A gambling friend shared an incident that happened to him at a casino recently. It’s never happened to me, but it could. I’m writing this as a hypothetical, because there are a lot of different ways it could turn out. So, there are lots of choices to be made — and it’s probably wise that you’ve at least thought about it beforehand.
I’m waiting for a casino drawing. They call my name and I have three minutes to make my way up to wherever the drawing is being held. Usually that’s no problem. But what if I’m doing something else?
If I’m playing video poker, it’s usually easy to cash out and leave the machine. If there are players around, let them know that you’ll be back after the drawing. That usually works.
But let’s say I’m playing a slot machine, and the machine is positive. That is, assume it’s well known that it’s a play if the mini jackpot is at least 20, and it’s now at 25. If you leave this machine unguarded, often somebody else will recognize the situation for what it is and play until the jackpot hits.
Now you need to get some casino employee to watch your machine. So, I’ll start hollering and making quite a commotion. Usually, some employee will come investigate. When that happens, I explain that I’ve been called for the drawing — and usually the employee will assist you. Not always, but usually.
Another situation is that you’ve hit the bonus round on the machine, and the bonus round takes several minutes to play out. This is actually better for you because nobody can claim the machine while this is happening. You can actually leave the machine while hollering and searching for an employee.
If you know for a fact that the bonus round will result in a W-2G, then it’s okay to leave — assuming your card was in the machine and the casino can identify who hit the jackpot. But usually, you don’t know for sure. It might end up for more than $1,200, and it might not. If it only goes up to $1,100 and you’re not around when it finishes, someone can cash out with your win plus however much in credits you had before the bonus round started. They can collect the ticket, cash it out, and leave the casino before you return. Casinos have different policies on how much, if any, of your money you’ll retrieve.
If hollering doesn’t work, you’ll need to make a quick analysis of how much the slot machine jackpot is worth versus how much the drawing is worth. If it’s a drawing where you get at least $500, and can earn quite a bit more than that, and the slot jackpot will only be $200, then it’s an easy choice. If the hollering doesn’t work, cash out and go to collect your drawing winnings. If you’re playing on the two-cent machine, 40 coins at a time, you probably should leave another screen (perhaps one cent, 50 coins at a time) that is not in positive mode so maybe the good game will still be there when you return.
On the other hand, if the drawing is for $100 and you believe your equity in the machine is worth quite a bit more than that, then you simply keep playing the slot machine if the hollering doesn’t work. Yes, you’d like to collect both, but sometimes you have to make a choice.
One way to guard against this is to not do anything else while waiting for a drawing. That’s fine, but not doing anything is worth $0 per hour. And these drawings can go on for quite some time — especially if there are one or more rounds of redraws because people didn’t show up when their names were called. And unless it’s a fairly unusual situation, you are probably not a favorite to be called in the drawing. The combination of being called and being on a game that can’t be left without losing equity and you can’t find an employee to watch the machine is pretty remote. It could happen, of course, but usually it’s better for me to be scouting while I’m waiting for the names to be called. I don’t have to be present for three minutes and if necessary, I can run from quite a distance in three minutes. (Well, maybe not today. As I write this, I’m still recovering from hip surgery — so running is not an option — but that is hopefully a short-lived restriction.)
It’s a nice problem to have — because you’re going to be getting some money — but getting all of your money is better than getting part of your money.
