A Curious Choice

Times, they have a-changed. It used to be that you could get some pretty good stuff as casino promotional giveaways. Pots and pans, dishes, glassware, luggage, a cooler, a camouflage backpack and thermos. I know it wasn't based on the amount gambled, because Hick and my sister the ex-mayor's wife had the same offer as the ex-mayor and me. And we're high rollers, while the other two are penny-pinchers.

We've slacked off on the city casinos over the past couple of years. But we DID go to take The Pony, that time he hit his big hand pay jackpot while forgetting his ID. So some promotional offers have been arriving in the mail again. I was shocked by the one I got yesterday. Do you know what the December giveaway is?

ALCOHOL!!!

That just seems WRONG! Not because I'm the next Carrie Nation, or consider alcohol beneath me. But because surely there are laws against this! Right? Apparently not.

The card DOES say that the alcohol is not allowed on the gaming floor. So instead of picking up your item in the "Velvet Lounge" as usual, you have to get it on the Promenade. Which I think is a fancy word for that long hallway from the hotel check-in desk, past the restaurants, to the casino entrance.

Of course I had questions for Hick. I gave him the card to look at.

"It says to be sure and park in the parking garage to pick up your gift. What's the deal? Is it a drive-thru giveaway? How can they do that? You don't even have to go in and gamble?"

"No. It says you have to scan your player's card and get a voucher from the kiosk. So you have to go in."

"Oh. And walk all the way up by the front doors, where they used to have valet service, where there's the first kiosk. THEN come back to the desk by the parking garage entrance to get your bottle of hooch?"

"I don't know where they hand it out. But you have to get the voucher to get it."

"Huh. That just seems really odd. It's not like some special gift. You can get a fifth of alcohol for $20-$25. But it IS brand name. What was that... Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, Bacardi?"

"Yeah. And two I don't know what they are. One looks like it might be wine. I like whiskey and bourbon, but I don't like rum."

"By the time we'd drive up there and back, the gas would cost more than the alcohol! You'd be better off just to buy your own!"

"I know. It does seem kind of odd."

"It would only make sense if you were going there anyway, to play and have fun. But I don't know why you'd have to park in the parking garage. It's not that much closer than the parking lot at that end. Unless maybe they want to make sure people take their bottle out to their car. And who's going to go every Thursday to get a bottle of alcohol?" 

"Yeah. It don't make much sense."

I'm pretty sure this is one giveaway that we're not getting.