joker Joker JOKER!
Written: Jun 08 '01 (Updated Jul 05 '01)
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The Bottom Line
Feels like gambling without the pain. Chance to win monthly sweepstakes.
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| Full Review |
I have had two experiences with gambling. The first was as a child accompanying my parents to Las Vegas. I recall there were daycare rooms where you could drop your kids and go down and gamble. My parents are rather religious and guiltily dropped my sister and I in the daycare, and then headed downstairs to gamble. They struck it rich in one of the slot machines - later reporting lights were going off, sirens, and coins were literally pouring out of the machine. I think they said they had to use the bottom of one of their shirts to collect the coins and take it to the counter where they gave it back to the casino because they felt guilty (why oh why, I ask, to this day).
My second experience was a trip to Biloxi as an adult. I wasn't sure how I'd react to being in a gambling environment and was actually afraid I'd spend and spend til there was nothing left. Fortunately, I don't know any of the card games, so I headed to the slot machines which were mostly filled with gray-haired ladies mechanically pulling on levers while they stared with glazed eyes at the screens.
I found an empty stool (which was a feat - some people become downright superstitious and territorial about which machine they use. Sitting at Their machine is akin to sneaking into a den to pet a mother bear's cubs), and slowly fed in my cup of quarters - five whole buck's worth. Surely with $5 I'd get something?
Not a thing.
Ok, you're thinking I should have given it a lot more than $5 before giving up, but the way I looked at it is I was averaging 0/20. Did I want to keep playing this game? A game, by the very definition, should hold some entertainment value. Try playing 20 baseball games and losing every one; your enjoyment of the sport is eventually extinguished. I therefore decided the value of a casino was nil, and I found the zombified people around me to be depressing. The food in the casino was great, however.
Surfing the net this week I found SimSlots.com - a free online casino full of only slot machines. You can play any of a number of games for free. Each time you earn at least 100 credits, you can "cash" them in for an entry in their monthly sweepstakes. You can submit five entries a month, and the sweepstakes prizes are as follows:
Five $100 prizes
Two $500 prizes
One Grand $5000 prize
No zombies. No lost cash.
There is also no software to download unless you want to play the Shockwave games, in which case you'll need to download Shockwave (a free software addition).
The graphics are excellent. The instructions, however, are virtually nonexistent. To those with gambling experience, slot machines may seem self-explanatory; however, it wouldn't hurt them to write a small explanation about things like "payline", how the cash/credit works, and so on. They should assume that someone has never seen a slot machine in their life, as will be the case with some visitors to their site.
I'm sure the other drawback I'll find out soon. That is, in order to cash in your credits and enter their sweepstakes, you have to submit your name, address and email address. I expect I've probably gotten my name added to every get rich quick sucker list that exists. Ed McMahon will probably be filling my mailbox with Publisher's Clearing House garbage, and I'll shortly receive postcards announcing free trips to the Bahamas. However, so far, it's been fun, and it sure beats losing real dough.
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
Location: Atlanta, GA
Reviews written: 41
Trusted by: 7 members
About Me: Calling it quits on Epinions, for now, at least.
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