SLOT MACHINE ETIQUETTE

We share the casino space, let's not turn it into a bar room brawl.

Good luck Duck, "If you bring the duck, you bring the luck"

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Well, good morning. It is May the 4th, 2026, and straight from the Highly Caffeinated studio, this is Real Splot Talk with yours truly, Willie B. But before we get into the episode today, I want to tell you about my latest trip to Danville. That was this weekend, and we went on Friday night and then wound up and played most of the day Saturday. It was insane. Didn't win anything life-changing, but did win enough to keep me playing. However, did make a couple trips to the cage, but you know, we're not going to talk about that. But what I would like to mention before I get into the episode is a couple of things. Danville, Virginia was had the grand opening of their Riverfront Park. And it was absolutely insanely incredible. I have no words to describe it. And you just have to see it to believe it. Go on, if you're not anywhere near Danville, Virginia, go on Google and Google it because it is absolutely impressive to every single detail. They also had some food trucks there because it was the uh grand opening of the park. And one of the food trucks there is a good friend of mine, and he opened his food truck. He j he used to be a slot attendant, and he decided that a food truck was in his future. And so he started uh tater tactics, and it was absolutely incredible. That was the biggest baked potato I had ever. I didn't even know they grew potatoes that big. Uh but it was it was massive, and then it was topped with chili. I I got my I got the nuclear, and and I don't remember exactly everything that was on it, but it had mac and cheese, it had chili, it had barbecue, broccoli. I mean, it's it was insane. I mean, I it I had to eat for 10 minutes just to find the potato, but it was very good. Uh my wife had one that had bacon and stuff on it. She's lucky I didn't take that away from her, but she put sour cream on it, so that made it hers. But anyway, but it was really good. I enjoyed that. There'll actually be a culinary highway episode uh coming out on Tater Tactics because it was that good. Uh, but definitely go check out the Riverfront Park in Danville. You will not be disappointed. Uh, let's talk about the people in the casino. Now, first of all, I want to tell you about my experience on Friday night and Saturday, especially Friday night. Friday night was uh I don't even have words. Uh I I was very, I'm gonna say moved because it was um one of the best nights in the casino I've ever had. And I'm not talking about wins, I'm talking about meeting people. Uh I had met so many people Friday night uh because they were trying to track me down to get a good luck duck. And I helped them out because everybody always says they can never find me. So I got a bright yellow bucket hat that has ducks all over it, little yellow ducks all over. You could not miss me in the casino. Now, let me tell you, that became quite the topic, and it wound up that I met so many amazing people in the casino Friday and Saturday. Uh, I actually had some people that actually brought good luck ducks to me, and it was um it really caught me off guard. And and uh I was very enamored with this, it was one of the coolest things ever. Uh, I had I've got a pirate duck now, uh, which actually did work because I as soon as she gave it to me, I hit a bonus. Uh, so you know, there's that. And then uh one of the uh directors in the casino, he saw with me with my hat, and he goes, Oh, I got something for you. And he goes in the back and comes back out, and he's got a little monster duck for me. So, you know, it was so cool and how this duck culture has just become uh this huge thing. And I pretty much know I would say 80% of everybody that works in the casino by name, and they know me by name, especially now after the the duck hat. But uh, it just makes for such a magic uh visitation to the casino when it goes like that. So I guess that's where I'm gonna flip the script and I'm gonna ask you, when did the casino floor turn into the Wild West? And I now I'm serious. Now I'm not complaining, I'm not, but I just you know me, I'm not one to avoid controversial topics, and so I feel like okay, if anybody's gonna say this, I'll say it. And I don't mean anything mean or disrespectful to anyone, and that's why I'm the one that's gonna bring this up. It's like no rules, no awareness, and no respect. People saving machines like it's a beach chair, standing over you like you owe them a jackpot. Now, I here's the thing I'm a I'm a people person, it does not bother me if you stand behind me and watch, because I know that I am very animated when I play. So I expect to have some people standing behind me watching. But there are some people that don't like people standing behind them, and I can sense that with some people, and if I there's a certain machine that I want to play, I will sit at a machine semi-close to that cluster of machines and just kind of you know watch out of the corner of my eye, and when they get done, then I'll walk over and hopefully be quick enough before somebody swoops in. That's just how it goes, especially on a full casino night. And but then there's the ones that blow smoke, and I'm not talking about the proverbial smoke, I'm talking about cigarette smoke, like they're testing wind direction. And I'm just sitting there thinking, are we really doing this right now? So tonight we're talking about, and we're not talking about winning, we're not talking about strategy, we're talking about something that should be automatic, but apparently isn't anymore. So let's talk about slot machine etiquette. Now, listen, like I said, I'm not here to complain, I'm here to clean it up. Because casinos, they work best when there's an let's call it an unspoken code. Nobody hands it to you, but everybody who gets it respects it. And if you don't, you stand out real quick, in my opinion. Here's the thing, here's a big one saving machines. Now we've had this discussion, I've talked about it in different podcasts, and so let's go down this road one more time. So if you ever walk up, and the reason I bring this up because it happened this weekend, and it was I happened to be standing off to the side and caught the conversation, and I was very surprised at the person sitting playing this machine because there was an empty machine on the end that no one had been playing for several minutes, and I had been sitting there thinking about do I want to go back to Dragon Link? Because I tried to avoid Dragon Link this weekend. I think that's why I did better. And out of the corner of my eye, my brain is going, there's an empty machine, there's an empty, and I'm like, no, I don't want to play Dragon Link because I know what's gonna happen. I'm gonna chase a jackpot and I'm going to be broke and I'm going to have to go home. So here's this empty chair, and I see someone that goes and sits down to play, and two of the people in the cluster of machines says, Oh no, somebody's playing that. I'm sitting there thinking, no, there's there's no jacket on the chair, there's no drink on the machine, there's no card in the machine, there's no money in the machine, there's no chair even turned around backwards. That's not reserved, that's abandoned. And I'm sorry. I'm gonna sit down all day, every day at that machine if I know that nobody is truly playing that machine and nobody's coming back. So I decided to watch a little longer. I sat and I watched and I sat and I watched. And guess what? After 15 minutes of this person playing, no one ever came back. So I decided to test a theory. I got up and went and sat in that chair as soon as that lady got up. Guess what? I played for another 30 minutes. No one ever came to claim the machine, and this is what I'm talking about. This isn't a gym locker, it's not a pool chair. If you're not actively playing, then the machine is fair game. Now, look, if someone runs to the restroom real quick, that's I mean, that's you know, that's nature, it's gonna happen. But I'm sorry, 15-20 minutes? No. And you know, if you left your machine to go get food in a restaurant, sit down to eat dinner, and then come back. No, that's not how that works. If you need to go cash a ticket, that's fine. Somebody can watch your machine, leave your leave your card in, go cash your check and or your ticket and come back. If you need to run to the restroom, absolutely, I will stay there and watch your machine for you. Because that's just the etiquette that nobody talks about. So, you know, you just don't get to claim territory on a casino floor. I'm sorry. All right. So that I'm not complaining, and I'm just trying to get this out. So let's let's talk about something else. This one gets me every time, and you know the type. So you've got one person playing. If there's let's say there's a cluster of three, there's a man playing, or there's a person playing on the end machine. That friend of that person or spouse or whatever is sitting at the middle machine, turned sideways, watching them play. That's cool. I do the same thing, unless someone walks up and says, Hey, are you playing? Oh, absolutely not. Because that's what that machine is there for, not the chair, the machine. The chair goes to the machine and it's there to make the casino money. So if you're just sitting there watching someone, don't just stick your card in, just say, Oh, yeah, I'm playing. Because I have watched this time and time again where somebody is have their card in, but never puts will sit there for 30 minutes and tie up a machine and never puts money in, never takes the first spin. They're just holding this the chair so that they can sit there. That is not good etiquette, folks. I'm sorry. If I'm calling somebody out and this is you and you're guilty of that, I'm sorry. That that's that's not cool. All right, so meanwhile, someone else is walking around looking for a seat. And if you're not putting money in, you're just taking up space, and that's as simple as that. And I'm just gonna leave it there. Support your friend, sure, but support them from behind the chair. Okay, this one right here. There's another one where it's gonna get uncomfortable. But I said, you know what? I I don't have a problem doing this. I'm not out here to make anybody mad, I'm just trying to bring etiquette to light. Hovering, standing too close. Um, some people that bothers, and you can you can sense it if you if you walk up. I watched a lady the other day, a man walked up, and he was uh he was obviously wanting to play that machine she was on, and he stood right over her chair, and I could tell that she didn't know him. She kept turning and looking back over her shoulder, and finally she just left the machine, and and you could tell that she was upset. And I'm like, just walk, watch from a few feet away. At least you're not standing over them. Because some people just they they just don't they just don't like it, so it's just out of respect that. But here's the respect, here's the big one. Now I'm gonna address this, and if I make somebody mad, I'm I'm just gonna go ahead and say, I'm sorry. But let's address this smoking. Yes, I know I'm on a lot of different Facebook groups, and I see this conversation pop up all the time, and I see people really getting rude with comments. And yes, here's I'm gonna tell you my take on it. Yes, the casino allows smoking, it's part of the environment, but that doesn't mean that you just have to blow it wherever you want, like you're testing wind direction. You know, just beware of direction, be aware of the person next to you. And if the person next to you is obviously not a smoker, you know, it's if you're if they're to your right, put the put the cigarette in your left hand, or you know, hold it down, or I, you know, I don't know. I'm just trying to bring up that we should all try to work with one another and respect each other's boundaries. That's that's all I'm saying. Because it's it's not about rules, it's just about awareness. I mean, you can do what you want, and you could, but you could do with what you want without making someone else miserable. There are times where I've had a smoker on both sides of me, and it just got to me to the point. I never said anything. I thought, you know what, this stragon link machine is just gonna wind up and take all my money anyway. Let me go find another machine, and that's what I do. And you know, is that and some people will say, Well, that's not right, you shouldn't have had to get up. Well, I guess maybe in some worlds, but it is a smoking environment, so you know, uh, I'm kind of the odd man out, so to speak. So I go find another machine, and there's been times where I've hit a bonus on another machine, so it was almost like karma going, You you took the high road. Here you go. Here's your bonus. So look, um, you know, here's another one, and I don't see this one as much, but I have noticed it, uh, and it's comical to me. I I get I get a laugh out of this because this one, oh man, uh it's the unsolicited advice. Hey, uh, you should bet Max, uh, that machine is due. Uh, I would have played that in this one. I see at table games a lot. I would have played that differently. Uh no, no, you would not have because it's not your money, and you don't know how you would have played it until you're in that moment. Unless someone asked, I would just say mum's the word, because it does make some people uncomfortable to give advice. But it's not that's not a major thing. I'm gonna cover this one one more time because I believe in this one. Slot attendants, servers in the casino, uh, whether it be drink servers or whatever the case may be, these people deal with more than you can ever imagine. I have seen some bartenders lately in the Danville that they're two hours into their shift and they look like they have been running from uh zombies. I mean, it's they're they're worn to a frazzle two hours into their shift, and it's crazy, and it shouldn't be that way. I mean, they they deal with good nights, bad nights, attitudes. I mean, so my thing is let's just show a little appreciation when it comes to casino staff because I don't know about the staff in your casino, but I can tell you for the staff in Caesars and Danville, what some of the most amazing staff members you'll ever meet, and they're some of the most friendly people that you could ever want to befriend. And that is just me uh telling you how my casino is. I have been in casinos where yes, there are some rude people, but you know, that's there's rude people everywhere, right? Um, you know, just remember, you know, don't chase losses. Um, don't get angry uh when the machine beats you up. Trust me, I I look at machines sometimes, I'm like, and I I've got to where I used to blame the machine. I did. I'm like, you know, really, you couldn't give me one bonus. You you couldn't give me one line hit. You couldn't, but that's not the machine, that's me. That's was I'm the one pushing the button. So I should have known when to step away. And that's one thing that we have to remember is when to step away and gamble responsibly. All right, so at the end of the day, casinos are shared spaces where we're all there for the same reason to chase opportunity, to enjoy it, to escape life, to have a moment. But that only works when people respect the space. So I'm throwing it out to you. What's the worst casino behavior you've ever seen? And what's the one thing that drives you crazy if I didn't mention it? Drop in the comments because if we're gonna play the game, let's at least act like we belong there together. I'll see you at the ATM. And until I see you again, don't forget bring the duck, bring the luck. Have a great day. Bye bye.