Strictly Slots July 2022

PERFECTLY FRANK BY FRANK LEGATO

SAFE RESTROOM BREAKS The cash-out button is there. Use it

Honest.After a play session handling those coins,your hands looked like you had just changed the engine block on a Chevy. Then, they began putting bill acceptors into slot machines, which enabled credit play.You could insert a $20 bill or a $100 bill into the acceptor, and that would show up as credits on the meter. But when you cashed out, all the credits on the meter would be paid out as coins.They would pour from a hopper and clang into a metal tray. If you had $100 in the meter on a quarter slot, you’d have to wait for $100 worth of quarters to clang into the tray, scoop them up with your hands and put them into a plastic bucket be fore you could leave to go to the restroom.Then, you’d have to lug that heavy bucket to the restroom with you. Before that could happen, invariably, the stream of coins would stop when the hopper was empty, and you’d have to wait until a slot attendant was notified.He would have to find a security guard,who would lug a big sack of coins across the floor to your machine.After he poured the coins into the hop per, the attendant would fill out a couple of trees worth of paper work before closing the slot door so the coins could resume their trip to the metal tray. All this meant that a couple of decades ago, it was really compli cated to take a restroom break in the middle of a slot session. I can re member hopping around my slot stool in agony waiting for a hopper fill, after which I’d dash to the restroom with my bucket like Franco Harris lugging a football to the end zone. (Oh, I forgot. Everyone’s not old like me. Like Najee Harris? Joe Mixon? Insert your favorite running back here.) If it was a real restroom emergency and you were lucky,you could find a slot attendant who would watch your machine until you got back. You’d lean your slot stool up against the machine to“reserve”that game. As you might guess, even this ironclad precaution would fail if the slot attendant was called away. Believe it or not, some players who got the urge during a hot slot session would say the heck with it,and let nature take its course so they could finish their play. That’s a fact.And a lot of them weren’t even wearing Depends. Slot play could be messy business back then. So,you can see why I could be confused that someone’s money in a slot machine could be stolen during a restroom break in this day and age. The moral of the story? Push the button.Take the ticket to the rest room with you. And thank your lucky stars it’s not the 1990s. ✤

A news item from California reports a theft of money from a slot machine while its player took a restroom break. That’s all the item says. It doesn’t reveal any of the cir cumstances of this slot theft,which,to me, is perplexing.Did the player just walk away with credits on the meter to go to the rest room?Was he in such a hurry that he didn’t even have time to hit the “Cash Out”button and take the ticket with him? You know,you can do that.Just hit a button and a ticket comes out. You can run to the bathroom and stuff the ticket in your pocket or wal let while you run, if the situation presents that much of an emergency. The situation is all the more perplexing to someone like me,an old timer who remembers when there was no such thing as a cash-out ticket. Really. Not much more than 20 years ago, there were no cash out tickets. If you had credits on your meter and had to go to the bath room, you had to literally cash out—slot machines paid out in coins. For you youngsters out there,“coins”were these round metallic objects that carried value as legal tender.You carried them around in your pockets for carfare, or to throw to the newsboy for your morn ing paper. The newsboy had this big, floppy hat, and would yell, “Extra! Read all about it!” before shouting out the latest news about President Roosevelt and the war. OK, maybe I’m not that old. But I do remember playing slot ma chines when you actually had to pump coins into the slot (kids, that’s why they’re called“slot machines”) three times before pulling a handle to spin the reels.Employees would push around a cart to make change so players could have coins to feed into the machine.

58 JULY 2022 ■ STRICTLY SLOTS ■ www.casinocenter.com