Food Pellets and the Video Slot Machine

Spent the afternoon dining with my mother who has just recently relocated from San Diego to virtual gambling haven of Las Vegas, luckily she has been sharpening her video slot machine skills over the past decade to fully develop a method of entertainment quite readily enjoyed by many other people in her age bracket. Figures awash in a time warp of bells, clanking coins, and pop hit classics from yesteryear, the continually flow of alcohol only dulls their nature to the concept of time while working out on their tenth one cent video slot machine of the night. The first thing I noticed about the penny slot area besides the people, will get into that in a minute, is the large variety of themed games, today in order to keep the interest of the short attention span populace, the machines must be named Texas Tea, Money Storm, Uncle Sam, Big Game Bob, and Hot Flashes.

Bonus rounds in these games offer extra opportunities to win more credits, more drinks, and dissapear into the mist of gambling oblivion. Today I am riding shotgun with a mother who really enjoys pressing a small square button over a thousand times in a day to watch some video screen spin some virtual reels that consist of animals, vegetables, famous presidents, and other eye catching ideas. It is not enough to merely support my mother, cheer her on as she plays so I put five bucks in the machine in order to pass the time, as well as give my mother another outlet, now playing two machines, doubling the junkie interest in hitting a special large payoff or bonus spin round. Most of the time when she came out to Vegas to visit in the past I would let her spend the video slots time alone at some place like Circus Circus where she could load up on all the free booze and entertainment her hit it big mentality could handle without having to sit there myself on some machine half asleep, going from ten dollars down to three, then back up to eight, never really winning, never really losing, sort of just playing along with everyone else who did not want risk anything, but still demanded the same rights as the real gambling freaks that gladly put their homes, cars, and lives on the line in deseperate chance the odds might fall in their favor and as all the new buildings on the Strip can attest, most of those starcrossed dreamers fail terribly.

It takes about five minutes for the novelty of the video slot machine to wear off even though within an hour I have turned five dollars into forty somehow, through six or seven machines. My mother does not stay on any one game for too long, after ten or fifteen minutes unless she is winning fairly large amounts, say like fifteen dollars, the narrative content of the video slot machine start to feel mundane, so time to refresh gambling need by moving to another part of the penny heaven as it is called at this particular casino. Where convenient little slips of white paper with magnetic strips keep track of the amount of money won or reclaimed at the end of a session. Plenty of paper strip being printed with my mother around, ADHD has set in once more as she bounces around like a hammered thirteen year at some junior high school party, everything feeling fresh and new, unfazed by their actions and demeanor only intent on making the fun last as long as possible.

I keep winning, as my mother belts down another white wine, pleading to stay for another hour and a half, damn already been here for two hours, look around all these other people are paralyized in their chairs, chain smoking, sipping on burbon and water, this is better than television, no one bugs you, handed a refill every twenty minutes, get a ride home from the casino and everything is well, heck, join the casino rewards club, eat at TGIF's for free every week, damn near everyday. This last prospect has my mother in a state of eternal bliss, an eternity of resturant food hamburgers, no pans, dishes, or washing, is Vegas great or what?
Total kid mode now with mother, as I am falling asleep, burn out from being overworked, I am the complete buzz kill as she tries to intentally lose all her credit, about twelve dollars worth, my net gain for the day ended up being over twenty dollars and for not even trying it ended up being not much more than pressing a button, repetitive action without reward or consequence, got a free water, no booze, someone else had that market cornered at the moment. Luckily, in the end my mother won a large bonus that put her about back to even, enough, put down the wine, pick up the stroller, get out the wheelchair, and gather your instincts, time to put the funbox away for another couple of weeks, so here is the great new bonding venture between mother and son, to be honest I probably learned more about her and shared more about myself today with her, than in the previous 39 years of my life, at first it felt weird, almost embarrassing, but she is human like everyone else, has been through every emotion in the book, dealt with adversity, oppression, success, and failure, somehow still standing through it all. At least I did not wait or give up, even though so much time has past between us and my emotions from events in the past are not fully forgotten, finally being ourselves instead of parent and child was a complete wonder, there will no doubt be more trips down to penny heaven as well as more chances to learn more about someone who at one point in my life was more a mystery to me than the next person walking down the street.