I have seen, at the Palms, a particular grubby-looking guy "playing" the
50-plays near Ben & Jerry's. He puts a dollar in the machine, and then slowly
plays one hand for one penny until the cocktail waitress takes his order, a
Heineken. He continues slowly playing until he gets his beer, then cashes out.
He probably averages losing 10c - 20c in order to get his premium brew. He DOES
tip the CW a quarter.
Occasionally, I also see people put money in a machine and just sit there
until a waitress approaches. They then play one coin and order a drink, then
just sit there until the waitress brings it. Of course, they then cash out and
leave.
The funniest thing I ever saw in this vein was at ACB. About a dozen people
walked in, all one big happy family. One guy sat down at a video slot machine,
and started playing pennies while the other 11 gathered around and rooted
him on, all laughing and talking at once. The waitress came over and asked the
guy who was playing if he wanted a drink. The guy says yes, thanks, and
proceeds to order drinks for all twelve of them! The waitress tries to explain
that you have to be playing in order to get free drinks. The guy explains that
they all ARE playing, as they are all partners! I was playing across the aisle
from these folks, and the whole thing completely cracked me up! A slot
supervisor finally had to come over to back up the poor CW!
With people like this taking advantage, do you blame the casinos for
cracking down? Giving free drinks to people who will never even lose the wholesale
cost of the drink is not good business! Asking customers to play a minimum of
25c/hand seems reasonable to me, if they wish to be served comped drinks.
JMO,
Brian
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In a message dated 8/29/2005 11:03:43 PM Pacific Standard Time,
ednar@kconline.com writes:
Recently a poster discussed where a friend was required/requested to pay for
drinks while playing at a casino. I just assumed that this was another of
Harrah's unique attempts to squeeze a cent out of customers. Sadly, it
appears I may be mistaken.
Today while at MSS I overheard a cocktail waitress telling a customer about
the new rules that are effective today.
I am not 100% sure of the exact details but this is what I can recall.....
In essence they are no longer allowed to serve people not playing full coin.
People playing pennies must be playing at least 25, nickels the same and at
least 5 quarters. etc.
I will assume this just refers to alcohol but I am not certain.
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