Up, Up and Away!

24 May 2022

By Frank Scoblete

Most slot players are true players! While casinos want table-game players to play four hours per day, slot players tend to go way beyond that in their pursuit of Lady Luck’s love. Some of them you have to tear away from the machines to get them to go to dinner or a show.

Playing slots is not a difficult assignment. You have your own machine and you don’t have other players scolding or intimidating you as you might at some of the table games. It is rare that some other player takes the time to criticize his or her fellow or female slot players.

Even in a crowded casino once you settle on your machine, then it is your machine for the length of time you want it to be your machine. There are no gangs of hungry players encouraging you to get the heck off that machine or else.

So, what will cause a slot player to end a session of play? I guess if the individual has lost all of his or her money that would be cause to take a respite. Short of that, why leave?

I asked slot players this very question. Here are some of their answers:

FANNY: “Don’t get me started. I never know when to leave. I can start playing in the early afternoon and somewhere around seven o’clock my husband scouts the casino looking for me. In the time between starting my play and finishing my play when he taps me on the shoulder, he has played craps, blackjack, taken a shower and a nap.

“What have I been doing all that time? Just playing the slot machines. I think I am like one of those monks on top of a mountain meditating with time meaningless to him. I am guessing that is how I feel. I’m in an alternate universe. It is a pleasant universe too. No problems at all. Just relaxing and playing the machines.

“When do I leave the casino to go home? When my husband taps me on the shoulder the next day and tells me, ‘We’re heading home. Want to come?’ Winning or losing doesn’t seem to affect me at all. I just play and play and play.

“Am I ahead in my casino play? No. But the fun level means I am ahead, at least in my own mind.”

LENORE: “I have strict money-management rules. I bring one thousand dollars to the casino and I play quarter machines until I go broke or until I actually, literally, start nodding out on the machine. Then I go to my room to sleep the night away.

“I do get good sleep too; even better than when I am home and thinking about work or family. When I play slots, I rather quickly forget the cares of the day. I think I am unusual in this but I do not really keep track of my overall money over all the years I’ve played slots.”

DAVID: “I used to play blackjack and craps but after awhile I really didn’t want to be with other players. I guess you could say they impinged on my reality. I enjoyed those games but I never could get lost in them the way I do when I am playing slot machines. I just play until it’s time to go home. No one interferes with me.”

CYNTHIA: “I don’t really have much of a money-management rule or anything. I guess I should but I don’t. That’s probably why I don’t have a winning record. I play until I get tired which is about five or six hours of play. I can go that long with just a couple of bathroom breaks. I do not keep track of the money I play. That might just bother me and I don’t play slot machines to be bothered.

“I bring enough money with me to play for as long as I like. I do not kid myself that I am a winner. How could I? Everyone knows that sooner or later the casino will beat you. But it is the actual playing that is fun. The act of playing is the very key for me. The act of playing.”

PAUL: “I don’t just throw my money away. I keep track of it carefully. I give myself so-much to play a given session and if that session is supposed to be an hour or two, I leave when the time is up. I’ve never really lost a session stake. I guess that could be a crusher. But so far, so good.

“Having that mindset keeps me grounded.”

GINGER: “I want to win. I do. After I’ve been playing for a while and I am ahead, I take half my win and put it away with the initial money and I just play with the other half of the win.

“I do that and, on many occasions, I have gotten a win at the end of a session of play. I call my system the ‘up, up and away’ system. If I am up, I keep half of my up and play with the other half of my up. If I lose that other half, I am away!”

All the best in and out of the casinos!

Frank Scoblete’s web site is www.frankscoblete.com. His books are available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Kindle, e-books, and at bookstores.