Fantasy or Reality?

26 September 2024

By Royal Flushes

CINDY: When you look around just about any casino, you are hit with several things. The slot machines have so many games of different types; many of them cartoon figures, many of them based on real events twisted to make theme machines (for example “The Titanic”), many of them weird symbols and the like.

ABBY: Who would ever want to play the Titanic? That would be ghoulish.

CINDY: Someone must have played it. I saw a few on the floors of some casinos. That proved there was a market for it, I guess.

ABBY: There are machines recounting dark periods in history too.

CINDY: Let’s move to the table games now. Here you find something a little different. The dealers are all in uniforms, usually colorful ones. They are like servers in fancy parties and the like.

ABBY: Too bad not all of them know that is the image they are giving the public. Or are supposed to be giving.

CINDY: We had that one craps dealer who came right out of the “Sopranos.” He talked like he was about to “hit” someone. “Yeah, yeah, what do ya want?” he’d ask. He thought he was being friendly too. He was a low-class guy worker. His arms were full of tattoos.

ABBY: I know you aren’t a tattoo person. Pretty ones seem okay but some people plaster their bodies with them. The women look really low class if you ask me.

CINDY: Okay, now the point of this article is simple really. Are casinos really fantasy lands or are they real or are they half real and half fantasy?

ABBY: Slot machines are fantasy land. You can’t walk through the slot aisles and not be struck by the sheer number of mystical, marvelous, entertaining, trips into the world of wonder. So, once a person sits down to play, that person has entered fantasy land. A separate part of the person is still human, obviously, but the thrust of the session is to be in the land of fantasy. Some slot players can sit at a machine for seemingly endless hours enjoying themselves.

CINDY: Table games.

ABBY: You take this one.

CINDY: Now, I think that’s a combination of fantasy --- a small part --- and reality because you have to deal with other players and the dealers. That can keep you somewhat grounded.

ABBY: True. The dealers will almost always reveal who they are.

CINDY: At craps you get crosstalk between the dealers. I do not like the dealers talking to each other and ignoring the players.

ABBY: That is the sin of craps if you ask me. The dealers should be focusing on the players, not themselves. Crosstalk shows the players that they aren’t important. At least, I think that.

CINDY: I think that too. However, you don’t get that all the time, do you?

ABBY: Not at all. Most of the dealers respect their roles.

CINDY: So, overall, are casinos fantasy lands or the real-world environments?

ABBY: More fantasy, less reality in slots; more reality, less fantasy in table games.

CINDY: Agreed.