Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives. PREVIOUSLY:The Complete Wrestling Observer Rewind 1991-2001
NJPW was thrown into chaos this week when Keiji Muto, Satoshi Kojima, and IWGP Jr. Heavyweight champion Kendo Kashin all abruptly quit the company, along with 5 of NJPW's front office employees, and are headed to AJPW. Needless to say, this immediately killed the working relationship between the two companies and NJPW is already attempting to forge a new partnership with NOAH. There's also said to be a significant power struggle within NJPW right now behind the scenes that will likely be straightened out whenever Inoki returns to Japan (he's in Los Angeles right now). Tatsumi Fujinami is NJPW president but in the wake of losing these big stars, and the disappointing TV ratings for the Jan. 4th show, it's rumored his days may be numbered. There's rumors that Inoki may take over the role for the first time since he was forced out of the position back in 1983 (long story, bunch of financial scandals, Google is your friend here). Muto is currently half of the IWGP tag team champions and they were scheduled to defend the titles next month and he volunteered to still work the show, but NJPW wasn't having that so that won't be happening now and the titles will instead be vacated, along with the Jr. title Kashin held. And of course, the IWGP title is also currently vacant due to Fujita's injury, so all of NJPW's top titles are vacant right now (the only other active title is the Jr. tag belts, held by Gedo and Jado).
Lots of rumors floating around about how this happened, but the gist appears to be that Hiroshi Hase was the architect (no Seth) behind this whole thing. Reportedly, Muto (and maybe some of the other people who left) may be purchasing a stake of AJPW from Motoko Baba so he'll have some ownership say. The long-term idea is that Mrs. Baba will step down in a few years and Muto, who by then should be ready to retire (lol) will take over the role as AJPW president. Of course, that was the original plan for Misawa after Giant Baba died, but he and Motoko Baba couldn't get along and Misawa eventually left and formed NOAH instead. It's also worth noting that Kashin in particular wasn't thrilled about doing shoot fights while working in NJPW, but felt pressured to by Inoki and he reportedly wanted out of the company even if the AJPW thing hadn't been an option. As for Kojima, he and Tenzan have been the best tag team pro wrestling has seen in years and from an in-ring perspective, may have been the best pure worker in NJPW so his loss is going to hurt a lot too. The office workers who left are mostly accounting and merchandising people who will be doing the same jobs for AJPW.
One bummer of a note here is that, before this, Muto had talked of putting together a dream match against Misawa. But as long as Motoko Baba is breathing air, an AJPW star isn't going to work with Misawa, so that's probably a dead issue (yeah, sadly we never did get that match).
One final note: Muto also tried to recruit NJPW rising star Hiroshi Tanahashi, who most believe has the most potential of anyone in the entire company, to jump ship with him but Tanahashi decided to stay (oh man, can you imagine how different things would be if he had gone).
On Raw this week, Vince McMahon teased the impending arrival of Hall, Nash, and Hogan, saying he's going to do something soon that even he will regret. Vince has reportedly caved on most of Nash's demands, including the reduced schedule. Hall will be making less money than Nash and will be given an even lighter schedule, because he's a single parent with custody of his children (and Dave questions how fucked up Dana Hall must be if SCOTT is the one who has custody). And of course, you gotta figure Hogan ain't working a full schedule, since he hasn't done that in a decade and probably ain't gonna start now. Of course, this puts WWF in the same position WCW was in a few years ago: having all the top stars working TV and not appearing on house shows, which is something WWF used to openly mock WCW for. Now they'll be doing the same thing, with the same guys. It's something that killed WCW's house show business long before the TV ratings started going down. There's also the issue of how they'll get along backstage, since many of the agents (Dave says Gerald Brisco in particular) were very vocally against bringing these guys back. And then there's John Laurinaitis, who has a lot of power backstage now and he and Nash used to butt heads constantly in WCW. So things are gonna be interesting.
In a bit of a surprise, Vince has also agreed to let them use the NWO name and gimmick, and that reveal was made later in the week on Smackdown when Vince talked about killing the WWF with the help of the NWO. As of now, there's no plans for Triple H to join the group. X-Pac will probably find his way into it, given his relationship and history with the group. Nash is reportedly pushing for Shawn Michaels to be involved, but Dave has heard that's unlikely because there's still some fences that need to be mended there between Shawn and some in the company. But then again, Nash has gotten his way on everything else he's asked Vince for so far, so who knows? Anyway, Hall and Nash have officially signed, but Hogan still hasn't finalized his deal as of press time, but the office has been told it's inevitable and to start making plans as if he's signed. It's expected all 3 men will probably debut at the No Way Out PPV next month.
The Royal Rumble is in the books and was a huge success. Critically, it was an excellent show, nothing MOTY-worthy or anything, but nothing bad at all and was a legit sellout. Coming out of the show, it appears Chris Jericho will be defending the WWF title against Triple H at Wrestlemania, though that can still change. Triple H winning the Rumble was expected but made the most sense. The Rumble match lasted just over 69 minutes (nice), surpassing the 1993 Rumble and, as far as Dave is aware, making it the longest mach in WWF history (a famous Pedro Morales vs. Bruno Sammartino match in 1972 was reported in all the newspapers as lasting 75 minutes, but it was actually only 65 so don't come at Dave with no "well actually..." bullshit)
The return of Mr. Perfect and him being put over like a major star (he lasted until the final 4) proves that WWF has no intention of letting any other competitor get off the ground and will nip that in the bud before it ever happens. Hennig has been available for more that a year (WCW released him before they folded) and WWF never seemed interested, but as soon as XWF came along and made him their featured star (with plans to make him the face of the company), suddenly WWF swooped him up. Hennig's appearance was meant to be a one-off but it was known they were likely going to offer him a deal if he was impressive, and they have. It may not be a huge get for WWF, but it's a massive loss for XWF and pretty much renders their entire first set of TV tapings meaningless now, and Dave says that was precisely the point. Vince left the door open for competition once before and it nearly killed him. He won't make that mistake again (not until 2019 anyway). Dave says to let this be a lesson to any new promotion trying to start up: make sure you have people signed.
Other notes from Royal Rumble: Goldust, who was also a one-off for the match, is expected to sign a full-time deal as well. FlaiVince street fight was way better than it had any right to be considering it was between two guys over 50, one of whom isn't even a trained wrestler and the other hasn't wrestled in nearly a year since the final Nitro. Jericho retained the title over Rock in an excellent match and Dave notes that no one in the history of wrestling with the kind of main event star power Rock possesses has ever done as many jobs as him. Maven dropkicking Undertaker out of the Rumble match was the biggest pop of the entire show. But then Undertaker spent the next several minutes beating poor Maven nearly to death, lest anyone think Undertaker was actually trying to get this kid over or anything. Overall, Dave thinks it was the best Rumble match in several years.
The tradition of Memphis wrestling on WMC-TV has been revived! Sorta. The show, dating back to the 70s, has been off the air since last spring when the TV station refused to allow them to tape shows in their studio anymore. For the next few months, they aired a bunch of "Best of" shows but those eventually stopped in December and they've been airing infomercials in that time slot ever since. But this week, a show featuring Jerry Lawler and Brian Christopher in the main event, taped at a nearby casino in Tunica, MS aired on the channel in the usual Saturday morning time slot. Dave says the production quality was garbage and there was no local publicity for it, so it probably did a terrible rating, but it's something (pretty much just one last dying gasp, this doesn't lead to anything).
Carlos Colon said he's going to cut back on being an active wrestler because he wants to spend more time with his kids. Dave points out that most of his kids are wrestlers in his company, so maybe he's actually trying to get away from them.
NJPW star Minoru Tanaka announced his engagement to former women's wrestler Yumi Fukawa, who retired last year (did some research and they're still married to this day. Tanaka still wrestles in NOAH and Fukawa is an actress in Japan).
Atsushi Onita, who has been issuing grandstand challenges to Antonio Inoki for months with no response, has now challenged Naoya Ogawa for a match and wants it to be a benefit show in Afghanistan for the kids there. Dave says don't hold your breath for that one either. Onita says if he beats Ogawa, he wants the match with Inoki. Again, none of this is happening, just Onita trying to work his own angle. Neither Inoki nor Ogawa want anything to do with him.
Goldberg participated in a charity golf tournament this week and while there, he made some comments about going to the WWF. "I personally believe that everything I've stood for when I got into the ring would be compromised and succumbed to the circus-like atmosphere that's out there, and that's putting it mildly. I would be an imbecile if I gave up half my money to work for a company I didn't respect." Dave wonders if his tune will change when that WCW contract money dries up (yup). Also, at the same tournament, they did a funny little angle with Goldberg throwing his caddie into a lake.
Superstar Billy Graham has reportedly lost nearly 60 pounds in just 3 weeks, most of it water weight due to edema he's suffering from and all the other liver issues he's currently dealing with.
Bruno Sammartino did an interview talking about the role he has in a new low-budget movie called Saloonatics where he plays a mob guy with cancer. Sammartino talked about how uncomfortable he was with all the profanity his character had to say but he eventually got more comfortable with it and was able to put aside his personal feelings and eventually was okay with it. (No idea where the full movie is, but here's a trailer and yeah this shit is LOOOOOOOW budget).
Former WCW announcer Mark Madden is in some controversy in Pittsburgh, where he hosts a daily sports talk show on the local ESPN radio station there. A few weeks back, the sports media in the city was swirling with rumors about NFL star Kordell Stewart's sexuality. Madden went on his radio show and criticized people who were spreading those rumors. A writer who works at the radio station then went on the air and accused Madden of being one of the main people who fueled those rumors and claimed Madden had said things in the past on his show implying that Stewart is gay. Madden denied ever saying that, demanded the guy find the tapes to prove he ever said it, and basically felt like the guy ambushed him live on the air with the accusations. The radio station apparently agreed because the writer was fired when he refused to apologize (for what it's worth, several people have made accusations about Stewart being gay over the years and he's always denied them, and even successfully sued someone a few years ago for claiming he had a relationship with him. Who knows and who cares? Not anybody's business anyway).
Jake Roberts was on a radio talk show in England recently and said some interesting stuff. Said he plans to stay in the UK for the next 2 years. Said he could walk back into the WWF and have a writing job tomorrow if he wanted it. Dave scoffs at that and says I guess he prefers wrestling in front of empty indie show crowds in England instead of earning a steady paycheck. Jake also talked about the scene in Beyond The Mat where the movie alleges that Roberts asked an indie promoter for crack cocaine as his payoff for working the show. Roberts denied it happened and said he doesn't trust a promoter with anything, so he wouldn't trust one to get him crack. Well okay then. Claimed he left the WWF last time because he wasn't comfortable with the angle he was doing with Jerry Lawler, feeling like they were exploiting his sobriety. Dave pretty much rolls his eyes at all this, because Jake was actually fired for going on a bender and no-showing a bunch of events (I'm glad we all love Jake now, but he was still 1000% full of shit and off the deep end during this period).
Iron Shiek missed an appearance on the Opie & Anthony radio show this week because he was detained for several hours at the airport. Turns out he wore his curly toed wrestling boots on the plane and because this is 4 months after 9/11 and only 1 month after the attempted shoe-bomber, and let's be honest, simply because Iron Shiek is Middle Eastern, people freaked out. And when they wanted to examine his boots, he initially refused to let them and, well, you can imagine how well that went over with airport security.
If WWA's PPV in Las Vegas happens next month, Bret Hart has agreed to reprise his role as the on-screen commissioner. As best Dave can tell, no one else has really been signed on for the show and the MGM Grand doesn't know anything about this alleged plan to hold the event in their arena and in fact, WWA hasn't even applied with the Nevada commission to get a license to run a show anywhere in the state and it's almost certainly too late to get one by the scheduled date. So Dave is skeptical that this even happens, and if it does, he can't see it being in Las Vegas. (Surprisingly, it does happen and it is in Vegas, but we'll get there.)
Speaking of the Nevada athletic commission, XWF brought a bunch of wrestlers and a wrestling ring to the National Association of Television Program Executives conference in Vegas, with hopes of putting on a live show and impressing all the TV execs and trying to secure a TV deal. But the XWF didn't get permission from the Nevada commission, so they weren't allowed to use the ring and do a show. Whoops.
Speaking of XWF, morale is in the dumps in that company right now. Losing both Hulk Hogan and Curt Hennig (neither of whom were signed but had been working with them) as well as Sting reportedly not being interested has killed a lot of the excitement about the promotion for people within it.
Notes from Raw: Flair cut an emotional promo about his history in wrestling and how he was on the road so much and put wrestling ahead of his family and not seeing his kids and all that stuff. During the promo, Lawler made a sarcastic joke about Flair needing to have his priorities in order, which Dave thinks is pretty rich coming from Lawler, who lived the exact same life and wasn't much of a father to his kids either (which Lawler has admitted, to be fair). They're continuing to tease a Triple H/Stephanie split, with him being annoyed at her nagging. Speaking of Triple H, Dave thinks he needs to lose at least 15 pounds because he's totally slow and lumbering since he came back.
Notes from Smackdown: AJ Styles worked a dark match, losing to Rico Constantino, but apparently he looked awesome in the match (yeah he hits an awesome shooting star to the floor late in the match). And the show ended with McMahon doing the big NWO reveal on the back of his chair during his promo.
Regarding Triple H's match on Smackdown last week, where they gave away his return match on free TV 3 days before the Rumble. Remember how Dave was flabbergasted that they would be so short-sighted? Turns out Triple H felt the same way and fought hard against it, but Vince wouldn't budge.
Chris Benoit is telling people he expects to be back in the ring around June (yup).
Jim Ross answered some questions at a press thing last week and had lots of interesting stuff to say. He said the criticism WWF was receiving for bringing in Hall, Nash, and Hogan hurts, but they have to do what's best for the company and Vince feels this is it. Doesn't sound like JR loves the idea too much either. They've had no talks with Scott Steiner. When told of Goldberg's recent comments (mentioned above), he said he wanted to believe Goldberg hadn't really said that and thought it was a shame. Said there's heat on Jeff Jarrett for how he left the WWF last time so he probably won't be welcomed back anytime soon. JR also hinted that the brand split will come after Wrestlemania and implied that they will be reviving the cruiserweight division. Dave says he's convinced that Vince will never get behind pushing cruiserweights as major stars so he's not holding out hope for that. Said they may bring in Rey Mysterio if they decided to launch a cruiserweight division. Said they'd love to have Eddie Guerrero back but he has to get his personal issues straightened out first. Same with Shawn Michaels, plus they don't know if he could physically do it.
ESPN's Bill Simmons wrote an article reviewing Royal Rumble 2002 and Dave thinks it was great. In one piece, Simmons managed to pretty much sum up all of WWF's recent problems while still acknowledging that the show was entertaining. And the link Dave posted for it in 2002 still works!
Unless things change, Chris Jericho is gonna be in an awkward situation next week. Jericho is scheduled to play in a celebrity hockey game as part of NHL All Star Weekend. Who will his celebrity coach be, you ask? Goldberg. As of press time, most people in WWF don't seem to be aware of it and Dave wouldn't be surprised if Jericho gets pulled from it.
Booker T was on the Howard Stern show (after his comments last week saying he wasn't a fan of Stern, go figure) and talked about his time in prison and his plans to write a book. He also said he hopes to retire in 2 years which Dave ain't buying (yeah, still about 10 years away from that). He also said someone is suing him over the term "Spinaroonie" because apparently someone else thinks they own the rights to that name. Booker also mentioned that he's dating former Nitro Girl Sharmell Sullivan. Dave notes that they've been dating since WCW and Booker is the one who helped her get hired by WWF, where she's currently in developmental.
DDP has also said he plans to retire in 2 years, to become a motivational speaker. This one actually almost happened. He left WWF just 3 months after this and didn't wrestle at all for several years. Then he had a brief run in TNA but he's been mostly retired other than some one-offs ever since.
Randy Orton is moving up to the main roster. In his final OVW match, Orton lost clean to Prototype and Dave says it's clear they're grooming Prototype to be the next OVW champion.
15 Most Famous Slot Machines and Most Popular Slot Games
1. Liberty Bell
Invented and designed by a San Francisco mechanic named Charles Fey in 1895, the Liberty Bell is the first slot machine. The main symbols here include horseshoes, stars, spades, diamonds, hearts, and Liberty Bells. Once three bells are aligned, the machine pays 50 cents. Having a coin slot at the top, it features small reels in the middle and a paytable at the bottom. It works like this - players insert a Nickel and pull a lever on the right-hand side to spin the reels. Although the Operator Bell and Liberty Bell have been removed from casinos, the original Liberty Bell on display can be seen in the Liberty Belle saloon in Reno, Nevada.
2. Lion's Share
One of the most famous slot machines, Microgaming’s classic slot Lion's Share, gained a lot of success back in 2014, due to news channels that discussed the topic on how Lion's Share's progressive jackpot hasn’t been hit for two decades. Thousands of people have tried but no one was lucky enough to pull it off. Although the machine only featured 3 reels and only 1 payline, Lion’s Share has managed to become one of the most popular releases in Vegas, so popular that people waited in line just to put a coin into it and try spinning those reels. Eventually, a New Hampshire couple hit the $2.4 million progressive jackpot in MGM’s Grand’s Lion’s Share. Soon after, MGM Grand made a decision to retire the Lion's Share machine since it required a lot of maintenance. Still, the game became part of slot history with a jackpot that took 20 years to win.
3. Megabucks
Created by IGT, Megabucks has managed to become one of the world's best progressive slot machines. The game is also responsible for numerous big wins throughout the entire jackpots’ history. Also known as the biggest money jackpots of all time, Megabucks slot machines are described as simple games with a massive progressive jackpot. One of the biggest wins was when an anonymous engineer won a staggering $39.7 million at Las Vegas' Excalibur, back in 2003. As for the other big wins hit on this machine, there was a cocktail waitress Cynthia Jay Brennan who snagged an incredible $34.9 million at Vegas' Desert Inn, as well as a retired flight attendant hitting $27.5 million at Vegas' Palace Station. Johanna Huendl won $22.6 million whereas an Illinois businessman hit $21.3 million on the very first spin. However, after winning the prize, one of the winner's family members had a tragic accident, which (as some believe) only supported the theory of a Megabucks curse. Other unfortunate stories are just believed to be urban legends, including anecdotes about underage players, as well as casino employees, being big winners but not being able to claim their jackpots because of specific state laws and regulation.
4. Wheel of Fortune
IGT’s Wheel of Fortune has proven to be the second most famous slot machine of all time. Featuring a bonus feature just like the real show, the slot machine is usually played by many slot fans and can be found in numerous casinos all over the globe. Although the game comes in more variations, probably the most popular one is still its 3-reel version, with a colourful wheel at the top. The Wheel of Fortune multiplayer game features a bank of machines where every player gets their own screen. What makes the game even more exciting is the multiplayer edition where people can play the bonus round together, which really intensifies the game show aspect. In a 5-reel Wheel of Fortune slot, however, Wild symbols will help players land winning combos and, if you’re lucky enough, you may get a Super Wild that will boost your win up to 5x! Last but not least, the Triple Action Bonus is activated by getting at least 3 Triple Action Bonus symbols anywhere on the reels. But still, none of the newer Wheel of Fortune slots measure up to the original one because of the large progressive jackpot involved.
5. Mega Fortune
Featuring 5 reels and 25 paylines, NetEnt’s Mega Fortune slot became very popular among players as it usually grows into a multimillion-euro amount before being hit. The main symbols here include luxury cars, yachts, and expensive jewellery, Mega Fortune is an online slot machine game which justifies its theme that comes with the largest ever online slot jackpots. The game offers a few different features that make the entire gameplay more fascinating, however, by far the most interesting ones are the 3 different progressive jackpots: Mega Jackpot, Major Jackpot and Rapid Jackpot. There are counters for all 3 of these that are displayed above the reels. Champagne is the Scatter and if you land at least 3 of them simultaneously, you will trigger Free Spins bonus round. Likewise, Wheel of Luck is the Bonus symbol, and if you land 3 or more symbols in succession from left to right on an active payline, you will activate the Bonus game. What’s interesting about this slot is the fact that a Finnish man won a huge jackpot worth €17.8 million while spinning the reels of Mega Fortune. This record from 2013, has been passed by Mega Moolah, but the game is still proof how rich players can get after playing Mega Fortune.
6. Mega Moolah
Powered by Microgaming and being among most popular slot games, Mega Moolah is a 25-payline progressive slot which has served as a competitor to Mega Fortune's big jackpots. Followed by African safari music, the game features antelopes, elephants, giraffes, lions, monkeys and zebras as the main symbols. Landing at least 3 Scatters at the same time will trigger 15 Free Spins. What’s more, all wins hit during Free Spins are tripled, whereas Free Spins can also be retriggered. Players can win one of the 4 Progressive Jackpots within the randomly triggered Bonus round. The game paid some of the largest slot machine jackpots that have ever been triggered. In 2015,for example, Mega Moolah gained international recognition when a British soldier Jon Heywood won a massive €17,879,645.
7. Cleopatra
Inspired by the famous Egyptian theme and Developed by IGT, Cleopatra is a 20-payline classic game that managed to stand out above similar releases. Featuring ancient Egyptian music, the main symbols here include Cleopatra, the Eye of Horus, scarabs, and pyramids. Landing at least 3 Sphinx symbols will trigger the Cleopatra Bonus, which awards 15 Free Spins. All prizes, except for the 5 Cleopatra symbols, are tripled in the Free Spins round. The game has been so successful that it inspired its creators to make a sequel, Cleopatra II, with richer graphics and engaging sound effects. But even if you choose the original game, you'll be playing a classic that's still enjoyed by various players today. And, in case you land 5 Cleopatra symbols you’ll get a jackpot of 10,000 coins.
8. Book of Ra
Having a popular Ancient-Egypt theme, Book of Ra has always been one of the best choices to play in land based and online casinos. Powered by Novomatic, Book of Ra is a 9 payline video slot that offers plenty of bonus features and big payouts. With entertaining narrative and energising gameplay, there are numerous ways to win here. In case you land 5 archaeologists simultaneously, you’ll get an impressive 5,000x your line bet. Earning big bucks, however, comes from the Free Spins feature. What players need to do is land at least 3 Scatter books to trigger the Free Spins feature. Pages of the book will flip and randomly determine which symbol will expand during the 10 Free Spins. Although hitting the jackpot may not be easy, with only a few one in between, when big wins come, they can be big.
9. Starburst
There’s no denying NetEnt’s Starburst slot became kinda legendary in the iGaming universe. With its dark background and shiny space looking gemstones, Starburst slot features 5 reels and 10 paylines. The well-known futuristic music in this release is also easily noticeable, as is the game’s expanding Wild. More precisely, the Wilds may only occur on the reels 2, 3 and 4, and, once 1 or more wilds appear on those reels, the Starburst Wild feature will be activated. During this feature, Starburst wilds expand to cover the entire reel and remain while the other reels re-spin. Should a new wild land during a re-spin, it expands and stays along with any previously expanded Starbursts for another re-spin. Another cool feature is that Starburst pays both ways, instead of only paying you for landing at least 3 identical symbols on adjacent reels starting with the reel furthest to the left. The maximum single spin payout for a person (betting the $200 maximum) is $100,000. But, in order for that to happen, you must land five bars on consecutive reels on an active payline. Players love this slot, probably because it’s suitable for both newbies and experienced players.
10. Immortal Romance
Powered by Microgaming, Immortal Romance is based on sci-fi and the cult of Vampires which has become one of the popular casino slot machines in the last couple of years. Apart from superb graphics and great audio and visual effects, the slot features 5 reels and 243 paylines, and the theoretical RTP rate of 96.86%. The four main characters are Amber, Troy, Michael and Sarah. When it comes to features and bonus games, Immortal Romance offers different variants. Wild Desire feature can occur randomly, and as soon as it does, it can turn 1 to 5 reels completely Wild. Likewise, landing 3 or more Scatters anywhere on the reels in this game, activates the Chamber of Spins feature which cannot be triggered during Wild Desire. The game is still among the most popular slots, as many players still try their luck in this slot in the hope to get the highest multiplier possible.
11. Gonzo’s Quest
Beautifully designed video slot powered by NetEnt, Gonzo Quest features 5 reels and 20 paylines. The story is based on the famous conquistador Gonzalo Pizzaro who is on his way to the Peruvian ruins and just about to experience the unique quest. Now, Gonzo’s Quest has become one of the most popular slot games of all time, probably because it comes with a few interesting features, Avalanche Multipliers feature being the most interesting one of all. In Essence, the reels in the slot move in a cascading manner which resemble an Avalanche. As you activate each new Avalanche, you will win a multiplier. Multipliers are displayed above the reels, and go up to 5x, that is if you land 4 or more avalanches simultaneously.
12. Age of the Gods
Being among famous slot machines and inspired by Ancient Greek mythology, Age of the Gods is a 5-reel, 20-payline progressive slot powered by Playtech. The main characters are Athena, Zeus, Hercules, and Poseidon power up 4 free game modes that offer extra wilds and win multipliers! Once you start spinning, you’ll come across a series of bonus features, such as Athena Free Games, Zeus Free Games, Poseidon Free Games and Hercules Free Games. Wild logo is the game’s wild card and it substitutes for all symbols, with the exception of the Scatter. Landing at least 3 Scatters anywhere on the reels simultaneously triggers the Bonus game. Moreover, landing 5 God symbols in any order on an active payline will get you 200x your line bet! During the main game, any spin can activate the Age of the Gods Mystery Jackpot. This mini game guarantees a win of up to 4 progressive jackpots. All you gotta do is click on the coins to reveal jackpot symbols, and if you match 3 identical ones, you will win that jackpot.
13. Money Honey
Having a cute theme, Money Honey is a 5-reel and a 243 payline slot themed around honey. With Wilds, Free Spins, Scatters and multipliers, it is a fast-paced exciting creation featuring vibrant colours. Likewise, it is a mobile-optimized slot which may be an excellent choice if you’re new to online gambling or if you’ve been playing for years. Just like in other games, Wilds will help you win payouts as they are able to replicate most other symbols on the reels once a winning combination has been made. Another symbol you may want to keep your eyes on is a Money Wheel card. Once you manage to land at least 3 of them on your reels after a spin, the bonus game begins, and you spin a big wheel to choose a prize.
14. Quick Hit
And our selection wouldn’t be complete without Bally's Quick Hit slot. Featuring traditional Las Vegas symbols with sharp graphics and relaxed music, the video slot has 5 reels, 3 rows, and 30 paylines. Once you decide how many paylines you want to bet on, your gaming adventure can begin. There are Scatters symbols and three bonus games to benefit from. The biggest payout here comes from landing the triple seven symbol. Should you land 5 of these lucky numbers on the reels at the same time, you will win 5,000 coins, whereas if you land five wild symbols, you’ll get 12,500 coins. Those looking for hitting a jackpot should pay attention to Quick Hit Platinum symbols as 5 of these contribute to 5,000x players’ original bet amount – and even more, with the max bet activated. The second-highest jackpot can be hit by landing 9 Quick Hit Slot symbols. Both the Quick Hit Platinum and regular Quick Hit symbols must occur on or within one position of the first payline to be eligible for a jackpot win.
15. SlotZilla Zip Line
And now something completely different. We’re finishing our selection of famous slots in style, with the world’s largest slot machine - StotZilla Zip Line - 128 feet tall which has two take-off levels. This $12 million SlotZilla zip line took more than a year to build and opened its doors in 2014 and has already had more than 2 million riders so far. The 11-story slot machine is decorated with over-sized dice, a glass of martini, a pink flamingo, video reels, coins, and two showgirls - Jennifer and Porsha. SlotZilla offers two different rider experiences - the upper Zoomline and a lower Zipline. This unique machine has a huge video screen with reels and a gigantic arm, replicating a true slot machine experience.
PSA: First time going to Vegas this weekend? Here are some tips that helped me along the way!
I am sure there are a few people from this sub who will be attending Las Vegas for the first time this weekend for Double or Nothing, and most of you may even be over 21. That being said, I wanted to make some mention of a couple things I have learned over my time staying on the strip. I'm 36, my wife and I have been to Vegas over 15 times, each time staying on the Strip. Here are some pointers.
If you're staying at a Strip location (MGM Grand for example), put a CREDIT CARD on file. DO NOT USE DEBIT. When you staying there, the locations will put a hold on an amount of funds throughout your stay. This can be upwards of $300. If you use your debit, that $300 is frozen and cannot be withdrawn. Keep in mind that if you are staying there and charge things to your room (like restaurants etc) that will come off the balance at checkout. This hold will NOT come off the resort fees. Resort fees are upfront.
Once you get into your hotel (Strip or off strip), first things first, make sure you know if they have a Players Card (Mlife, Total Rewards, etc). Those points do add up and can be used for a plethora of things. You are also given out mailers and emails throughout the year asking to visit and paying for your stay (minus resort fees). If you decide to gamble a couple hundred it really isn't that hard to get bumped up a level in card status. In my trips I have only paid for 3 actual rooms. And I don't spend thousands either. I only play slots, maybe take $300-$400 with me at a time.
Enjoy the drinking but don't be dumb. It's Vegas, we get it. If you are drinking, the chances of you getting turnt are high. Take care of yourself and don't miss out on anything because you couldn't handle your liquor. This includes Double or Nothing. Security will definitely be watching and if you get to rowdy, you will be escorted out.
ATTENTION SINGLES! If you are gambling late at night, and a lady in a dress comes up to you impressed by your play, your outfit, or how funny you are.. BAIL. Don't get caught up in that. It's still illegal and they are always watching.
Casino floor drinks are complimentary. If you are drinking on the casino floor (or you want a cheap drink) sit on a slot, drop in a couple bucks. Make the minimum bet (normally .30) and hit the button every minute. A girl will come by and get your drink. Hard A drinks are not that strong, and you can ask for a double no charge. You can also get a can or bottle of beer, normally domestic. For me, if it's busy around, I only tip a buck because they will make the rounds regardless. If it's a slower time of night, say 2am at the Paris Saturday night, drop a couple more bucks and they will swing by more often.
Weather looks to be low 80's this weekend, so hit a pool! Get there around 9-10am and sit out, relax, have a pina colada. You may run into a familiar face Saturday morning while the boys get some sun.
That being said... DON'T BE A CREEP. Just don't. Learn some manners. Be Respectful. Don't pressure anyone you recognize for a picture like they owe you something. The nicer and chill you are, the more likely they will be the same to you. Not just wrestlers either. This is Vegas, you will see somebody in the Entertainment industry.
Don't gamble at the airport! It's a trap.
If you are flying in and need a ride to the Strip, I recommend Showtime Shuttle. You can book a round trip for 2 people from the airport to a hotel for $16.00. Total. I'm not even kidding. After getting your bags just follow the signs for shuttle services. And tip your driver a couple bucks for grabbing your stuff.
We will all be standing in line with you, so please, for the love of everything, SHOWER. Your room comes with free soap. Scrub up!
Print your tickets just in case. I've seen too many scenarios where the scanners aren't working on phones and it causes headaches.
After the event, if you plan on hanging around the MGM, they have a food court. Many cheaper options, even a 24/7 Johnny Rockets.
Last but not least, enjoy the excitement of being around fellow fans. We are all a part of something really special right now. This is a moment you are going to remember. You may even meet fellow fans and become friends for life. Don't be afraid to 2-Sweet (or 1-Sweet depending on your preference) someone with merch on. Doesn't even matter what brand at that point. We are all wrestling fans.
If you have any additional questions or wish to expand on something, please let me know. I can't wait to be a part of this with all of you. EDIT: Spelling cause I suck.
Jerry is invited to perform at the Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas and is shocked when he sees that Kenny Bania is Caesars Palace's resident comedy show headliner. The others go with Jerry to Las Vegas (more in description).
Kramer doesn't want to gamble because of his gambling addiction, so he starts to tell other casino patrons what to bet on in video poker and horse racing and becomes a bit of a local celebrity when his tips frequently pay off. He ends up trying to gamble his own money but finds out that he can't win using the same tips he has been giving to others. George sets out to try as many buffets as he can in Las Vegas. He is asked to leave the buffet at MGM Grand because he complains wildly about the quality of the food. Elaine hears about Kramer's success and tells Jerry that she thinks gambling is stupid. To prove her point, she puts a dollar into a slot machine and wins $2000, much to Jerry's amusement and surprise. So this would probably be a two part episode. Write some more for the characters, please! I had this idea of the gang in Vegas and want to see what you come up with. So many possibilities.
Escaping 7 years prison by the skin of my teeth in Vegas
I once escaped what I was told 7 years in a U.S. federal state penitentiary by the skin of my teeth. Having driven from L.A. to Las Vegas with a friend, we arrived at the hard rock hotel. I needed to chill and recharge having driven the whole way but my mate decided to try his luck with the tables downstairs. I wake up to my friend returning and shaking me awake to inform me his fortunes have been prosperous and has sliced himself a tidy earn on the houses purse. Being the cat he is, he immediately went looking to trade his new found American currency for something a lot more fun... the Colombian premium export. 5 grams of the white stuff burning a hole in his pocket - the night has now elevated to new interesting waters. We decided to go to OMNIA - in Caesars Palace. The loose cannon he is I tell him I’ll hold onto the newly acquired assets for safe keeping. We arrive at the club, deep in the heart of the casino complex. With our newly bought cheap leather shoes and crudely ironed shirts we are doing our best to shake the back packer look and craft a veneer of wealth and sophistication. We are nodded into the club like the Trojan horse into Troy with a payload to put the wolf of Wall Street to shame. After traversing a series of hallways, the dance floor opens up. A multi story oasis of debauchery. A quick look at one another and it’s a B line to the little boys room to put a dent in this 5g - courtesy of the roulette wheel. I go into a cubicle and tee up two lines. Mine goes and then I pass my phone over to my mates hot little hand. I walk out of the toilets and wait.... 1 min goes by and he’s nowhere 5 mins and no where 10 - nowhere I think... has he shat himself or what... I go back in and see my friend. He’s wrapped up by three enormous security guards. They march him towards me and he says mate I’m fucked... and passes me my phone. They then see this exchange and grab me. The only problem - He has nothing on him... I on the other hand... have 4.something grams of cocaine. This is the part where 7 years becomes a real possibility. They grab me by the arm and say ‘you’re coming with us’. We walk out of the toilets into the enormous dance floor where a sudden survival instinct overtakes. I shove the arm off channeling the inner rugby player in me and start my quickest sprint of my life. I look behind me to see a multitude of security guards shining their torches and chasing. I reach into my pockets mid chase and grab for the baggies that jeopardise my freedom. I rip them open and throw them everywhere like a an expensive snowglobe. I keep running and pass security as I go. Their kryptonite is they are not all on the same radio frequency... so by the time they realise I am a hot topic amongst their colleagues I am already gone clear. I dart through the halls of the entrance and clear the front door. I am now in the casino of caesars palace, darting through the tables and slots machines. I keep sprinting and at one point running over the top of a roulette table. I make the entrance and burst through the front doors of the palace into the driveway. I dart through the limos outside onto the front garden. I jump over the fence falling into hedges beneath along the side of the strip. I brush myself off and run through traffic and down an alley. I have made it to freedom from one of the most secure institutions on he planet. My friend calls me and asks where I am. He tells me the security told them they had me but it was a bluff. He had nothing on him so they were forced to let him go. We meet in the alley and embraced. A bullet missed and onto the MGM Grand to do it all over again. We took on sin city and won. Viva Las Vegas 🕺🏽 Source: instagram @astoryiheard
Going to Vegas in July - I've been doing my research so hope this can help others.
I'm going in July and have done some research. Plenty of this is from the sidebar, but other notes are from many of other sources. The Vegas Degenerate Tour ( . ) ( . ) Things to do:
Drugs
Hookers
Bellagio Fountains (free)
Mirage Volcano Show (free)
The lounge at the top of the Mandarin Oriental - Super Classy with amazing night time views, sexy patrons and great cocktails
Wet Republic - Rent cabana 2 months in advance
Las Vegas Helicopter Night Flight with VIP Transportation £65pp
Grand Canyon Skywalk - Apparently Expensive and not that good - you have to take a bus to get there and it is $30 each. Go to Grand Canyon south instead.
The Strip Gun Club Range
Sapphires pool party - strippers pool party!!!
Fremont Street Experience at night.
Container Park, which is a few blocks east of the Freemont St. Experience, a 2 foot recycled steel praying mantis (acquired from Burning Man) spits giant fireballs to the beat of music A LOT. Lots of half naked men and women. LOTS (free)
Ghost Bar at the Palms has amazing views. Check Groupon for deals. Happy hour 8-10pm
Stratosphere rides
Stratosphere bar at the top. Happy hour 2 hours after open
High Roller observation wheel. Get a car with the open bar.
Monte Carlo minus 5 Ice bar. Everything is made out of ice! Bar, glasses, seating - everything
RiRa Irish bar with live music and good Guinness after 9pm
The Foundation Room at Mandalay Bay, live music and amazing strip views
Strip clubs: Spearmint Rhino, Hustler Club and Crazy Horse--those are our top 3 Rhino and Horse are high end and classy
Top Golf location, just behind MGM. 5 levels of golf driving range, mixed with music, food and drinks. There are also 2 pools, free to use.#
Dig This drive diggers and bulldozers.
Spa in the ARIA is amazing with good treatments.
Alibi show http://alibitheshow.com/ This experience throws the audience into an exciting adventure around the streets, restaurants, bars and other real-life locations on the Las Vegas Strip.
There is so much free stuff going on up and down the strip though that you can just do all the free stuff and not spend a dime. From street dancers, people singing, or pictures with a grown dude wearing a diaper.
Eclipse cinemas downtown for an over 21s only luxury cinema experience with cocktails and good food.
Drinks are ALWAYS cheaper inside the casinos on Fremont than outside
Harrah's has a "Million Dollar Pull" where you just go up and play a slot machine for free with the chance to win $1 million. Even if you don't win a million, you will always win something.
If you want to go to top of the Stratosphere go to the desk to the right of the entrance and say you want to go to the bar. You won't have to pay the $15 to go to the top.
Have the clubs pick you up in their limos because all the cab/ubelyft/limo drivers get a kick back on anyone they drop off to the clubs and same with the VIP card guys! So if you don't use the free limo ... THE CLUB HAS TO CHARGE YOU A COVER!!! If you use the clubs FREE limo service they can sometimes wave that cover charge!! (that's like $20 a person!)
Check for Groupon deals.
Make sure you all download the Uber and Lyft app. Both offer new user signup credits. Free rides.
A $400 Pre-Authorisation charge for resort fees and ‘amenities’ was taken as expected upon check in. I would recommend UK visitors to take a Cash Passport MasterCard (available in Thomas Cook and other travel agents)
é by Jose Andres inside Jaleo inside Cosmo. Only 8 seats, reservations by email only ([email protected]) starting 3 months prior to the res date, 23 courses. $190/person(?) without alcohol pairing
Raku in Chinatown does amazing 8/12 course tastings for $70/100 a person
The tasting, or "seasonal discover menu" at L'Atelier is up to $165 per person
Eiffel Tower restaurant is a Must for dinner!!!!!!!! Fantastic view of the strip
Good steakhouses serve food at the restaurant bar and the bartender has seen some shit. So much more fun for a party up to three and the service is over the top.
Delmonico's in Venetian at the bar. The cocktails and food were amazing.
Mushashi's dirty show (Japanese steak with a naughty show for the girls.) Midnight to 4am happy hour.
Secret Pizza. A secret pizza place. Needs research! Inside the Cosmopolitan
Bachi Burger – also to reunite with a previous memory. I still think this is one of the top 3 burgers I’ve ever had. The oxtail chili cheese fries are recommended by others to be a “must”, but I personally prefer the truffle fries.
Monta Ramen – I’m a huge ramen fan and I understood this was the –best- ramen place in Vegas.
Sweets Raku – in the same complex as Monta Ramen. They have some neat desserts that they make right in front of you, lovely experience.
Wicked Spoon Buffet at the Cosmo. Everything was really good and the deserts were awesome.
Brunch @ Bacchanal Buffet, Caesar’s Palace – This was awesome! We had the groupon deal and it was impressively cheap. Midway through our meal they switched to their lunch menu so we got the best of both worlds there.
Gordon Ramsey’s Burgr – onion rings were incredible. The burger was pretty good as well.
Earl of Sandwich - I could seriously eat these every day.
Studio B Buffet @ M Resort
The "Heart Attack Grill" lets you eat free if you weigh over 350 pounds.
Marriage Can Be Murder - This is a dinner / theater / murder mystery / whodunit show at the D downtown. Includes tasty food, extreme audience participation and likely embarrassment. You may be called upon to dance, or play a character in the murder mystery. Comes with tasty food, cocktails available.
For dinner, I highly recommend BLT Steak House in Ballys Hotel and Red8 in The Wynn - if you are a food lover, BLT’s is particularly worth the extra!
Sex/Swingers Clubs (Or; no, you filthy pervert - what's wrong with you?)
Hello! My wife and I are planning a November trip to Las Vegas for gambling and shows, and instead of recreating the wheel, I thought I'd ask you guys for help!
Question #1: Should I stay at the casino / resort that I am planning on gambling at?
Question #2: How do I find useful casino table games information? I've budgeted low five figures to gamble, and want to play French Roulette, or European Roulette with En Prison; I need to figure out which casinos have that with a respectable table min/max. Short of calling around Vegas trying to get pit bosses on the phone (which I've done with the Bellagio and MGM Grand now), I'm not sure what to do. Kevin in Pit 17 at the MGM Grand told me their European Roulette table is $100 - $20,000 during peak, and $25 - $20,000 off-peak, but it doesn't have en prison in effect, so I want to keep shopping around. How can I do this most effectively?
Question #3: Best way to get show tickets? My wife wants to see cirque du soleil, the Lion King and some other shows - I'd love to see Piff the Magic Dragon and stuff - should we call individual resorts to book tickets for these things? Book them online? Buy them in person? Something else?
Question #4: How should we get around? The MGM Grand offers complimentary parking as a casino perk (says their website). How difficult is it to find parking in Vegas at restaurants and resorts?
Question #5: What should I expect for food? Do the casinos feed their players at their restaurants and/or buffets? Complimentary breakfasts? Nickel and dimed at every turn? What should I expect?
Question #6: What comps should I be asking for? I'm not a high roller that gets comped a helicopter to the roof, but I'm not a slots player either; If I'm going to risk (and presume lose) 5 figures at a casino, I honestly expect them to room and board me while they take my money. Is that unreasonable?
So, you wanna go to SHOT show? You think it's all fun and games? Get to play with guns? See Jesse James and R. Lee Ermey? SHOT show is the annual pilgrimage of the unwashed masses to Las Vegas to rub elbows with youtube celebrities, bloggers and overseas businessmen copying US made equipment and share infectious disease. If you love guns, gambling and gonorrhea - SHOT show is for you! It is not my typical idea of a good time. I am not a big fan of Las Vegas. However: I do attend for a few reasons. First, I do enjoy travel and I'm platinum on AA so I can usually score an upgrade. Second, industry people are in there that I do hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars with business with so it's nice to put a face with the name and see what deals are out there. SHOT for me has been a bust for the past few years. Being a value guy, I want to buy at $1000 and sell at $3000 and as of recently the gun business is more like buy for $1 and sell for $1.10 if you get what I mean. We used to do business at SHOT and now it's just checking in on foursquare, instagram and rubbing elbows with bloggers and the like. I want to make money, not spend money so this is very annoying to me. Anyways, onto the play by play. Monday, January 16th. One day before SHOT show. http://imgur.com/a/HoFUm Every time I've been rejected by a woman, I move $1 from checking into savings and I take the bankroll down to the Wynn for some play. Lets do this. The TSA line is a shitshow thanks to, well TSA. I slog my way to the lounge, as shitty as it is to wait for my winged chariot to DFW. I have gone from being in an abusive relationship with Delta to being in an abusive relationship with AA. Although if you really want to experience the battered spouse feeling, UA is a few gates over. This trip's light reading is trying to finish "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell. Such a good book as well as "Outliers" if you want a good read. I walk up to the podium to find out that my upgrades do not clear, even as an AA Plat thanks to the addition of a FOURTH elite tier. Goddamn fucking W. Doug Parker. Asshole. I gate check my bags to make life easier for me and the rest of the folks. The gate agent calls concierge key and executive platinum passengers. I look down and realize I'm wearing a suit and board with the executive platinum folks because I do not care and I look the part. If you walk with a purpose and are dressed reasonably well, you fit the profile. I settle into my window seat and try to finish outliers. I pass out before takeoff and I'm awoken by the dulcet tones of the flight attendants preparing for landing. We land at Dallas a few minutes early and I hightail it to the Centurion for a quick bite to eat. I grab a plate and help myself to some of the excellent brisket, pecan encrusted chicken and some roasted jumbo asparagus. Yes, my pee is going to smell funny. No, I do not care. The lounge is packed. The bar is full and I grab a quick single malt as I have my meal since American's not going to feed me. They begin boarding to Mccarran as I walk out of the lounge. No time for a stop in the spa on this trip. I make it to the gate just as the call group 2 boarding. I bypass the main line and walk up through the priority line giving no heed to the people that have been waiting there before me as I hold up my paper boarding pass with PLATINUM to the gate agent. I board and take my usual seat - the exit row without the seat in front of it. I'm aghast to see this sight. http://imgur.com/a/dygil The savages. Literally. The savages. I put my loathing away for a moment and look down at the exit row. I have the window. The aisle is a large middle aged man and in the middle is what I believe to be a formecurrent linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys wearing a 52 regular sports jacket. He's not a fat guy in a little coat, he's a big fucking hulk of a man stuffed in an exit row seat that is already an inch narrower due to the tray table. I grimace as I take my seat and give him the manly nod. He does not look happy about the fact that his knees are in the seat in front and I'm stretched out like a Cheshire cat in front of a fireplace on a cold January afternoon. The boarding door closes for an on time departure and Stephanie the FA takes her seat. He leans over and asks if he can take the empty row across the aisle and she takes one look at the three of us and gives him the nod. I bail out to give him a path of egress and suddenly the trip to Las Vegas has just become way more comfortable. I finish The Tipping Point somewhere over west texas, so I pop a xanax and dr pepper and zone out for the rest of the ride. I awake to feel one of the FA's jostling me awake telling me to put my seat up. I do so and we have a ride so smooth that not even the Delta guy behind me can complain about light chop. We catch the TYSSN4 arrival and the next thing I know it the Messier Dowty landing gear of the A321 touch the paint at Mccarran for a smooth rollout down 25L. My phone battery is approaching grim death since this seat has no power plugs and I find bartman383 has sent me a message. He has been enjoying LV with his wife and their due to bad weather they are in the city of sin for a few extra nights. He invites me to dinner. I'm still pretty full from DFW and I tell him I'll be over there once I get my bags and the car and I'll see him when I see him. He gives me the info for the hotel as we pull up to the gate. First stop: Centurion lounge. AA's app tells me bags being unloaded. I grab a quick bite of fried chicken and brussels sprouts since they are good for you and a chocolate pudding. The brisket and pecan encrusted chicken from DFW still has me full but I'm well aware of the speed of a union baggage handlers nowadays and who doesn't like chocolate pudding? Terrorists. That's who. Want to know how to screen for terrorists TSA? Set up a table of free chocolate pudding at the airport. The people who don't take any are members of ISIS. It's just that simple. I grab my bag and hoof it to Hertz. I'm an idiot and I am an hour late for my pickup. Oops. Will an Audi A3 suffice? I sigh and I accept my Teutonic quattro chariot. I do a burnout in the parking garage and hightail it to the exit. I flash my #1 card and my ID and the gatekeeper gives me the go ahead. I get onto the the strip and traffic is awful. I'm going to be late for dinner. I make a left onto Russell Road and hightail it up the 15. I manage to get the car up to 100 as I pass the Luxor. My phone is dead so I can't message Bart about being late. Fuck. The exit approaches quickly as I put the 4 wheel disk brakes to work and sling the car around and head south on Las Vegas Bl. I accidentally turn into the Bellagio and I'm now running even more late. Fuck. Eventually, I get the car into the garage at the Cosmopolitan and head upstairs. I cannot remember the name of the restaurant but I head up to the third floor where all the restaurants are and I see this sign that's reminiscent of my days in retail. It says RESTAURANT - LOUNGE - PAWN SHOP. I laugh. I walk in. It's literally a pawnshop. I look around puzzled. FC: Is this a restaurant? Bald Headed Guy: Yes, through that door. He points towards a door. I walk in to find a bustling restaurant, lounge via the entrance of pawnshop. This is insane. I pass a mirror and check myself out. I adjust my tie, after all it is YSL and the ladies LOVE YSL. Remember that. I find the hostess and inform her I will be joining some friends for dinner. They probably do not have me on the reservation though but I turn on the charm and she smiles and says no problem at all. She asks if my tie is from Hermes. I say no, I'm a YSL guy. She looks impressed as I tell her I'll make a quick lap of the room to see if they're there and surprise them. She gives me a nod and tells me to go right ahead. Still got it. I spot bart and his wife who I can only remember vaguely from gunnitlive after party video and I pull up a chair. Bart is surprised to see I made it and they are in the middle of dinner. They offer to ply me with food and beverage but I decline as I'm driving so no booze for me and no food since I am stuffed from Dallas. We chat about life and liberty over libations. Bart's wife thinks I am hysterical. She's had a few drinks and they are already into their main courses. The brussels sprouts are way too salty and we have to send it back. No bueno. Bart invites me up to his suite on the top floor of the hotel where we are to meet Brogelicious later in the evening. I say, when in rome......we head to the top floor of the hotel tower where Bart shows me his view from the balcony and cracks open the mini bar for some more libations. He asks if I want a drink and I say I better not. I'm driving. Not 30 seconds after arriving, brogel shows up. Bart's wife hugs brogel. She's infatuated with him. We start shooting the shit and bart opens up the minibar and tells us to take anything we want, it's on the hotel. I laugh and I look outside as bart opens his yeti 110 for some silver bullets. Apparently he is so baller the hotel will send up a yeti 110 filled with beer to make him happy. His wife is apparently such a baller. I ball on a budget. They just ball. Hahaha. We shoot the shit some more about guns, gun stuff and people on the reddit for a while. I get a little thirsty and I crack open bart's cooler. I ask him how long the stuff in the cooler is supposed to last and he says until Wednesday. I look down and I am agape at what I see. We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge, and I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon. I mentally prepared my butthole and I decided to help myself to a coors light against my wishes but Bart, Bart's wife and Brogel are all drinking so I let peer pressure take hold as I cracked open a beer with them. We head out to the balcony to smoke some cuban cigars together as bart's wife takes a photo of all of us. We all look like hell. Haha. As bart downs his second beer, he asks me a question. Bart: ever go hunting? Me: Ducks a little bit but not much Bart: ever want to hunt some deadly game? Me: Like on african safari? Bart: No, I mean like.........man. Me: Hahahahhahaaha you're just fucking with me. Hahahahahhaa. That's really funny. Bart: No really, the concierge here at this hotel will set it up for us. It's amazing. I remember my first hunt...... Brogel starts laughing and I realize they've been doing a bit. I've been had. We bullshit about SHOT and Barrett's shotguns and other things and next thing I know, it's late but bart hands me a mixed drink. I sip it a bit and I was in the middle of a tirade complaining about my customers. Suddenly, there was a terrible roar all around us, and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the city, and a voice was screaming: Holy Jesus. What are these goddamn animals? Nobody seems to understand what I'm talking about. It's cold on the balcony. Our cigars are done. We head indoors. No point in mentioning these bats, I thought. Poor bastards will see them soon enough. Back indoors I realize Brussels sprouts and coors light is a bad choice. Seriously no bueno. I excuse myself to the bathroom and drain the vein. The asparagus funny smelling pee and the side effects of beer and brussels sprouts is a noxious combination that a defense contractor should weaponize it. It's pretty bad and not even cuban tobbaco can mask the smell. I sit back down and continue to talk about guns and stuff with bart and the gang and bart asks who ruined the bathroom. I apologize as he sprays a bunch of febreze around and opens the balcony. I apolgize to brogel. He is not accepting my apology. (sorry :( ) Nearly 11, it's about time to pull chocks and mosey on down the dusty trail. I don't want to prompt an evacuation of the hotel due to noxious odors so I decide to leave and bart seems to be kinda mad that I've ripped ass and polluted the sanctuary of his hotel. Half a coors light and brussels sprouts are no bueno in my book now. Bart decides to party hard with his wife and I offer brogel a ride home. He seems skeptical to share a confined space with me after I have just destroyed bart's hotel room. The car has 4 windows and the Uber will cost him a few bucks he can put towards ammo. He relents as we head down to the garage to find my car. Thankfully we find it quickly and I manage to contain the weapons of ass destruction for the 16 minute ride off strip to casa de brogel. He says I'm not that bad a dude and I agree as I hightail it to my hotel. I cannot find my hotel reservations so I call my travel agent to see. Apparently the Wynn was not in my travel budget this year. I have come to find out I have been booked at Circus Circus, much to my chagrin. How bad could it be? I've stayed at the Wynn. I've stayed at Encore. I've stayed at the hotel that Elisabeth Shue's character got raped in in Leaving Las Vegas - but Circus Circus? Did I mention that I HATE CLOWNS? I HATE CLOWNS. Fuck. I pull into the parking garage and the check in line resembles something straight out of the TSA line at Mccarran. 45 minutes to check in. The clerk is friendly and says he's also from Louisiana which is neat. He asks if I've stayed there before and I, being a connoisseur of old vegas history I decide to make a joke and I tell him the last time I was there, Jay Sarno owned the place. He got a laugh. I head up to my room and unpack. The lobby is clean as an old vegas casino can be, the room is clean and there's no way to plug anything in since the hotel predates personal electronic devices. I plug my phone into my external battery and collapse on the bed. I message Bart and chugbleach instead of falling asleep about show tomorrow and I offer to pick bart up early since there is no shuttle from the cosmo. Tuesday, November 16th SHOT Show Day One I awoke several hours later in a daze......the clock said 10AM. The show opened at 8:30. Fuck me to tears. I hurry up and get dressed and down to the sands convention center. The parking lot is FULL. The entire complex is a mess. When my man Steve Wynn built his joint he didn't build enough parking. So people would park at the Venetian and now FUCKING NOBODY CAN GET A PARKING SPACE. Holy shit. I eventually say fuck it and park over at the Wynn and walk over to the Sands. I meet up with a few of my regular suppliers and I see nothing interesting at all. Bart went to bed at 6AM after spending all night partying with his wife over at the palazzo. I joke and say that he just should have stayed there. Bart is amazed at the size of the show and we have lunch at the most disgusting place in las vegas - the convention center bistro snack bar. Bart is a wise man as he grabs a powerade and a fruit cup. I decide to try an "italian beef" and a fruit cup instead of fries to stay semi health conscious. The "italian beef" is the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten. It is flat out depressing. They give me fries with it and I demand a fruit cup. The sassy black woman working the stand asks me "DID YOU ASK FOR FRUIT? CAUSE RIGHT HERE SAYS FRIES" and I channel my inner Louis CK from the "this is how I talk" bit from SNL as I shoot back "WHY YOU FRONTIN ON ME I ASKED FOR FRUIT AND YOUR ASS BETTER BACK UP AND GET ME SOME FRUIT" so she goes back and gets me some fruit. The "italian beef", my fruit cup, bart's fruit cup and powerade comes to $81. My platinum amex comes out and I treat bart to "lunch". We bullshit about guns and stuff in the Springfield booth as we wait at the world's worst concession stand. We eat and Bart is so hungover that he thinks he is in need of physical therapy and a wheelchair. There is no way he is going to party tonight before his trip home. Or so I think. Haha. I meander around the show a bit more and I find this, the most USELESS PRODUCT OF 2017. It's made by a company called radetec. http://imgur.com/a/GOiCB It's a shot counter. For your gun. A digital odometer, for your gun. The only person that would buy this is the guy like my dad that kept a spiral bound notebook in his car where he documented how many miles he traveled per tank, gallons dispensed, PRICE, service station and whether they had a different price for cash/charge, oil consumption, tire rotations, alignments, all services - scheduled or otherwise, and a running odometer. Does anyone know the gun owner who asks for a round count when they are looking at a used gun? The question I always shoot back is "do you want to be lied at a little or do you want to be lied at a lot?" because that's what you're asking for when you ask for round count. UNLESS YOU BUY THIS PRODUCT! I roll my eyes so far back into my head that I nearly lose my balance. This is idiotic. I cannot fathom anyone willing to buy this. What a waste of perfectly good exhibition space. Bart heads back to his hotel after visiting SHOT show for a few hours, not getting any swag and to get an IV of fluids since he looked like he was rapidly approaching grim death. I wrap up visiting prime vendors and checking out the new products, or lack thereof because I have something on the schedule. At 4:30 there's a suicide prevention for retailers seminar hosted by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. As many of you know this is an issue that is important to me and perhaps we as retailers should be doing more. The keynote was from their chief medical director talking about the accessibility of firearms and the mindset of the "typical" suicide. Mostly men. If you are a veteran you are at a significantly larger risk. The information was presented very not surprisingly and one of the things discussed was that we only spend around 21M a year on suicide prevention. A few take away facts from the keynote: When suicide barriers are put up on a bridge, suicide rates for the entire area drop. The key to preventing suicide is getting people to talk about their problems. Once you can get someone out of that mindset, they are statistically less likely to do it and live productive lives afterwards. There are certain terms that they are trying to get away from - for instance, they are not saying "committed suicide" they are now saying "died by suicide" in order to bring awareness and tell it like it is. One thing that really was interesting to me was my reading on the flight in from Dallas. In The Tipping Point, Gladwell discusses how things stay the same and suddenly they all change. One of the things that he discusses is in micronesia - where teen suicide was practically unheard of became an outright epidemic. One teenager did it, for reasons passing understanding to me as an outsider and then all the other kids realized that they too could escape their pain by hanging themselves as well and suddenly the suicide rates in micronesia became so high to where it became a public health issue. I wish I could show you all the article I wrote on TTAG about my friend's death but it has been lost in the cloud and I am unable to find the last draft I sent to print, but it echoes some of the problems we have with suicide and mental health in the firearm industry. After the keynote, the good doctor opened the floor up for questions. Her keynote posed a lot of statistics but not a lot of answers. I am a detail oriented granular data guy and I did not get a solid grasp of the AFSP solutions posed, if any. Several firearm dealers discussed the lack of a cohesive solution and the takeaway was they're trying to develop awareness for the suicide problem. Their goal is to lower suicide rates but how they get there is yet to be determined. I didn't like hearing that and the comments from the crowd reflected the lack of a "here's what you can do TODAY to help this problem" part of the initiative. Going around the room, one dealer who used NICS said that if a customer was just flat out acting funny - he'd lie to the customer and say there was a delay with NICS even though there was an approval just to get them to not be able to have a gun for a few days. The crowd applauded this initiative, however I'm not sure lying to customers is the best way to run a business and treat them with respect. Another dealer brought up an interesting point. When someone comes in looking to buy a gun and they don't know what kind of gun they want, what caliber, and are generally clueless - they're either buying a gun to kill themselves with, OR perhaps they are a very uneducated prospective customer - and there is no clear way of finding out which is which. The problems presented by the AFSP are real. The solutions aren't there though. Yet. Ideally I'd like to see some change to that. However, there's some problems. I hung around and asked the good doctor and her staff some questions and I am in no way denigrating her life's work and her dedication to preventing suicide since she has dedicated her life's work to the issue, but the conversation went something like this. Did you do any research on the accessibility of firearms from a retailer from the legal standpoint? "No, we haven't" Do you know how the NICS or state POC background systems work in regard to mental health holds, etc? "No" One of the problems that I foresee right off the bat is that you talked about how you are fighting time, and if you can get someone out of that suicide mindset - even for a few hours, you can get them into that higher survival bracket. If we apply a one size fits all solution to it like California and put a 10 day wait on everything with the goal of protecting someone from their own life, how do we balance that with the needs of the woman who has been hiding from her abusive spouse and needs a gun right away? "That's a good question that I don't have an answer for." Their initiative, I admire - the lack of solutions is a little off putting however. I tell the doc about how my friend's suicide has impacted me and she seems to be sympathetic to the situation as does her colleagues. I am given her cards and told to call the next time I'm in New York so we can get together and discuss things within the industry. I'll give them a buzz in a few weeks when I'm up there on business. On my way out of the hall, I run into Massad Ayoob. Nice guy. I've admired his work over the years. Bart invites myself and chugbleach to dinner, I can't reach Chug and even though I am beat I decide to hang out with Bart and Mrs Bart Bart: What do you want to eat? FC: Let's find a nice seafood restaurant and eat some red salmon, I feel a powerful lust for red salmon. I begin vomiting. God damn mescaline. Why the fuck can't they make it a little less pure? We eventually head downstairs and order too much food. We are tired and not very hungry. Bart is still hungover and barely able to process food. His wife is grazing on all sorts of meat products. I am in awe of how they are both still upright after six nonstop nights of partying. I've only been here one day and I feel like I am about to die. Dinner concludes with an awkward hug with bart's wife - I don't know how other men feel about wife hugs so I have just avoided the prospect entirely. Like flying through Denver on Frontier. Or flying on Frontier. Ever. I drive over to the Wynn to set up my markers and the poker room is full. I draw a $2500 marker at the craps table and watch the game a bit. I have never played craps before in my life but the three people there seem to be having fun. I look down at my phone and I realize a plane has landed. fluffy_butternut has landed in Las Vegas on business. I had lost a bet and offered to pick him up from the airport. I cash back in my chips against my casino credit and head back to my car. I cannot find my car. Fuck. I wander the wynn garage which is covered in construction debris. I eventually find it and haul ass to the airport. Now, I didn't know this but fluffy has the WORST SENSE OF DIRECTION AT ALL. Seriously. I have no idea how he even made it to the correct city. He lands and has to get his bag and stuff and I circle the airport. He lets me know he's at door 77 wherever the fuck that was. I drive into the pickup portion and I see no sign. He then says he's coming up a level, and I tell him that I'll be there shortly. I park the car and Metro PD starts yelling. Metro: You can't park your car here. FC: Why not? Is this not a reasonable place to park? Metro: Reasonable? You're on a sidewalk! This is the sidewalk! I give the man a $20 and tell him to keep it running as I wander Mccarran screaming FLUFFY! HERE FLUFFY! I message fluffy to let him know I am the car parked on the sidewalk. I instantly figure out who he is having never seen a photo of him and I throw his bags into the car as we head for his hotel. I haul ass out of the airport and get the A3 on the highway. Now this was a superior machine. Thirty nine grand worth of gimmicks and high-priced special effects. The rear windows lit up with a touch like frogs in a dynamite pond. The dashboard was full of esoteric lights and dials and meters that I would never understand. We check in at the Rio where the desk clerk is friendly and flirty. I express amazement there is no line. Fluffy checks in and we take his bags upstairs and he offers to buy me food for driving him to the airport. I decline. We head to the bar anyways. He orders two beers and we decide to call chug. He's staying out in Summerlin or something because his company is apparently run by cheapskates. He asks if we want to hang out and shoot the shit. I say sure and ask if he wants us to pick up food or anything from CVS or something since I have the car and I'm able to do anything I want. He asks for some toothpaste. No problem. I may be an asshole on the internet but I have a heart of gold. We get some toothpaste get to the hotel. Arriving at the lobby, we have no idea where he is. It turns out he gave us the address for the hotel across the street. We laugh and go to that lobby and shoot the shit till 3AM much to the chagrin of the hotel clerk. Fluffy has some beers and we plan on dinner the next day. I drive fluffy back and arrive at the hotel at 4. Fuck me to tears. Wednesday, January 18th. Day 2 of SHOT show. Alarm goes off at 7:30 AM. I wash up, eat and get breakfast. In the garage by 8:15. Nice. I get some dillo dust and check out the new Sig 220 DA/SA and SAO legions. Daddy likey. I go to a competing firm and I piss of my state sales manager by telling him his newer designed triggers suck ass. He says the company tested them and they're the same in every way. I ask him why the triggers have two different part numbers in the catalog and how come they're not interchangeable and if that's really the case, how come there's X changes in the supposedly identical pistol parts that he's holding side by side. He gets mad at me and says I'm not an expert on their product and perhaps I should take his job since I'm so smart. I agree that I'm smart and I hold firm that if he didn't want me to complain about the shitty trigger, they should stop selling guns with shitty triggers. I am nearly kicked out of the booth. I meet up with some of my wholesale reps and I'm mid convo when I see Itsgoodsoup and his friend walking around the show. I yell SOUP but he does not hear me. So I grab his friend and find him and I tell him we should get together at dinner with fluffy and chug. He agrees. The show winds down, I get some business done and nothing much else. We break for a shitty gunnit live lite and I take a few questions from the crowd in fluffy's suite at the Rio. Dinner is at 8 and we arrive at the restaurant late to find soup and his friend sitting at one table and chug and his girlfriend sitting at another. Perhaps we should have gotten here a little earlier. Hahaha. So, fluffy said the place is really good and I order a few of the specialties of the house. Apparently according to yelp they do a kickass peking duck. Soon to be mrs chug is a vegan. But we can eat meat in front of her. I wonder how it's served and Soup's vancouver raised asian friend tells me that they normally carve it tableside. Our vegan says as long as there's no head she's cool. We're not sure if they can fulfill that request. So we order and food starts coming out and we tell tall tales of shot show BS and other stuff. Sure enough, the duck comes out with the head. No bueno. Haha. But I decide to treat us to vegan donuts at the vegan bakery across the street later. Seven courses later we are full. Vegan bakery closed. I am committed to getting her some vegan donuts though. We head to Fremont street to gamble. Fluffy wanders about and we try craps and we're not impressed. We hit some slots and eventually I hit the craps table where chug explains the game to me. We start betting on dice. And somehow we start winning. I find that the house allows you to take 10X behind the line. No idea what this means so I plop $5 on the pass line and the point hits 6. I drop $50 behind it and it hits. We go a few rounds and leave ahead. It's 2:30 AM. Fuck. I drive everyone back to their hotel. I get to sleep around 4. Thursday, January 19th. Day 3 of SHOT show. Wake up at 10AM feeling like crap. Debate whether to head straight to show and wander about. Fuck it. Went to halal guys for some halal. Delicious. Got vegan donuts. Dead drop them at the Palazzo lobby for chug and his girl. Show is a bust. Literally nothing exciting. Fluffy offers to buy me dinner. One of my customers who lives in Summerlin offers to take me to dinner. I pass on fluffy and he destroys the seafood buffet at the rio. I head to Sinatra at the Wynn for dinner with my customer. All good in the hood. Chug has been invited to the Glock dinneafter party and I'm not so we all go our separate ways. I call foghorn5950 and due to some weather, he's flying home early and our plans to hangout are fucked up unless I go tonight. I grab fluffy and we head to Whiskey Down. He orders a makers and I give him a funny look. I tell the waitress make it a bulleit. Everyone laughs. I talk shop with Jeremy also from TTAG and we shoot the shit over cigars and talk about useless products. Next thing we know, chug is out of the dinner and wandering the strip. We decide to meet up at the Linq. It takes us nearly 30 minutes to get out of Whiskey Down at MGM because the waitress was awful and messed up everyone's tab. It was a fucking disaster. To boot, MGM is now charging for parking. FC: What a bunch of fucking jews Fluff: You should just tailgate that lady in front of you out and screw them out of the $7 FC: I should We pull behind her and watch as she gets flustered at the awful parking machine. Her nevada license plate says VETERAN. As the gate goes up we haul ass and screw MGM out of $7. I shout "THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE" out the window as we blow right by her up to the Linq. Through fluffy's awful navigation, we wind up at the loading dock for the Linq. Eventually we find chug and gf hanging at the penny slots. They are holding vegan donuts, which she is very appreciative of. Least I could do after showing her the head. Fluffy plays the House of Cards slot machine. He stuck $100 in, played for 6 minutes and then got really mad and hit the cash out button and $80 was left after 5 minutes. ITS EXACTLY LIKE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT! Chug's gf asks to play a special slot machine called kitty glitter. We ask and the linq does not offer it but Harrahs next door does. So we head over there and the slot tech finds the kitty glitter machine. Fluffy sticks a C note in there and tells her to play and have a blast. So she's banging away at the one armed bandit WHEN SUDDENLY I HEAR THE SOUND. It's PUTTIN ON THE RITZ in shitty .wav file internal speaker format. Hahah. She's just hit the progressive jackpot on the penny KITTY GLITTER machine. THIS PLACE IS AWESOME! We cash out after some play and a good time was had by all. I dump off fluffy at the rio since it was very close and drive everyone else back. It's late, I'm tired and the Palace Station oyster bar is open 24 hours......I head over there and there's a 45 minute wait. So, I pull out my backup bankroll and using everything chug and fluffy have taught me about craps I belly up to the $3 min table where they let you take 10x behind the line. I'm still learning and the table is slow so one of the boxmen start explaining the game to me. Box: So if you place the 6 or the 9 or individual numbers you can bet those but you gotta pay a little juice on it like a commission Me: Like when you buy the hook? short pause Box: Yeah! Exactly like that! You got this! So I played a little and went up a bit and down a bit. As you do. Plunked $5 down on the pass line and took full odds and the point hit. This game is pretty cool! So I hung around and watched for about an hour and finally decided to eat my winnings. I take $5 off my stack and, drop it on the pass line and announce dealer bet - $5 to pass. It hits. The dealers love me. Maybe Vegas isn't so bad after all. http://imgur.com/a/LGhDj I have the pan roast at the oyster bar. No line. It is DELICIOUS. I get back to the hotel at 5AM. I don't care when I wake up. Friday, January 20th. Day 4 of SHOT show. Wake up around noon feeling like crap. Go to show. Debate destroying milk cart with wheels with an ax borrowed from fire station. Decide against it. Gas up car and find myself out by palace station again. Played some craps, hit the buffet and went for an early sleep. It's midnight. The neighbors in my the hotel are having sex. A LOT OF SEX. I can hear everything. I gently knock on the door. No answer. I knock slightly harder. No answer. I head back to my room and close the door just as I hear their door open. I zoom back out to find a puzzled middle aged stocky and perhaps sticky Latino man looking both ways. I get in his line of sight. Me: Hey. I'm next door. It sounds like you're having a lot of fun. I get it. I really do. In fact I haven't had sex since the bush administration so I'm gunning for you man I really am. But it's midnight and I have a 6am flight and a rental car to return. So trust me when I say I'm really happy for you but if you don't mind I really need to get some sleep tonight okay? The awkward silence is deafening. He nods without saying a word and mouths okay. I give him a manly nod and thumbs up. Me: thanks. I'd shake your hand or fist bump but well you know..... I give him a peace sign as he goes back into his little pleasure palace and I turn to realize that I have just locked myself out of my room. I am wearing boxers, a tshirt and barefoot. I head downstairs to the lobby. The check in at the front desk resembles the TSA line at Mccarran. Normally I would not be this rude but desperate times call for desperate measures. The line is 50 people deep. I walk past every person. Fuck your queue. I approach the desk where someone is helping a guest and I raise my right hand as if I were in a deposition to get them to stop. The staff and guest looks puzzled as the angry barefoot man clad in nothing but boxers and a "uzi does it" tshirt approaches the desk. Me: excuse me. I don't mean to interrupt. I have an emergency. I'm up on 8 and my neighbors are having a lot of sex. I mean a LOT of sex. (This is the same front desk clerk who actually checked me in Monday night by coincidence looks back at me very awkwardly and puzzled.) Me: this isn't your regular sex. I'm talking this is your (I begin air humping the front desk and slapping the granite counter with my palm and grunting loudly) sex. You could hear the plan B packaging open. At this point - the ENTIRE FRONT DESK STAFF HAS STOPPED CHECKING IN GUESTS. The people in line and are watching the show. The clerk is stunned. Speechless. Shock and awed. Crapped out and busted. The women are covering their children's eyes and ears. The men are wondering if this show requires a 2 drink minimum. Me: now I get this is Vegas. Everyone wants a good time. It's midnight. My flight leaves at 6 which means I have to be up by 4. And this just isn't working. So I asked them to keep it down and I locked myself out of my room. So if you can make me another key or move me I'd appreciate it. The clerk nods. Clerk: of course. may I see your ID? Years of ballet have prepared me for this day. I step back to make sure my genitals are still ensconced in my boxers as I pirouette and gesticulate wildly. Me: DO I LOOK LIKE I HAVE ID? The floor manager steps over and asks me to head down to the end of the desk where she will make me a key. I give her the room number and thank her after she offers to have security sent up to shutdown the best little whorehouse in Vegas. I tell her it may not be necessary. As I take my keys and walk away the people in line break out in raucous applause. I take a bow and miraculously my boxer shorts don't rip. These people are my subjects and I have been crowned the the king of the three ring circus that is the circus circus lobby. Im offered a $1 tip from a kind soul but I decline. My walk back to the hotel elevator bank is uneventful. So much so that I realize it is going too well. The other shoe, if I were wearing one felt as if it was about to drop. Suddenly a dumbass in a rascal scooter is heading toward me at flank speed as his head is turned to look at everyone BEHIND HIM. There's no way this will end well. For you gentle readers joining us mid conversation - it's midnight and I need to be at the airport in 4.5 hours. I can just see it now. (Cue the harp noises) Scene: Emergency room Nurse: Allergic to anything? Me: NKDA Nurse: cause of injury? Me: what's the IC10 code for "run down by drunken buffoon on motorized wheelchair?" I saw my life and confirmed upgraded first class seats home being given away by the Mccarran gate agent flash before my eyes and my catlike reflexes kicked in and I jumped to my left into the wall, mid 1960's Las Vegas union construction being the path of least resistance. Think "The Bodyguard" with Kevin Costner. The buffoon barely realizes what happens. Children are amazed. "HEY MOM! Look! That guy just ran into a wall!" Me: it was that OR GET RUN DOWN BY SOME JACKASS ON A GODDAMN SCOOTER GOING FULL SPEED DRIVING LIKE A.... I look down and a midwestern nuclear family with two children of formative age are waiting for the elevator. I change my last word. Me: LUNATIC! I look over to the parents. Me: I'm really sorry. This is a family joint and I shouldn't have cursed the drunken scooter driver like that. Sorry kids. Parent: no big deal. They've heard fucking worse. I crack a smile at her word choice. Fucking worse. Yeah. That sounds like my evening. After jumping into a wall, I'm now wide awake and unable to go back to sleep. I make the plane and push on time. The 737 comes to a stop short of the runway and holds. Something is wrong. The pilots come on and say that they loaded more cargo and passengers than planned so they have to redo their numbers. We're waiting on the taxiway with both engines running as they do this and the waiting music comes on. What's the first song? Whitney Houston - "I Will Always Love You"
Las Vegas as a destination...sucks. It seems like like the hotels nickel and dime people FOR EVERYTHING. Want to use the pool, or the gym, or the concierge? Well, today is your lucky day! The hotels took all of the services and activities that used to be FREE and used them as an excuse to charge a resort fee... If that wans't bad enough, now the hotels are charging for PARKING! But don't worry, they are only charging so they can provide you with new infrastructure and better service... if you believe that I know a Nigerian prince that would like to talk to you. So you payed to park, you paid for your over priced room, and finally you paid the stupid resort fee. Now it should get better right? I mean, you payed so much the hotels have to offer something right? NOPE! Gone are free buffet vouchers, gone are free drinks, gone is pretty much any sign of value. The drinks at the casino bars are about 4-5x overpriced - NO, I don't want to pay 22 dollars for a real cadallac margarita (patron gold, lime juice, Contreau w/ Grand Marnier. I was told that Vegas is transitioning from a gambling destination to luxery nightclubs and high end pool parties. They wonder why people don't gamble as much, sure the economy plays a part but the main reason is: no one wins anymore!! The slots and other machines have been tightened down to the point where not only do you expect to lose money, it isn't even fun anymore. Put $100 bucks in lose it all before even 1 "bonus game" comes up. Don't get me wrong, you will "win". Ya, you "win" $0.15... too bad the spin cost ya $5. The casinos don't bother to run any worth while promos anymore, the slot and video poker machines have been tightened up, and the casinos don't comp shit anymore. Instead of a free buffet, now you get 10% off a buffet! Instead of a free night, you get a "Super Special Player's Club Rate" (great, 8% off...on the weekdays). So back to this Luxery night club scene. Here is a Vegas night club explained: Charge guests at least $30 to get in, drinks have to be $20 each and be light on anything that is not RC Cola or cheap sugary syrup, for music - choose between electronic that all sounds the same after 45 minutes or whatever rap songs that everyone heard 1000 times on the radio making the drive, Man... really? Am I the ONLY one here that is sick of nightclubs? I can't be the only one that is sick of these "cool" hotels. The only guy I know that brags about staying in the [Fancy Pants Hotel] is a 350 fat guy who posts quotes like "It's hard being friends with girls when all they want is sex" on Facebook daily - who although he swears he has "boned a ton of super hot girls, some models even", he has NEVER had a GF. In fact, no one has EVER seen him spit game, touch a girl (the notorious arm gram doesn't count, might even prove my point further), or bring a girl home (Maybe you have met his brother - the guy that is always showing of his bottle of Cristal, the same one he has had for 5 years...) . However, it seems that there are enough of these losers dying to impress women by their baller economy room with view "penthouse" that go to those Luxury nightclubs to make Vegas turn into douche bag central. Sure, there are still a couple of good values left - but they are dying fast. One can get 4 real Patron Cadillac margaritas for the price of one at [fancy pants hotel] by taking a trip down the strip to Circus Circus or Stratusphere. If you can stomach the smell of regret and cheap hookers. The Hard Rock is still doing the 777 deal, however the cab ride is probably going to cost ya triple that each way. The Casino Royale has Michelobe Ultra's (a type of beer that no one knows exists outside that small casino) and what they call "margaritas" for $1. Plus they have the only 100x odds craps on the strip (which is actually pretty damn good, craps has one of the lowest house edges available). The Magnoila cafe has a descent prime rib dinner that with coupon comes to ~$10. Sure one can go downtown and have some fun for less, but lets be honest. If the fancy lights aren't above you, you have a good chance to getting robbed/mugged/assaulted. The sad thing is I don't see the last good values lasting too long. Iconic hotels like the Riviera and the Sands is just the beginning, in a couple more years all the values on the strip will be replaced with "luxury hotels" following MGM's lead: Charge for Parking, Charge Resort fees, Charge for what used be complimentary. RAPE people for nightclub entrance, nightclub drinks and Shows (although last time I went I did get a good deal on Blue Man Group and Phantom of the Opera tickets...but only after I spent hours looking). One has to wonder, what the fuck are they going to charge for next? House keeping? Towels? Soap and Shampoo? Is there going to be a curtain over the window next time I go, with a dollar fee to open for 15 minutes? Is the AC going to be p4p? Sorry for the rant, I just honestly think that resort fees and having to pay for parking in a place like Las Vegas should be criminal. I remember my mom grabbing a handful of my quarters (that I was using at the ARCADE) to play the slots while waiting for my pops to come down from the room and winning 400 in quarters. I remember my neighbor that would get so many free nights he couldn't possibly using them all just from comps from buying in $800 at the poker table. I remember my friends parents going to Vegas every weekend they could, and winning. They used to keep track of their winnings vs. money spent on gambling, room, food, etc. They said they hardly ever had years where they were in the red more than 1k - and most of the time they either didn't spend anything or came home with more than they left with. Those same people not only don't keep track anymore - they have basically stopped gambling. They both played Video Poker, and it has gotten to the point where they don't even enjoy it anymore. Last time I saw them in Vegas we met up at a hotel for dinner. I went to get my friend, her dad and I drinks from the bar (because all they would comp was "mixed drinks", that could best be described as a splash of the lowest of the low plastic bottle rum or vodka - honestly can't tell which its so god awful - combined with "soda" that makes those shitty bargain brand sodas seem like nectar of the gods). I was gone no longer than 5 minutes, and when I returned her dad wanted to leave. He had lost almost $300 dollars in video poker...in less than 5 minutes. He wasn't playing a crazy high roller machine either, he was playing $0.50/credit and 5 credits. He didn't win (not counting pairs) one hand. He didn't even get dealt a 3 of a kind (which anyone who plays video poker knows, is one of the most exciting things because your praying for that 4th one and a nice win!) once! Tl;Dr: Vegas sucks. With the addition of resort fees and parking fees and the transition from a gambling destination to a luxury night club destination it is quickly turning into tool central.
Blockchain Start-Up - how come you aren't taking it to the Casinos?
I've always wondered why companies aren't utilizing BOTH sides of blockchain (finance and data) in the world of casinos. I wrote this in the hopes that someone will step up and introduce blockchain as a way to replace the current TITO systems in place in casinos. First, what is TITO? A system for slot machine play through the use of a barcoded paper ticket. The ticket may be purchased in advance of slot machine play, or issued from the slot machine if there are credits remaining at the conclusion of the patron’s gaming session. When the patron has completed his play, balances on the ticket can be redeemed for cash at a kiosk or the casino cage or used for further play at the casino that issued the ticket Where did it come from? In consideration of the potential use of blockchain to phase-out the TITO, we must understand the nuances around which TITO was adopted. This entails understanding how TITO helps to solve the problem of data collection in the casino industry. Ticket-in, ticket out (TITO) machines are used in casino slot machines to print out a slip of paper with a barcode indicating the amount of money represented. These can in turn be redeemed for cash at an automated kiosk, or be used for game play at other slot machines. The machines utilize a barcode scanner built into the bill acceptor, a thermal ticket printer in place of a coin hopper (some rare machines are set up to pay with coins if the payout is less than the payout limit, and to print a ticket in situations where a hand pay would normally be required) and a network interface to communicate with a central system that tracks tickets. MGM was in the middle of construction of its major hotel in Las Vegas and invited several gaming machine manufacturers to join a consortium for its Cashless Casino experiment. In the group were Bally Gaming, IGT, Sigma Games, Universal and several others. They were all presented with the MGM UIB Protocol documents and were aided in the realization of the protocol on their gaming platforms. The first trial of the system was actually at the Desert Inn property. MGM Had situated several trailers in the parking lot where the manufacturers could bring their gaming devices for test before being installed on the Field Trial at the Desert Inn. On or about March of 1992 Applied Computer Technology began evaluating software that was developed for Five Star Solutions and subsequently sold to MGM Grand Hotels, Inc. for a slot monitoring and accounting system. Applied Computer Technology began to modify software and specify a new hardware platform for MGM to use in order to implement its designed system and to allow expansion of its current capabilities at the time. On June 30, 1992, Applied Computer Technology, Inc. issued a quotation to MGM Grand, Inc. to engineer and design a Universal Interface Board or UIB for MGM Grand to be installed into slot machines for the purpose of monitoring critical machine status and components, displaying messages to the user of the slot machine, reading magnetic strip cards and communicating messages to and from a host mainframe computer. On or about July of 1992 the quotation was expanded to include the printing of Bar Codes on a receipt ticket printer manufactured by Star Micronics Inc, model #sp300. MGM Grand provided them with a model printing algorithm in BASIC source code as an example of how to print the ticket which we used to develop the algorithm. This saved a lot of development time since the code they provided already had been developed. They were also presented at that time with a sample ticket. On or about August of 1992, they received word from MGM that they had located a bill validator that was capable of reading the tickets that Applied Computer Technology was currently printing, and for ACT to start writing preliminary code for the validation of tickets to and from the mainframe computer so that when the unit did arrive ACT would be ready in a short time to test their protocols. On or about October 22 of 1992 ACT received a prototype Bill Validator from MGM Grand hotel who had received it from Pat Green of Triad Design. The Bill Validator was special in that it not only was able to validate currency but also to validate coupons with bar coded tickets on them. Mr. Green was using a second parties Bill Validator outfitted with his own special circuitry which incorporated a laser bar code reading system. The following in an excerpt of the very first functioning version of code #nointerleave /* so compiler does not interleave */ //#nodebug /* disable debug mode */ /* debug tools */ #define dbugport 1 /* if def using debugger serial port */ //#define fakestrat 1 /* if faking stratus mainframe */ //#define romver 1 /* if compiling for rom */ #define disp 0xA0 #define ledon IRES(PIODA,1; /* macro to turn on led */) #define ledoff ISET(PIODA,1; /* macro to turn off led */) /* TUI.C -- Universal Interface Board program for Z-World Tiny Giant */ /* Copyright (C 1992, 1993, Applied Computer Technology */) /* Author: Peter Filiberti */ /* Revision History Rev 1.01 5/20/92 Fixed do_sds_pend( incorrect indexing bug.) Rev 1.02 6/04/93 Added check for end_TX in Do_Stratus_Xmt to make sure that previous xmit ended before new one begins. Also remmed out old drop ticket print string and added new one that doesn't display cash amounts. As can be seen by the above section of program highlighted in blue and titled Revision History, an entry was made on June 5, 1992 repairing a section of the program with the function name do_sds_pend(). This section upon further examination shows that the program at that time was capable of handling pending transactions for cashouts, and jackpots whereas the program would receive a cashout signal from the gaming device, transmit the amount of cashout or handpay to the mainframe computer, and await a command from the mainframe to print a ticket worth a set amount of credits/coins and finally signal the gaming machine after the ticket was printed that the pending state was complete and to continue its operations as normal. TITO USE The concept of Ticket In / Ticket Out (TITO), as described above was a boon to the Casino Slots Departments and the estates they manage. TITO enabled the phase-out of mechanical machine hoppers, prone to jamming, and requiring constant replenishment which tied up considerable sums of cash which was open to theft as it crossed the casino floor instead of being secured in a vault. Today, the TITO voucher is ubiquitous and the ability to track them across the gaming floor is increasingly prized in its ability to address: When there is theft, to rapidly determine who the perpetrator is for swift apprehension. To issue alerts when more than a certain value, or vouchers in a certain combination, are cashed in. To detect patterns of activity when vouchers close to expiry, or multiple small “remainder” values are cashed. To track the preference of players who move from machine to machine and measure time of play. However, for all the benefits TITO brought to the casino floor, it is not without it’s pitfalls and weaknesses which provide opportunities for improvements in the system or, potentially a phased replacement of the entire TITO system. TITO VULNERABILITIES Partial Payouts: A partial payout occurs when a ticket is inserted into a machine, with an amount that is not supported by the denomination. For example, a ticket valued at $148 is inserted into a $10 per spin slot. In this instance, the machine will print a ticket for the remaining $8.00. Quite often, patrons unfamiliar with the process, will assume the machine is out of order, taking the $8.00 and leaving. Ticket Theft: At first, this may seem rare. However in the casino environment, designed to distract patrons and guide their eyes elsewhere and combined with comped alcohol, it happens more often than assumed. This is not just theft from the patron however. Ticket Theft uses casino resources as they are often asked to investigate lost or stolen tickets. A stolen ticket for $20 to a patron, may cost a casino $75 in labor to resolve. Money Laundering: Casinos have always been an ideal location to change illegal money. With the advent of TITO, it’s never been easier. Though FinCEN has tasked gaming operators with the responsibility of reporting suspicious transactions, with so many events happening on the casino floor, this activity remains difficult to prevent. Suspicious activity involving TITO usage can be any, all, or hybrids of the following two examples: a. Placing currency in a slot machine, then cashing out after minimal or no play and redeeming the TITO ticket at a kiosk on the gaming floor (“bill stuffing); b. Patrons pass a large quantity of chips, cash or TITO tickets between themselves in an apparent effort to conceal the ownership of the chips, cash or TITO tickets; if patrons are closely related, such activity may not be seen as suspicious. Employee Collusion/Reprinting: Employee theft accounts for the majority of loss throughout all industries, and casino gaming is no exception. Most lost or stolen tickets are reported, but some remain unclaimed. Each TITO ticket is created with an expiration date. If they are not redeemed within 60 days of their creation, the funds are returned to the house. Employees with sufficient access are able to run reports of unclaimed tickets which are about to expire then reprint and pass them to a non-employee for redemption. Theft of Time: TITO incidents are frequent. The investigation on them is time consuming. Each time a ticket is inserted into a machine, the system generates a new ticket number. A single TITO ticket may have a dozen or more events. Manually referring to slot location, time of ticket event, and pulling up the correlated video takes dozens of man-hours each week. Exploiting reporting times in ticket creation with the mainframe disseminating the ticket information to the slot control system and kiosk systems allows a window for patrons to copy and cashout a ticket more than once. Tickets are often counterfeited with advanced processes or fake tickets are created and sold at a discount to unknowing patrons. While this doesn’t seem to effect the casino, it does, as any money a player loses on the street, is money the casino loses an opportunity to win on house edge. CASINO ANALYTICS IN THE PAST Understanding the why, behind the advent of TITO requires a bit more knowledge of how operations in both cash handling as well as data was collected during the past. To start, as late as the 1980’s, the ubiquitous presence of computers and smart-phones with which we are all so familiar were unknown because, for the most part, they did not exist. This meant that most analytics were done manually, if at all. Typically, this meant that they were not really done, and people relied upon superstition verging upon Witchcraft and "gut feel" for the decisions that they made. There was no data available to help in this decision making and no simple way to analyze or to interpret it even if the data had been available. Back in the day, "the Count", where one emptied the Gaming Table drop boxes and counted out the money and checked out the Fill and Credit paperwork, was critical. Only at these times was the Operation really aware of what they were winning and losing and until the money was actually counted then everything else was little better than guesswork. By the time the 1990’s rolled around, we might term the epoch the near past. In the near past, computers existed and within a few years after mobile phones of the most basic sort were becoming common. By this time, Microsoft Office had revolutionized office productivity and Excel actually meant that a normal person could produce graphs that looked professional. Indeed, by this point, a huge share of the (still very small amount) data analysis conducted was processed in Excel while simple Access databases accounted for much of the rest. There were, of course, more complex analytic tools out there, but my they were not commonly employed and were all but invisible to the majority of employees. At least some of this was due to the staff still employed and rising to the top ranks of the industry. With some notable and far sighted exceptions, the majority had "grown up" in the Gaming Industry, especially the Table Games portion of it, without analytics and reliant upon the "gut feel" method of working out what was going on; many of them distrusted technology and of the work and training they would need to be able to get the most out of even the basic tools available to them at this time. Analysis was lacking in almost every aspect of the Table Games Operation. This could, of course, be contrasted with the Slots Departments who were beginning to reap the benefits of mechanization and the analysis that could be applied to the early electro-mechanical and increasingly purely electronic slots systems. So, in Slots, you could say there were the beginnings of the "Siloed systems", that is systems that gathered data and allowed analysis solely within their own bounded confines (or with Excel); while for Table games there was nothing...unless enterprising staff entered the data themselves. CASINO ANALYTICS IN THE PRESENT If we skip forward from the 1990’s, to around 2011 when Galaxy Macau opened, a cornerstone of the largest and most vital Table Gaming market the world had ever seen, much had changed. By this time, analytics systems, even for Table Games had become ubiquitous and pioneering companies were beginning to go further and to promise real, timely, actionable intelligence from the deluge of data that had flourished in the sixteen years between these dates. Indeed, it is easy to argue that the actual collection of data, the easy bit, had completely outstripped the ability to suitably organize, analyze and act on the data being recorded and stored: the hard bit. The growth of data and the formation of the silo systems themselves seemed almost designed to stymie efforts to draw anything meaningful from the awful weight of what was being collected. This is not to denigrate the Silo Systems in use at the time. Indeed, this whole era might be handily subtitled the Silo Systems Age even as the period before this could be considered the Data Dark Ages. The silo systems had been spectacularly productive in what they were designed to do and, in earlier periods of this age, had given unprecedented insight into operations, within the siloed data itself. While data flows were, relatively speaking, low and what needed to be known or understood strictly circumscribed they worked very well indeed. But the very strength of systems designed to store data within limited parameters and to analyze and interpret this data inevitably meant that these systems could not consider data from outside their silo. Nor, as it increasingly became apparent, were they entirely well suited to the increasing data flows coming from larger and more data intensive operations and from the increases in the areas from which data was being collected. The answer to this always seemed to be to add more independent siloes, but it seemed that as quickly as these were added, they were being filled up by what data was being collected and they were being superseded in what Operations Management wished was being collected. To even attempt to consider data across the growing numbers of siloes in use, it was back to Excel for the enterprising staff member brave, or fool-hardy, enough to try to sift the deluge of data for the nuggets of information buried within. It was a period that could, for our nascent data explorer, be characterized by the printout and the highlighter pen. Forests of print outs for the siloed data were produced; much of which could not be extracted in any other way as this feature had never been considered when the silo was constructed. Then the explorer sat down and tried to impose order upon the chaos of the data and to consider events on printout "A" that might illuminate detail on printout "B" before typing everything into Excel and trying to graph or pivot table it. CASINO ANALYTICS IN THE FUTURE The future will be a world without siloed systems. Or rather, since it will take a while for the current siloed systems to be replaced, it will become like that after having gone through a transitional period where there are overarching systems binding the siloes together and taking data from all of them. We have already reached a stage where cross-silo systems exist and are looking at data, and more importantly the connections between data in different siloes collected for different purposes, in new and illuminating ways. There are some very exciting technologies out there that are examining data in entirely new and unprecedented ways; giving insights into things people have long believed and confirming some ideas even while they debunk others. Now data can be examined from IoT style devices on the gaming floor and combined with data from Ratings and Food and Beverage systems to give a far more detailed and nuanced picture of a Patron and their interaction with the Operation. Similarly, data can be taken on dealer performance and ratings to determine how they interact with Patrons, how efficiently they perform their duties and even such things as how they impact upon Patron dwell tie at their tables. In a business such as Casino Table Games where rewarding Patrons through reinvestment has to be balanced against making sure that they actually add value to the Operation by their wager amounts and style of play and where customer service must be balanced against sufficient game-pace to make margin there are myriad areas where data analytics can be beneficial. Bringing this data together from the siloes within which it is stored and analyzing it in context can already provide incredible business insights. The idea that there has to be only one provider, that one company, supplier or organization can do everything end-to-end, is a holdover from the Silo Age. The Future of Gaming Analytics will be one of best-of-breed suppliers of the basic building blocks of data collecting feeding into similar providers of data analytics and the entirety of this analysis and output being available on whatever medium best suits the individual planning to consume it. OK, BUT NONE OF THIS HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH BLOCKCHAIN... Well, it does now - and it's under the guise of how Casinos know their players - be patient... Without knowing your players, there is no real way a casino can best serve them. They can’t be sure what it is they like, or how they are expected to play. The concern being that if competition has a better grasp on player identity and behavior, there is every reason for a casino’s players to defect to another property. When this occurs, and it does, casinos begin to “buy their business” by offering higher promotional levels in an effort to entice the return of their once loyal players. So, how can technologies be deployed to aid a casino in their quest for information regarding their players and understanding what they like and what their actions are on the casino floor? There is, unsurprisingly, a considerable overlap with the data that is used to determine the best optimization of Table Games. Rating data as it currently exists is the obvious starting point. This gives the casino a picture of what their staff and systems believe is happening, and while it may not (and almost certainly isn't) completely accurate it does do a very good job of determining Gaming Preference. Data from smart IoT enabled devices, such as Smart Shoes are currently determining actual game pace, determining what is really going on at the Gaming Table level. Next Generation sensors, already in "real world" deployments, can determine both the location of any wagers made and with increasing accuracy the cash values of these wagers. Data from Venue, Hotel and POS systems can be linked to create a Patron profile of what they are doing when they are not wagering on the Gaming Tables. Where are they interacting with the broader Casino offering? How are they paying for this interaction? What are their non-gaming preferences? Geo-location sensors can be deployed, via opt-in applications, to track Patron movements about the property. Where are they going when they do not interact with the wider offering? From the sum of this data, again gathered from across the various siloes in which it currently resides, a more complete and more holistic picture of the Patron as an autonomous actor can be determined. A combination of bet recognition and game pace can determine their real, as opposed to assumed, value to the operation. What is meant by this is the real House Advantage maintained by the Casino against their play (for any Table Game type where this can be a variable). It can issue alerts when play exceeds certain thresholds, or changes in marked ways. For the first time an accurate appraisal of what they like to do in addition to their Gaming can be determined. This enables enhanced market segmentation and a fuller picture of the likes and dislikes of the patron in question. If he or she only goes to the seafood restaurant, why would a casino send them a voucher for a steak? If they like the Spa, why reward them with a buffet voucher? Offers can be made "on the fly" when the Patron is in proximity with something a casino now recognizes that they enjoy doing. Subtly rewarding them for brand loyalty to the casino and explicitly discouraging them from gaming somewhere that does not know them as well. An increasingly non-siloed, data-rich and free data environment is a picture of the future when customers are more reliant on technology. So while no-one knows for sure in what precise direction technology will shape how the Casino Industry will face the future, the broad trends are sufficiently established to be knowable. What is required therefore is the ability to do this, before the competition does? AGAIN, WHAT ABOUT BLOCKCHAIN? Any Blockchain solution company, in evaluating the potential for casino penetration should take into heavy consideration the history of TITO, how and why it was developed, and the continued lean on knowing the players. Combining that with how a wallet/ledger solution would solve the 7 identified TITO vulnerabilities above will give you a solid approach in both development and marketing efforts. It should be obvious to those of us involved in Blockchain tech how, the implementation of an enterprise level, patron utilized wallet which communicates with not only slots, but casino credit mechanisms would be of tremendous asset in combating fraud while generating new player data casinos have never had access to. The value proposition lies within cost savings, player retention, player information and habit knowledge, and anti-theft. The question is not will Blockchain replace TITO, but who is willing to step up and begin that process?
A system for slot machine play through the use of a barcoded paper ticket. The ticket may be purchased in advance of slot machine play, or issued from the slot machine if there are credits remaining at the conclusion of the patron’s gaming session. When the patron has completed his play, balances on the ticket can be redeemed for cash at a kiosk or the casino cage or used for further play at the casino that issued the ticket
Where did it come from?
In consideration of the potential use of blockchain to phase-out the TITO, we must understand the nuances around which TITO was adopted. This entails understanding how TITO helps to solve the problem of data collection in the casino industry. Ticket-in, ticket out (TITO) machines are used in casino slot machines to print out a slip of paper with a barcode indicating the amount of money represented. These can in turn be redeemed for cash at an automated kiosk, or be used for game play at other slot machines. The machines utilize a barcode scanner built into the bill acceptor, a thermal ticket printer in place of a coin hopper (some rare machines are set up to pay with coins if the payout is less than the payout limit, and to print a ticket in situations where a hand pay would normally be required) and a network interface to communicate with a central system that tracks tickets. MGM was in the middle of construction of its major hotel in Las Vegas and invited several gaming machine manufacturers to join a consortium for its Cashless Casino experiment. In the group were Bally Gaming, IGT, Sigma Games, Universal and several others. They were all presented with the MGM UIB Protocol documents and were aided in the realization of the protocol on their gaming platforms. The first trial of the system was actually at the Desert Inn property. MGM Had situated several trailers in the parking lot where the manufacturers could bring their gaming devices for test before being installed on the Field Trial at the Desert Inn. On or about March of 1992 Applied Computer Technology began evaluating software that was developed for Five Star Solutions and subsequently sold to MGM Grand Hotels, Inc. for a slot monitoring and accounting system. Applied Computer Technology began to modify software and specify a new hardware platform for MGM to use in order to implement its designed system and to allow expansion of its current capabilities at the time. On June 30, 1992, Applied Computer Technology, Inc. issued a quotation to MGM Grand, Inc. to engineer and design a Universal Interface Board or UIB for MGM Grand to be installed into slot machines for the purpose of monitoring critical machine status and components, displaying messages to the user of the slot machine, reading magnetic strip cards and communicating messages to and from a host mainframe computer. On or about July of 1992 the quotation was expanded to include the printing of Bar Codes on a receipt ticket printer manufactured by Star Micronics Inc, model #sp300. MGM Grand provided them with a model printing algorithm in BASIC source code as an example of how to print the ticket which they used to develop the algorithm. This saved a lot of development time since the code they provided already had been developed. They were also presented at that time with a sample ticket. On or about August of 1992, they received word from MGM that they had located a bill validator that was capable of reading the tickets that Applied Computer Technology was currently printing, and for ACT to start writing preliminary code for the validation of tickets to and from the mainframe computer so that when the unit did arrive ACT would be ready in a short time to test their protocols. On or about October 22 of 1992 ACT received a prototype Bill Validator from MGM Grand hotel who had received it from Pat Green of Triad Design. The Bill Validator was special in that it not only was able to validate currency but also to validate coupons with bar coded tickets on them. Mr. Green was using a second parties Bill Validator outfitted with his own special circuitry which incorporated a laser bar code reading system. The following in an excerpt of the very first functioning version of code https://preview.redd.it/u9i7rwt4zi121.png?width=580&format=png&auto=webp&s=ee6ec6151ce37fbe654eebad1af7b8de41473b4c As can be seen by the above section of program highlighted in blue and titled Revision History, an entry was made on June 5, 1992 repairing a section of the program with the function name do_sds_pend(). This section upon further examination shows that the program at that time was capable of handling pending transactions for cashouts, and jackpots whereas the program would receive a cashout signal from the gaming device, transmit the amount of cashout or handpay to the mainframe computer, and await a command from the mainframe to print a ticket worth a set amount of credits/coins and finally signal the gaming machine after the ticket was printed that the pending state was complete and to continue its operations as normal.
TITO USE
The concept of Ticket In / Ticket Out (TITO), as described above was a boon to the Casino Slots Departments and the estates they manage. TITO enabled the phase-out of mechanical machine hoppers, prone to jamming, and requiring constant replenishment which tied up considerable sums of cash which was open to theft as it crossed the casino floor instead of being secured in a vault. Today, the TITO voucher is ubiquitous and the ability to track them across the gaming floor is increasingly prized in its ability to address:
When there is theft, to rapidly determine who the perpetrator is for swift apprehension.
To issue alerts when more than a certain value, or vouchers in a certain combination, are cashed in.
To detect patterns of activity when vouchers close to expiry, or multiple small “remainder” values are cashed.
To track the preference of players who move from machine to machine and measure time of play.
However, for all the benefits TITO brought to the casino floor, it is not without it’s pitfalls and weaknesses which provide opportunities for improvements in the system or, potentially a phased replacement of the entire TITO system.
TITO VULNERABILITIES
Partial Payouts: A partial payout occurs when a ticket is inserted into a machine, with an amount that is not supported by the denomination. For example, a ticket valued at $148 is inserted into a $10 per spin slot. In this instance, the machine will print a ticket for the remaining $8.00. Quite often, patrons unfamiliar with the process, will assume the machine is out of order, taking the $8.00 and leaving.
Ticket Theft: At first, this may seem rare. However in the casino environment, designed to distract patrons and guide their eyes elsewhere and combined with comped alcohol, it happens more often than assumed. This is not just theft from the patron however. Ticket Theft uses casino resources as they are often asked to investigate lost or stolen tickets. A stolen ticket for $20 to a patron, may cost a casino $75 in labor to resolve.
Money Laundering: Casinos have always been an ideal location to change illegal money. With the advent of TITO, it’s never been easier. Though FinCEN has tasked gaming operators with the responsibility of reporting suspicious transactions, with so many events happening on the casino floor, this activity remains difficult to prevent. Suspicious activity involving TITO usage can be any, all, or hybrids of the following two examples:
a. Placing currency in a slot machine, then cashing out after minimal or no play and redeeming the TITO ticket at a kiosk on the gaming floor (“bill stuffing); b. Patrons pass a large quantity of chips, cash or TITO tickets between themselves in an apparent effort to conceal the ownership of the chips, cash or TITO tickets; if patrons are closely related, such activity may not be seen as suspicious.
Employee Collusion/Reprinting: Employee theft accounts for the majority of loss throughout all industries, and casino gaming is no exception. Most lost or stolen tickets are reported, but some remain unclaimed. Each TITO ticket is created with an expiration date. If they are not redeemed within 60 days of their creation, the funds are returned to the house. Employees with sufficient access are able to run reports of unclaimed tickets which are about to expire then reprint and pass them to a non-employee for redemption.
Theft of Time: TITO incidents are frequent. The investigation on them is time consuming. Each time a ticket is inserted into a machine, the system generates a new ticket number. A single TITO ticket may have a dozen or more events. Manually referring to slot location, time of ticket event, and pulling up the correlated video takes dozens of man-hours each week.
Exploiting reporting times in ticket creation with the mainframe disseminating the ticket information to the slot control system and kiosk systems allows a window for patrons to copy and cashout a ticket more than once.
Tickets are often counterfeited with advanced processes or fake tickets are created and sold at a discount to unknowing patrons. While this doesn’t seem to effect the casino, it does, as any money a player loses on the street, is money the casino loses an opportunity to win on house edge.
CASINO ANALYTICS IN THE PAST
Understanding the why, behind the advent of TITO requires a bit more knowledge of how operations in both cash handling as well as data was collected during the past. To start, as late as the 1980’s, the ubiquitous presence of computers and smart-phones with which we are all so familiar were unknown because, for the most part, they did not exist. This meant that most analytics were done manually, if at all. Typically, this meant that they were not really done, and people relied upon superstition verging upon Witchcraft and "gut feel" for the decisions that they made. There was no data available to help in this decision making and no simple way to analyze or to interpret it even if the data had been available. Back in the day, "the Count", where one emptied the Gaming Table drop boxes and counted out the money and checked out the Fill and Credit paperwork, was critical. Only at these times was the Operation really aware of what they were winning and losing and until the money was actually counted then everything else was little better than guesswork. By the time the 1990’s rolled around, we might term the epoch the near past. In the near past, computers existed and within a few years after mobile phones of the most basic sort were becoming common. By this time, Microsoft Office had revolutionized office productivity and Excel actually meant that a normal person could produce graphs that looked professional. Indeed, by this point, a huge share of the (still very small amount) data analysis conducted was processed in Excel while simple Access databases accounted for much of the rest. There were, of course, more complex analytic tools out there, but my they were not commonly employed and were all but invisible to the majority of employees. At least some of this was due to the staff still employed and rising to the top ranks of the industry. With some notable and far sighted exceptions, the majority had "grown up" in the Gaming Industry, especially the Table Games portion of it, without analytics and reliant upon the "gut feel" method of working out what was going on; many of them distrusted technology and of the work and training they would need to be able to get the most out of even the basic tools available to them at this time. Analysis was lacking in almost every aspect of the Table Games Operation. This could, of course, be contrasted with the Slots Departments who were beginning to reap the benefits of mechanization and the analysis that could be applied to the early electro-mechanical and increasingly purely electronic slots systems. So, in Slots, you could say there were the beginnings of the "Siloed systems", that is systems that gathered data and allowed analysis solely within their own bounded confines (or with Excel); while for Table games there was nothing...unless enterprising staff entered the data themselves.
CASINO ANALYTICS IN THE PRESENT
If we skip forward from the 1990’s, to around 2011 when Galaxy Macau opened, a cornerstone of the largest and most vital Table Gaming market the world had ever seen, much had changed. By this time, analytics systems, even for Table Games had become ubiquitous and pioneering companies were beginning to go further and to promise real, timely, actionable intelligence from the deluge of data that had flourished in the sixteen years between these dates. Indeed, it is easy to argue that the actual collection of data, the easy bit, had completely outstripped the ability to suitably organize, analyze and act on the data being recorded and stored: the hard bit. The growth of data and the formation of the silo systems themselves seemed almost designed to stymie efforts to draw anything meaningful from the awful weight of what was being collected. This is not to denigrate the Silo Systems in use at the time. Indeed, this whole era might be handily subtitled the Silo Systems Age even as the period before this could be considered the Data Dark Ages. The silo systems had been spectacularly productive in what they were designed to do and, in earlier periods of this age, had given unprecedented insight into operations, within the siloed data itself. While data flows were, relatively speaking, low and what needed to be known or understood strictly circumscribed they worked very well indeed. But the very strength of systems designed to store data within limited parameters and to analyze and interpret this data inevitably meant that these systems could not consider data from outside their silo. Nor, as it increasingly became apparent, were they entirely well suited to the increasing data flows coming from larger and more data intensive operations and from the increases in the areas from which data was being collected. The answer to this always seemed to be to add more independent siloes, but it seemed that as quickly as these were added, they were being filled up by what data was being collected and they were being superseded in what Operations Management wished was being collected. To even attempt to consider data across the growing numbers of siloes in use, it was back to Excel for the enterprising staff member brave, or fool-hardy, enough to try to sift the deluge of data for the nuggets of information buried within. It was a period that could, for our nascent data explorer, be characterized by the printout and the highlighter pen. Forests of print outs for the siloed data were produced; much of which could not be extracted in any other way as this feature had never been considered when the silo was constructed. Then the explorer sat down and tried to impose order upon the chaos of the data and to consider events on printout "A" that might illuminate detail on printout "B" before typing everything into Excel and trying to graph or pivot table it.
CASINO ANALYTICS IN THE FUTURE
The future will be a world without siloed systems. Or rather, since it will take a while for the current siloed systems to be replaced, it will become like that after having gone through a transitional period where there are overarching systems binding the siloes together and taking data from all of them. We have already reached a stage where cross-silo systems exist and are looking at data, and more importantly the connections between data in different siloes collected for different purposes, in new and illuminating ways. There are some very exciting technologies out there that are examining data in entirely new and unprecedented ways; giving insights into things people have long believed and confirming some ideas even while they debunk others. Now data can be examined from IoT style devices on the gaming floor and combined with data from Ratings and Food and Beverage systems to give a far more detailed and nuanced picture of a Patron and their interaction with the Operation. Similarly, data can be taken on dealer performance and ratings to determine how they interact with Patrons, how efficiently they perform their duties and even such things as how they impact upon Patron dwell tie at their tables. In a business such as Casino Table Games where rewarding Patrons through reinvestment has to be balanced against making sure that they actually add value to the Operation by their wager amounts and style of play and where customer service must be balanced against sufficient game-pace to make margin there are myriad areas where data analytics can be beneficial. Bringing this data together from the siloes within which it is stored and analyzing it in context can already provide incredible business insights. The idea that there has to be only one provider, that one company, supplier or organization can do everything end-to-end, is a holdover from the Silo Age. The Future of Gaming Analytics will be one of best-of-breed suppliers of the basic building blocks of data collecting feeding into similar providers of data analytics and the entirety of this analysis and output being available on whatever medium best suits the individual planning to consume it.
OK, BUT NONE OF THIS HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH BLOCKCHAIN...
Well, it does now - and it's under the guise of how Casinos know their players - be patient... Without knowing your players, there is no real way a casino can best serve them. They can’t be sure what it is they like, or how they are expected to play. The concern being that if competition has a better grasp on player identity and behavior, there is every reason for a casino’s players to defect to another property. When this occurs, and it does, casinos begin to “buy their business” by offering higher promotional levels in an effort to entice the return of their once loyal players. So, how can technologies be deployed to aid a casino in their quest for information regarding their players and understanding what they like and what their actions are on the casino floor? There is, unsurprisingly, a considerable overlap with the data that is used to determine the best optimization of Table Games. Ratings data as it currently exists is the obvious starting point. This gives the casino a picture of what their staff and systems believe is happening, and while it may not (and almost certainly isn't) completely accurate it does do a very good job of determining Gaming Preference. What do patrons prefer to do? Data from smart IoT enabled devices, such as Smart Shoes are currently determining actual game pace, determining what is really going on at the Gaming Table level. Next Generation sensors, already in "real world" deployments, can determine both the location of any wagers made and with increasing accuracy the cash values of these wagers. Data from Venue, Hotel and POS systems can be linked to create a Patron profile of what they are doing when they are not wagering on the Gaming Tables. Where are they interacting with the broader Casino offering? How are they paying for this interaction? What are their non-gaming preferences? Geo-location sensors can be deployed, via opt-in applications, to track Patron movements about the property. Where are they going when they do not interact with the wider offering? From the sum of this data, again gathered from across the various siloes in which it currently resides, a more complete and more holistic picture of the Patron as an autonomous actor can be determined. A combination of bet recognition and game pace can determine their real, as opposed to assumed, value to the operation. What is meant by this is the real House Advantage maintained by the Casino against their play (for any Table Game type where this can be a variable). It can issue alerts when play exceeds certain thresholds, or changes in marked ways. For the first time an accurate appraisal of what they like to do in addition to their Gaming can be determined. This enables enhanced market segmentation and a fuller picture of the likes and dislikes of the patron in question. If he or she only goes to the seafood restaurant, why would a casino send them a voucher for a steak? If they like the Spa, why reward them with a buffet voucher? Offers can be made "on the fly" when the Patron is in proximity with something a casino now recognizes that they enjoy doing. Subtly rewarding them for brand loyalty to the casino and explicitly discouraging them from gaming somewhere that does not know them as well. An increasingly non-siloed, data rich and free data environment is a picture of the future when customers are more reliant on technology. So while no-one knows for sure in what precise direction technology will shape how the Casino Industry will face the future, the broad trends are sufficiently established to be knowable. What is required therefore is the ability to do this, before the competition does.
AGAIN, WHAT ABOUT BLOCKCHAIN?
Any Blockchain solution company, in evaluating the potential for casino penetration should take into heavy consideration the history of TITO, how and why it was developed, and the continued lean on knowing the players. Combining that with how a wallet/ledger solution would solve the 7 identified TITO vulnerabilities above will give you a solid approach in both development and marketing efforts. It should be obvious to those of us involved in Blockchain tech how, the implementation of an enterprise level, patron utilized wallet which communicates with not only slots, but casino credit mechanisms would be of tremendous asset in combating fraud while generating new player data casinos have never had access to. The value proposition lies within cost savings, player retention, player information and habit knowledge, and anti-theft.
The question is not will Blockchain replace TITO, but who is willing to step up and begin that process?
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