The last time I went to a casino, Shan and I went with a group of friends from college. If memory serves, we were either still in college, or had pretty recently graduated. To put that in perspective, I graduated from college (Bachelor's anyway) in 1993... Yeap, the last time any casino scarfed up my twenty bucks was about fifteen years ago. What's that, like $1.30-something a YEAR!? Guess the joke's on them... Or was anyway...
Monday night, after a day filled with setting up and configuring an Apple Xserve, the guys all decided to drive across the bridge into Mississippi to throw around some of our big, bad moolah. I walked in and hit the jackpot right off!!
Oh, no, my bad. That was the ATM. I took out twenty bucks. Yeah, I know, BIG spender here, fellas. One of the other guys went up to the counter to get a Player's Card. He also got a free buffet since he was a new member. Free food! Sweet! I handed my driver's license over to the lady behind the counter, and she took enough information to walk away with my identity had she been so inclined to impersonate a middle-aged, balding white guy. She took one look at the picture and handed my card back to me. Evidently, I did not have to worry about ID theft as far as she was concerned.
After she made my card, she asked me if I wanted the free buffet that came with the card. Did I *WANT* the buffet!? Surely this was a trick question... Maybe if I answer "NO," I get to walk away with the super jackpot... Buffet... Jackpot... Free food.... Taxes.... I went for the food.
Before we ate, I stuck my $20 into one of the slot machines along with my Player's Card. If you are not familiar with the way these cards work, you actually earn points by LOSING at slots and video poker. The more you lose, the better the prize you can earn. Seriously. Well, let's just say I started earning my points right away. I burned through that twenty pretty quickly, even switching machines twice just to try and find the "hot" machine. Heh-heh... Evidently, I am the "Ice Man" when it comes to slot machines.
We all met up at the buffet and I have to say that it was actually pretty good. They had a nice salad bar, plus stations for different kinds of foods. Cajun-spiced stuffed bell peppers, grilled catfish, shrimp, steak, pizza, you name it just about. My favorite was the Blue Bell ice cream station - waffle cones, ice cream, toppings... oh, yeah...
We all sat around digesting our supper and shooting the bull about everything from podcasting to the election to motorcycling. After about an hour of BSing, we got up and went our separate ways inside the casino. The guy I drove with (Jeff) and I watched two other techs play the slots. Leon was doing well, which means he may have been getting cash in his pockets but he was not racking up any points on HIS card! :-) I think I'd rather have the cash in my pocket.
So, roughly fifteen YEARS after the last time I stepped into a casino, I left this one having spent the same amount of money as I did back then. I'd say that's serious value for the money...
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