Pretty little Emerald Downs of Washington state has been purchased by the Muckleshoots, who are descendants of the Duwamish and Upper Puyallup of the Puget Sound area.
What this suggests is that soon a casino will rise on those Indian grounds and $5,000 claimers will be running for purses of $50,000, or so it seems in other places where harder core gambling funds horse racing. The casino sponsorship of horse racing has kept the sport alive and has reconfigured its image to this: sparsely populated grandstands supported by full purses.
Since slot machine players are like horse race stockholders, it's educational to visit some of the plants from time to time to see if there's any chance that the casino enthusiasts will tap out and that our sport could suffer as a result of reduced slot revenues.
At one casino, I took a seat at the end of a row of $1 slot machines and lost $30 before you could ask "What is the payout rate on the slots in this joint?" Seated next to me was an elderly woman who asked if I would please put a couple of hundred-dollar bills into machine for her. She was tiny and frail and was having trouble getting one of the hundreds smoothed out. This particular machine could handle three $1 bets per spin. With each spin lasting approximately 15 seconds, I computed that it was possible to lose $720 per hour during an icy streak.
"How often do come here?" I asked.
There was no reply.
"Do you win? Are you ahead over the long haul?"
"It's none of your business," the little woman said.
In the middle of this row, bells rang on a machine, signifying a meaningful win.
A woman had just won more than $200.
I walked to where the big winner sat and said that I was a horse player whose sport was funded to a great degree by a percentage of casino profits. I thanked her for her participation and asked how she felt after hitting some like symbols across the face of the slot machine. She said nothing and made more $3 bets as fast as possible. Her expression didn't change. I said over her shoulder that out at my place, at the track or simulcast venue, a hit of more than $200 was sometimes celebrated by bear hugs and rounds for the table. Yet she sat here playing on. Was she happy? Hello. Was she at least a little pleased on the inside? Excuse me. Did you know that you had just won more than $200?
"Be quiet, you're breaking my concentration," she said without turning around.
Here is what I learned from observing some of those who hunt in the slot machine fields.
I saw no posted notice of a payout rate on the slot machine operations at any of the Indian casinos. Moreover, I asked several employees if they knew how much of each slot machine dollar that the casino kept. Nobody knew the answer to that one. By treaty with the government, Indians get to regulate what transpires on their land. This stipulation evidently trickles down to such things as slot machine takeout rates. Stuffing money into machines without knowing the odds takes guts or loneliness, the desire to get out of the house and away from bad television.
Regular players often bring religious symbols or lucky charms to the casino and place these items on the machines before spinning. Some slot players close their eyes and appear to be praying or wishing for good fortune before going for the cash.
The bells that ring on machines signifying a win seem to have been scaled back somewhat. Whereas the bells used to publicize a big cash victory, sometimes now you might get a little jingle over a forty buck take.
The rosy glow that shows up on some slot machines as they begin to spin for bonus winnings has been described by many regular players as having a hypnotic pull.
Slot land is full of system players. If the lottery attracts people who think there is rhyme or reason to the numbers that show up, why not slot players, right? I observed one man standing behind a row of 50-cent slot machines writing down the way the symbols were appearing. It was his belief that there was something to be learned from winning sequences. Others believe in hot and cold machines, that the computer chips had minds of their own and got into the habit of pleasing certain areas of the casino. Others think that the manner in which the player takes out and puts money into a machine has something to do with the way it produces winners.
The happiest people in the casinos seemed to be the employees.
It's almost like the federal government does its part to keep the horse racing industry going as social security checks run through the slots.