I'll take that bet

Still out of town on our trip. Currently, I am firmly esconced in a pleasant room at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino here in lovely Biloxi which, contrary to the news reports, neither blew/washed away with Katrina nor got covered in goopy old oil when the BP platform exploded.

Gambling bores me. I only go on these trips because Faye isn't bored by gambling and someone has to be around to drag her away from these slot machines. I don't really do that. Drag her away, that is. I just encourage her to take a break from time to time.

I don't understand the fascination. A slot machine, to me, is not even remotely entertaining. Most no longer have the two things that we think of when we think of slot machines: a handle to pull and the clinking of coins as they tumble into the tray when you win something. Some of the older machines made quite a racket when you won even a small amount. Bells would ring, maybe a siren would go off, coins would clang in the metal tray, lights might flash... a real event. Now there are no coins. You insert paper currency or a ticket encoded with a record of your credit. That ticket came from one of those slot machines. Now that I think about it, these machines are also missing that thing which gave them their name: a slot. That's where you used to put a quarter, or a nickel, or dime, or half dollar, or a silver dollar (something that isn't all silver anymore either). You insert the bill or ticket into a currency/ticket reader. It scans the bill or ticket, determines its value, and sets your credit on the machine. When you are done, you press the "cash out" button and a ticket spits out of another opening. A few machines in Vegas used to make a lot of noise when you cashed out, machine generated noise that sounded like lots of coins falling into the tray, but not here in Biloxi. No pretense here, it's all business... and it's completely boring.

I seem to be in the minority with this boredom. There are a lot of people sitting in front of these machines and there are a lot of machines.

I must be the one out of step.