Luck be a lady

By Mike Hanks
Sun Newspapers

It didn’t take a big bankroll or a big payday for several area senior citizens to enjoy their recent date with lady luck.

Last week a dozen area seniors joined others from Delano and Mound for a bus trip to Grand Casino in Hinckley. For many it wasn’t the lure of high stakes jackpots that brought them together, it was simply a chance to hit the road on a Friday and enjoy a little camaraderie, with a side order of slot machine action.

Al Holde of Spring Park welcomed the opportunity last week. The longtime Tonka Bay resident now lives at the Presbyterian Homes on Lake Minnetonka in Spring Park, and the opportunity to take a bus at 7:45 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 11, was a chance to get out and about for the day. “When you get to be 90, there isn’t much to do,” he said.

Still driving, Holde took advantage of the chance to leave the driving to a motor coach driver, an opportunity that was free to those who made the trip north. Each passenger paid $25 for their trip, but received a coupon at the casino, redeemable for $25. While it didn’t cost Holde anything other than a few hours of his time to make the trip, he wasn’t expecting to be returning with pockets full of cash. “I never go up here expecting to come home with anything,” he said. “I sit down at the wrong machine.”

Holde doesn’t consider himself superstitious, or lucky. While he doesn’t get many chances to visit a casino, he used to spend his winters in Arizona, where he and his wife would travel across the Arizona border to the casinos in Laughlin, Nev. His biggest slot machine jackpot: $500.

He doesn’t have any good luck charms, or perform any superstitious rituals before depositing coins into a slot machine, but he was open to the suggestion of rubbing a machine before playing it. “I’ll try that today,” he said.

It didn’t help.

Vangie Peck of Excelsior considers herself to be superstitious, but she didn’t bring any good luck charms to the casino last week. She didn’t need them, as she managed to win $50 while playing a nickel slot machine.

Peck only plays nickel machines “because I’m cheap,” she admitted. Her low-budget strategy paid off, however, as her $50 win helped her finish in the black.

She has never been much of a gambler, because her husband was never interested in traveling to Las Vegas or elsewhere to test his luck. So Peck’s first trip to Vegas was about 10 years ago, where she enjoyed the people watching as much as the casino action, she said.

When the bus arrived at the casino at about 10 a.m., not everyone raced to a slot or video poker machine. Peck and four others started their approximately four-hour visit to the casino in the coffee shop. Peck sat down with Marge Lund of Shorewood, Mary Norman and Rose Olson of Excelsior and Jean Tisdale of Tonka Bay. The group planned to reconvene outside the coffee shop at 12:30 p.m. for a lunch break.

While they went their separate ways in search of a winning machine, Lund and Norman were usually within shouting distance of each other, playing video poker. Their quest for a winning video poker machine proved to be more challenging than they anticipated, thanks to technology.
Many of the poker and slot machines at Grand Casino do not take coins. They accept paper bills and credit vouchers, the same vouchers that the machines print for winners to redeem. A $20 win no longer means 80 quarters plunking into a metal bin at the bottom of the machine. Instead the machine prints a coded voucher that can either be redeemed for cash at a cashier’s window or inserted into another machine for credits. The technology eliminates the need for hand feeding rolls of quarters into a machine, but faster, more efficient methods aren’t necessarily better, according to Lund and Norman.

Coin-fed machines were harder to come by in Hinckley, but the duo found some. Norman’s first play on a “deuces wild” machine produced four aces, but given the machine offered wild cards, her four of a kind paid back just eight quarters. But a win is a win, and Norman was excited.

“I don’t like the wild cards,” Lund said. She prefers poker machines that follow standard poker rules, as they will pay players who make a pair of jacks or better. Machines that have wild card rules typically require two pairs or three of a kind before the player is paid.

Both women like the skill and decision making involved in poker because your success is not left completely to the hands of fate. “You have a little choice,” Norman said. “I have a little control.”

Lund shuns slot machines because “just pulling the lever is boring,” she said. With video poker, “it takes a little more time to lose your money because you’ve to figure out what to hold each hand.”

The first seats Lund and Norman chose weren’t too lucky, so they took their action elsewhere. At another part of the casino Norman found another open chair at the end of a row of poker machines. “There’s a secret to the end machines,” she said.

The secret? She said end machines pay out more often because people walking down the aisle see the end machines more often than those in the middle of a row, and the casinos want passersby to see people winning.

Norman may have been onto something. She was playing two or three quarters per game on her new video poker machine, and managed to make four of a kind. Since the game didn’t use wild cards, four of a kind paid her 240 quarters for her bet, a $60 win. She couldn’t resist sharing her excitement with Lund, who was seated five chairs away, at the other end of the row.

“Hey Marge, listen to this music,” Norman yelled before hitting the button that would begin paying out her 240-quarter win. “I have to get security to take me home,” she joked.

At Lund’s end, good fortune was harder to come by. “I’m not doing so well,” she said. Seeing Norman win was no surprise to Lund. “She always does,” Lund said.

A suggestion that Norman would be buying lunch for the group drew a tepid response. “A piece of toast,” she said.

At lunch, however, Norman reconsidered, upping the offer to toast made with “good bread.”

Only Peck was a no show for lunch. The foursome made their way to Grand Grill Americana for soup and sandwiches, and some talk about current events at the Southshore Senior Center in Shorewood.

Olson reported that she wasn’t having much luck, but also noted that she doesn’t play much, as she enjoys the day out with friends and watching others play. When she does play, she sticks to slot machines. Given the differing rules and payouts of the poker machines, Olson wasn’t interested. “These poker machines didn’t make sense to me,” she said.

While none of the women are avid gamblers, they had definite opinions about whether the state should be involved in the gaming industry.

Lund supports a state-operated casino. “We need the money,” she said.

Norman suggested such an operation should be at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, where the state already operates a poker room and horse racing track.

Tisdale opposed the idea, however, saying that the state made an agreement with the Native American tribes and should live up to it, not compromise it.

Following lunch, the women had less than 45 minutes before it was time to board the bus back to the Southshore Center. Norman didn’t have much luck after lunch. “It was a waste of time to eat,” she said. Despite losing sight of lady luck in the final hour of her day, her $60 win earlier in the day was enough to keep her ahead for the day.