During a juicy promotion, let\u2019s say I have a deal with \u201cPeter\u201d that I will leave a machine at 5 a.m. and he will take it over. Later on, perhaps noon, he will give it back. But when he arrives at 5 a.m., all of the relevant machines are full, and somebody is hovering — waiting for a machine to open up. How do we handle this situation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I know the person hovering and he is reasonable to work with, he already knows Peter is taking over. How? I\u2019ll tell him beforehand. Most professionals have made similar deals in the past and we don\u2019t want some sort of fight where casino employees get involved. That situation rarely ends well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If players are fighting over a machine, many casinos \u201csolve\u201d the problem by kicking out one or both players or removing the machine. If the players want it that badly, it doesn\u2019t take a genius slot director to conclude that he\u2019s better off without it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the hovering player is a stranger, we try to switch players without incident. I might ask Peter to watch my machine while I use the restroom. When he sits down, I\u2019ll tell him I might be several minutes, and he can play with his own card and money until I return. He cashes out my money and gives it to me along with my card, and he begins to play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It seems innocent enough. An hour later, when the hovering player realizes that I\u2019m not coming back, the problem has usually gone away. Sometimes that player has found another machine. Sometimes that player has given up on<\/s> playing on these particular machines during that promotion. (Most of us have \u201cbackup\u201d plans in case our first choice of machines isn\u2019t available.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes when a full bank of desirable machines is occupied, another player will ask if anybody is planning on leaving soon. (I do this myself.) The reason to do this is to \u201cget in line.\u201d Usually this is a good time to say words to the effect that, \u201cMy machine has somebody already in line.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite your best efforts, sometimes somebody comes looking for a machine and announces that the only way to allocate machines is \u201cfirst come first served\u201d and he\u2019s first in line for the next available machine. If Peter shows up for his shift while this person is waiting, I\u2019ll whisper to him to let him know the situation. Sooner or later this person will either get a machine or leave the area for a bit. When he does, that\u2019s the time to make the shift. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One thing to keep in mind is that regardless of whatever is done today, most of us plan on playing for years and \u201cwhat goes around, comes around.\u201d Sometimes you have the machine and somebody else wants it. Sometimes somebody else has the machine and you want it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Treating people fairly is almost always the best policy. It doesn\u2019t always work well, but it gives you the best chance of having good results for years to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is one lady in greater Las Vegas who is known for being a real jerk about these things. She\u2019s made a scene at several casinos where she feels people have not let her have her turn, and casinos have removed machines because of what she\u2019s done. Insofar as I\u2019m concerned, she doesn\u2019t play fair, and I won\u2019t work with her. But with most others, I do,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One last thing to mention is that there are fewer of these great video poker promotions than there used to be. Just a fact of life. Sharing great machines is far less of an issue than it used to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
During a juicy promotion, let\u2019s say I have a deal with \u201cPeter\u201d that I will leave a machine at 5 a.m. and he will take it over. Later on, perhaps noon, he will give it back. But when he arrives at 5 a.m., all of the relevant machines are full, and somebody is hovering — […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15763,"featured_media":843442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[601,643,557],"tags":[561,683,585],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/spinach-2.png?fit=500%2C300&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846988"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15763"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}