IGT sued Williams for violating the Telnaes Patent. Around Christmas/New Year's 96/97 IGT got an injunction to have the Williams machines removed from the casinos. Those machines included Piggy Bankin', Shopping Spree and Safecracker, which were highly exploitable three-reel advantage slots.
I remember this time period well. In October 1996 I had thumbed into Laughlin, Nevada with my sleeping bag, day pack, 99 cents and a half a pack to Top rolling tobacco....to do some credit hustling. It was a bitch of a hitchike. In the old days I could thumb down I-5 from Oregon down to Sacramento, switch to 99 down to Bakersfield, then California 58 over Tehachapi to Barstow, hit I-40 and clear the state in 24 hours.
That had all changed by 1996. It took me 3 days just to get from Lodi to Tehachapi. I spent the night in my sleeping bag in the on-ramp clover leaf at Tehachapi. The next morning I bought a cup of coffee and was down to 99 cents. I was looking to thumb into Vegas but a guy stopped who was going to Laughlin. I took him up on the offer. That was a fateful ride.
I was in Laughlin probably around noon. A few hours of credit hustling later I had a massive $20 bankroll. In the process of credit hustling I picked up on the William's Piggy Bankin' machines and how to exploit them. I stuck to the quarters at first. 2 days later I had a massive $300 bankroll and put my first play down on dollars. I got thru that window too.
I checked into Harrah's that night and immediately called room service. "Yeah, gimme the biggest steak ya got." Then I headed into the bathroom "Wow, this joints got hot showers and everything." When I came out of the shower I seen myself in the mirror. I pointed a finger at myself in the mirror saying "Mickey, if you mess this one up there is no hope for you, boy. If you don't do the right thing then to hell with you. You can live under the bridges and work day labor for the rest of your life, jerk."
Two months later I was in Las Vegas working the dollar Piggy Bankin' machines. I walked into Circus Circus and all the Piggy Bankin' machines were shut down. I asked the attendent what was going on. She didn't know. I jumped on the bus and headed downtown. I walked into Binion's and all the Piggy Bankin' machines were shut down. "What the Hell?" I went over to the Golden Nugget and the Piggy Bankin' machines were shut down. Now I'm sweatin'. I looked all over one of the machines to find out who made them....Williams. I went to the phone booth and looked for a local number.
"Williams Gaming, may I help you?"
"Yeah, what's up with the Piggy Bankin' machines? Why are they being shut down?"
"We're being sued by IGT" she said. "over the Telnaes Patent. They got an injunction to have the machines removed but we're scrambling to have the injunctin blocked."
"Thank you." I hung up.
By the time Williams got the injunction blocked most of the Piggy Bankin' machines were gone. "What the hell am I gonna do now?" I thought.
Eventually, Williams and IGT settled out of court. But the effect was that Williams moved away from three reelers and into nine line video.
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--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, TedChee@... wrote:
Thanks for the video. It brought back a lot of good memories & one bad one. The only time I gambled in MN was on an Odyssey which took 6 hrs to hit the bonus! Just surprised that they are still around because I thought IGT won a lawsuit which put Silicon Gaming out of business.