That's Casino Robbery!

I'm not talking about the one-armed and no-armed bandits robbing me while I play slot machines. That's a given. Something I expect. If the timing is right, I'll win. If not, I'll lose. I'm prepared for that. What I was NOT prepared for was for my new favorite casino to RIP ME OFF FOR $30!

I'm a low-mid-level roller. I get comps in the mail from casinos. At this casino, Hick had a weekly comp of $10. The Pony had $20 a week. And I had $30 a week. Since this casino changed ownership in January or February, things had been operating pretty much as before. We'd get our booklet with tear-out coupons for our CASH comps. We loved it! No other casinos gave out CASH. Only free play.

Anyhoo... the whole VIRUS thing changed our casino habits. We didn't go for four or five months. But we'd still get our comp booklets in the mail, with our weekly cash ready to be available when the casino could reopen. It was a state gaming issue, not a local thing.

Once it reopened, we took our little CASH coupons, got a voucher at the player's card desk, and took it to the cashier for our CASH. The Pony and Hick usually spent theirs, but I sometimes held onto mine to use for scratchers. We went to the casino about every two weeks. And I noticed that the casino was giving us our weekly CASH comps, even for the weeks we did not go. YIPPEE! That was also unusual, but I guess they really wanted to lure the hard-core gambling addicts back.

When I'd go to the player's card desk, they'd ask how much I wanted of my CASH comps. At one point, I had a $120! I took $60, planning to get the rest on future visits. Which I did. I used the current week's CASH comp, and another $30 that was added during our absent week, and a $30 of that $60 I had left. IT'S NOT A MATH PROBLEM, PEOPLE! Don't get all "I'm confused" about the figurin'! 

The point is... I knew I had $30 left on my casino CASH account, and planned to use it next trip, combined with that current week's $30 comp. (Hick made us go two weeks in a row, for his gun-running purposes at the pawn shops!).

Well. I walked in, jammed my player's card in the first slot I saw, to activate the week's CASH comp... and saw that my ginormous total of points that translate to cash had been ravaged. Seriously. All the zeroes were off that puppy! It seemed like less than a 10th of my previous balance. It looked like I only had TWO DOLLARS of cash available from my player's points! But it DID say that I had $30 of free play that I could activate in any slot machine.

I CRY SHENANIGANS! 

 

Ever since MARCH, that casino had been putting out info that soon they would be updating their system to allow people to access their comps on the slot machines, rather than going to the player's card desk. Yeah. Those wolf-criers! That's dirty pool! They should have given a specific date when that would happen! I think they first said it would happen in June (when they weren't open yet). Then July. Then August. When it didn't, I grew complacent. I had a good thing going.

No way would I have left my precious $30 on that account! I would have sucked that sucker dry! Cash money is cash money! The Pony says that you can still print out a ticket and take it to the cash machine and get it that way. I haven't tried it. Most places won't let you do that with free play. You have to actually PLAY it in the slots until it's gone, after first putting in some of your own money to activate it. I'll have to check this out.

In the meantime, I'm absolutely LIVID about losing my $30 of FREE CASH! I have a good mind to, uh... never go... back... there. I'll show THEM!

Oh, who are we kidding? I was just there yesterday.