Wednesday, May 11, 2011
This month, the Geek Girl goes on a dangerous exploratory mission into the earliest known training grounds for gamblers: Dave and Buster's.
Flashing lights, simple controls, and the dead eyes of an electronically rendered woman have me constantly complaining that, these days, casino gambling feels more like visiting an arcade designed for the elderly and less like dressing up for a scene out of James Bond. While action-based video games aren’t devolving into the primitive 16-bit machines seen in the casino slots, an investigative mission to Dave and Buster's revealed the vast majority of the games that spat out prize tickets were training tools for future gamblers. You don’t win tickets playing Time Crisis. Wielding that pink gun is its own reward. I resisted the siren call of beloved games in order to complete my brave, exploratory mission into the kids' section of the arcade…
Sunday, March 6, 2011
The Geek Girl tries to find a steampunky connection to Roulette.
Gambling seemed like it should be such an intuitive leap for a geek like me. After all, I own plenty of cards at home. Okay, they’re for Dominion, Bang, and because I’m a girl, Lost Cities. I also own plenty of dice at home. Alright, most of them have 20 sides, though in a pinch I can always whip out my iPhone DiceBag app if for some reason I need a four or eight sider. Even so, I failed dramatically at gambling with cards. Gambling with dice worked a little better. This week, in the spirit of steampunk, it was time for me to gamble with gears. I was ready to try Roulette. I left my brass goggles and astrolabe necklace at home in favor of a look that wouldn’t get me thrown out as a terrorist. Since I hadn’t seen any roulette tables at …
38.767732
-90.485669
1 Ameristar Blvd, Saint Charles, MO
/articles/roulette-the-steampunkers-gambling-choice
/locations/3594292
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
This week, a woman who never leaves home without her netbook and smartphone is flummoxed by slot machines.
After playing an assortment of slot machines at Maryland Heights’ Harrah’s Casino, I pounced when one of four Star Trek-themed slots become available. Surely Spock could walk this gambling-newbie through the illogical human game of chance. But as I sat down, a man at the adjacent machine rather graphically threatened me with physical violence if I laid a hand on his friend’s slot. “Touch that machine, and I will shove a [expletive] apple up your [expletive],” said the tallish, gray-haired man. She was coming right back, he said. I asked if I could play in the meantime and was suddenly hit with the full glaring force of an entire nursing home. No one believed my assertions that random number generators govern slots. His friend had put in …
38.751859
-90.479472
777 Casino Center Dr, Maryland Heights, MO
/articles/vulgar-threats-for-a-first-time-gambler
/locations/3028325
Susie Slot Matron
9:58 am on Saturday, January 15, 2011
Every slot machine has a help or info button just like a website that will bring up a screen with payouts, lines, explanations of all the buttons, etc. I'm surprised a computer geek didn't notice this. more ›