Slots

Whether it's in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Laughlin, Nevada, or Biloxi, Mississippi, casinos across the country have one thing in common: senior citizens. Thousands of them flock to the gambling halls in cars, RVs, and casino owned busses. And most, absurdity of absurdities, play the slots.

I remember driving through Nevada once when I say a sign for a casino boasting "the loosest slots in Nevada." Their machines had a 96% pay out. This means two things. First, for every dollar you throw into the machine, you can expect 96 cents in return. That is, the gamblers always lose even if occasionally someone hits a jackpot. In fact, someone hitting a jackpot means that the average gambler gets less than a 96% payout. Second, it means that other casinos around the state are not nearly so generous. Atlantic City slots average less than a 91% payout.

According to an item in First Things, "Americans lost $92 billion gambling in 2007, about nine times what they lost in 1982." With the growth in the number of casinos and increase in internet gambling, the number today is probably even bigger.

The article goes on to quote Jay Evensen, associate editor of the Deseret News:

Gambling produces no product that can be sold or exported. It does, however, remove billions of hard-earned dollars from people who otherwise might spend or invest in things of value. It also takes money from other forms of recreation.

I've walked into enough casinos to have seen the senior spending their savings and I know that the places fill up the week Social Security checks come in the mail. It's tragic and it's a grave evil to prey on the elderly--and, thus, on their children.

I admit to have fed a few slots in the past, but I always keep a story my parents told me in mind. Years ago, they found a dime--one thin dime--in the tray of a slot machine in Las Vegas. One of them picked it up, put it in the slot, and pulled the handle. They won! Then, needless to say, they invested their winnings back into the machine and won even more. And so it went until, at one point, they had a couple of large cups full of dimes. An hour or so later, they had half a cup of dimes, then a quarter cup, then one thin dime. Into the slot it went never to be seen again.

They had a lot of fun, but it seemed to me at the time and still today that gambling and a good life before or after midlife mix about as well as oil and water.