confrontation to
guard a stranger's machine that to other reasonable people appears
abandoned.
ST
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups. com, BANDSTAND54@ ... wrote:
For the very reason this unlikely senario unfolded is the very
reason the woman's wishes should have been honored.
Grumpy
From: Slowpoke <decca@...>
To: vpFREE@yahoogroups. com
Sent: Sat, 3 May 2008 2:12 pm
Subject: [vpFREE] leaving a machine - a true storyIt happened a couple of years ago.
I was sitting and playing at a bank of 10 full-pay machines. Every
seat was taken. Most players had been there a long time. After an
hour or so, the lady beside me announces that she is leaving for a
while and can the rest of us save her machine. We all mumble, yeah,
and keep on playing. The lady cashes out her chit but leaves her
card in the machine.A couple of minutes later, some guy comes by and starts to sit down
in her seat. We all tell the guy that the machine is taken and that
there is a lady coming right back. He sits down anyways and says,
that's okay, he will only play it until she returns and then will
give it right back to her. He takes her card out and puts his card
into the machine and starts playing.Of course, he soon hits a Royal and the machine locks up for a hand
pay. The lady returns in time to see the "Call Attendant!" sign
flashing on "her machine". She goes nuts and starts screaming about
how she had played that machine for four hours and how he hit "her
royal" and why didn't the rest of us stop him. We try to tell her
what happened but she is having none of it. The guy doesn't help
matters by laughing and telling her that if she didn't want anyone
to play, she should've left money in the machine. He also "offers"
to give the machine back to her as soon as he receives his hand
pay. She gets even madder and calls security.The poor security guard arrives and has to listen to her screaming
about the guy taking "her royal" and the guy taunting her about her
failure to leave her money in the machine. The security guard tries
to appease the lady but she is getting angrier by the minute. She
finally storms off.The guy hangs around for a while trying to get the rest of us to
agree with him that the machine was "up for grabs" because there
was
no money in it. Nobody talks to him and he finally leaves.
A couple of questions:
1. I realize it wasn't "her royal" but it was "her machine". When
the guy sat down anyway but announced that he would give the
machine
back to her as soon as she returned, would you have continued to
try
to dissuade him (none of us did)?
2. What do you do when you want or need to leave a machine for a
short while?Slowpoke
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