Who plays the slot machines?

The answer is — everyone. See you next issue.

OK, OK, I did this once before as a joke, just ended the article with a single-word answer (I was young, I was foolish, I was fired) but I will actually answer the question I have asked (my editor wants that, too). I do realize that readers want a lot more than generalities when it comes to their favorite games, especially when it comes to other people who play their favorite games. So who plays the slot machines?

"When table games players ask me what I play, I am embarrassed when I say I play slots," states Mary J., an Atlantic City slot player and a Wall Street executive. "I tell them I just don't understand the table games and that's why slots are my thing. The truth is I really do understand the table games because they aren't that hard to understand. The casinos aren't looking for brain surgeons to play the tables, are they? No. But I like slot machines because they give me the chance to do my own thing without other players around me and I also don't like table games. But tell that to a table game player and they look at you as if you are nuts. So I make it look as if the table game player is so much smarter than me but of course he isn't. But it does shut them up. I look at it as different strokes for different folks."

"I work with the public all day long in my job," says Jim Harris of Las Vegas. "Actually I own the whole company and I am under a lot of pressure. I can't be yelling and screaming all day when I am having problems with my customers or my staff even when I am wound up, which I often am because mine is a high-stress business. I need to get away from it all and the slot machines give me that opportunity. I go into my own world; I don't have to deal with other people. It is a relaxing time for me. I call it my private meditation."

"Now this may strike you as crazy but I don't even care what the payback is on the slot machines I play," states Jonathan Davis, a teacher from Illinois. "I pick machines that I didn't play last time and I stick with one machine the whole time for my play when I am playing. Why do I play the slots? Because I want to think about all the money I can win if I hit it lucky. My teacher's salary isn't all that high. Yeah, yeah, I know the slots have terrible edges for the players but I can win a lot on the slots and I just can't do that on the table games playing five dollars a hand. The slots I play open the doors to wealth."

Interestingly enough, the old stereotype of slot players being mostly women is still somewhat true today. According to a recent Harrah's survey of American casino gamblers, while about 66% of male casino players play the slots, fully 81% of female casino players choose slots as their primary game. I asked some women about this statistic. Here was one answer:

"If you look around you will see with your own eyes that women play those machines," says Keri Koehler, a divorce lawyer and an Atlantic City player. "I think the men go for video poker more and the women play the slots more. Why? I think the women don't want to be hassled by some of the obnoxious table game players who are always interfering in how you play; telling you what to do; criticizing you and that kind of thing. Maybe in the years to come you will see even more men play the slots. I remember a time when almost no men played the slots so the fact that two out of every three play those machines tells you the machines are dominating the casinos more than ever before. But at this moment, yes, the women are the big slot players."

"I play the slots as a break from table games," says Timothy Barrington, a civil servant from Los Angeles. "I find that if I have had a really bad streak at the tables, I move over to slots and it calms me down. Sometimes I have been really lucky, hit a big jackpot and make all the money I lost at the table games back in a few seconds. I don't separate the slot machines from the table games in my mind. It's all gambling and it's all luck. You get lucky at either type of game and you win; you get unlucky and you lose. That's the way it is."