Gambling For Dollars

Describing sound is rather like catching smoke. You can hear it in your head but the words elude you. The casino was like that--smoky and filled with sound.

Electronica gone amuck, with the people trying to catch it.

Shoulder to shoulder people, smoke wafting everywhere inside a building in California no less! Amazing. Up the escalator there is a woman smoking. I pause to see how security will handle it. And they just walked by. I knew I was in a different world.

Smoke was not the only item filling the air. Soun-- lots of sound. A cacaphony of sound. Whirs, beeps and pings but few human voices.

I pick a machine and promptly realize that once again in the path of life I don't know what to do, it has been too long since the last visit to a casino. It's time to figure it out.

Five buttons on the top row, 5 buttons on the bottom row. Pick and choose. Ok. But the machine won't take my bill. I take that as a sign and move on.

Second choice was not a good choice. Four spins, good-bye five.

Next machine is a 7-spinner and a good-bye five. Movin' on now. What's the reverse of ka-ching? ka-chung?

Hey, that Bandida looks like a good machine, another five in the slot and spin it down to the last 1 credit. But... there is a help button. Now that's my kind of button. Read the instructions. Play the last spin and up come 15 free games but I definitely don't know how to cash in.

My neighbor gestures to just let it run. I start to touch a button and he gestures again. I leave it alone. The machine spins up a 36 dollar win. I turn to say thank you to my neighbor and realize that once again, sign language has worked in place of words since he did not have the ability to verbalize.

Good bye Bandida. Goodbye casino. Goodbye gambling. --Margo Viers

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