Magic of the machines

9 April 2019

By Frank Scoblete

I want magic. Yes, yes, I do; I really do.

I don’t want the kind of magic that is merely illusion as performed by the stage magicians in casino showrooms or on glittery stages. No, I want the real thing. I want Aladdin’s lamp; I rub it and a genie appears and grants my wishes, magically bringing the universe to heel and then bow and kneel before me. Yes, that is the magic I want and, I believe, that most of us wish we could order.

Sadly, it is not to be, at least not in the real everyday world. The real world is made up of real things, not magical or fantastical things. Magic lamps, magic creatures, beings granting us our wishes; they don’t exist.

The real world is mundane. The beasts and wizards of childhood no longer exist under the bed; at best under our beds are merely dust balls and some spare change that must have fallen out of your pockets when you changed pants. The real world is filled with real people, real family members (for good or ill), new and old problems and regular paths we all travel. There’s a beginning, middle and an end.

As I was preparing to write this column I was thinking of how many slot machines have magic as their themes. I just read a web site that had 244 slot machines based on magic. Those are not the be-all and end-all of slot machines with magical themes. Within casinos and on the Internet, magical machines are a large part of the slot machine fantasy world. You could say we are all dreaming of Jeannie.

Such magic machine games are not about the mundane; they are the stuff of imagination, of wish fulfillment, of desire. These games represent your fairy godmothers; your personal guardian angels, created by a powerful entity to make it all come true for you. That entity is, of course, the casino and the slot manufacturers.

Then it came to me that the very slot machine itself is the magical device; not the particular game that the players are playing. The slot machines – right there, right in front of you, made of metal, plastic and glass, holding within it a mysterious computer – are the real Aladdin’s lamp.

For a small investment, a player can have a fantasy revealed; just press the play button and maybe that genie will appear for you. If the genie does not appear on this decision, then on the next one or the next one it sure will. Something good is going to come out of that magical device. The machine holds our dreams and should respond to our desires. Shouldn’t it?

When I walk throughout the casino (which is something I love to do) I see players who are mesmerized by the machines they are playing. I assume that they are no longer worrying about life’s problems while that slot machine is presenting them with their immediate future, be that future a win, a wildly large win, or a magnificently life-changing jackpot – a miracle!

Or a loss. Yes, that is in the machine as well.

We do know from reading about magical events that often the desire for a life-changing miracle carries with it some element of risk. Some magical stories don’t end well; some carry tears with them. Slot machines are no different. They carry risk with them too. All slot players know this fact but that doesn’t stop any of them from dreaming that the magic will hit them right now as they press that play button. Playing the games on a slot machine is playing with magic.

Now at this point in my column I am wondering if my magical machine theory is correct. I do know that when I have played the machines I am looking, wishing, and hoping for a hit, preferably a big hit. That’s about all I am thinking about. I am not thinking about how much I just ate at the buffet.

Are all slot players actually hunting for the magical moment? If you are at this point in my column are you saying to yourself, “The man is right; I am looking for magic. I am lost in the machine when I am playing it and I am hoping it rewards me.” Or are you thinking, “This is a stupid idea. A slot machine is just a machine. When I am playing I am just thinking it is a machine, nothing more, nothing less, and certainly nothing magical. I am not transported to another world; my brother-in-law is still an idiot. No machine changes that fact!”

I guess the answer to my theory is an individual reaction. Some folks will agree that the slot machine can be thought of as a simulated magical device and some folks will think it is nothing more and nothing less than what it actually is and brother-in-law be damned.

No matter what you think, I still hope the magic occurs for you!

All the best in and out of the casinos.

Visit Frank’s website at www.frankscoblete.com. Frank’s latest books are Confessions of a Wayward Catholic!, I Am a Dice Controller: Inside the World of Advantage-Play Craps and I Am a Card Counter: Inside the World of Advantage-Play Blackjack. Available from Amazon.com, Kindle, Barnes and Noble, and at bookstores.