I have recently heard that the Casino in Auckland, New Zealand replaces its carpets every month, the reason being that people playing on the pokies won’t leave the machine to use the toilet.
(Actually when I heard it, these people were Chinese men - but I’m sure it can’t just be Chinese men?)
Has anyone heard of other casinos with this problem?
From Health gamble of casino workers:
I’ve never seen anything like that.
Sounds like it’s a Commonwealth wide problem at least (as Ringo’s link refers to UK problems).
One more reason not to play the pokies I guess…
That was actually a problem at the Windsor casino. They had to institute a ‘reservation’ system for slot machines so that people could leave them for short periods of time without other people playing them.
The sad thing is that people don’t want to leave generally because they can’t bear the thought that someone will walk up and put a coin in on the very next spin. The implication being that the the more you play without hitting the jackpot, the more likely it is to be coming up soon.
But the way these machines work is that there is a random number generator that is always running, and when you pull the handle it just grabs the next number that was passing by and uses it to determine the outcome. So even if someone walks up and wins on the next pull, YOU wouldn’t have, unless you just happened to pull the handle at the same microsecond as the other person did.
Sam - do all of them work like that? I was under the impression that some wanted a certain amount of money, after which they would pay out, to ensure the casino always got whatever percentage they wanted. Just curious.
A properly designed random number generator will ensure that in the long run, the Casino will get whatever percentage they wanted.
Interestingly though, I read someplace that the ones that use dice or cards in their playing mechanics MUST (at least in the US) use these realistically unless stated otherwise. So if you’re playing a card game at a slot machine, or video poker or whatever, it’s supposed to act just like a deck of cards, it can’t be stacked.
Even with such a restriction, then they just engineer the payouts to suit, like they do with all their other card and dice games.
You’re right that the machines are not allowed to cheat. However, the games themselves are already biased in favor of the house anyway. There really isn’t much difference between video-blackjack and real blackjack.
Except that when someone wins at video blackjack, everyone in the room gets bombarded with the bells and lights associated with winning on a gambling machine, which sends the subtle psychological message “people are winning on these machines, give them a try.” An enthusiastic and loud voiced dealer at a blackjack table announcing a win, while nice, can’t produce the same effect.
OK, but that has nothing to do with the odds of the game.
No, but it has everything to do with the psychology of addictive gambling, which can lead to people convinced that the next spin or next hand is going to be the one that hits, so much so that they relieve themselves at the machine instead of walking away to take care of a vital bodily function with a little dignity.
Which I what the original post was asking about, I believe. 
At Ballys Park Place, we often encounter patrons who sit at one machine for 12 hours plus: when nature calls, the patron can call security to “guard” “their” machine, until they return.
Sometimes they don’t even do that…they just piss and shit their pants! (We replace our seats quite often.)
Well, I suppose. But as with most addictions I think it has a lot more to do with the mental illness of the victim than the flashy shiney lights. I’m sure people have pissed their pants playing cards in the backrooms of saloons as well. 
There was some media attention on this issue a few years ago in Nova Scotia. It seems that some gamblers are actually wearing adult diapers to extend their time at the machine. This apparently is occuring in both casinos, as well as at VLTs (video lottery terminals) in bars.
What about when they finally run out of quarters and they’re sitting there with a dump in their pants and a wet streak down the front in a crowded public environment? They can’t be feeling very good about themselves.
My mouth is hanging open in utter shock at this.
I had a g/f who worked in an indian casion in CA. She mentioned this a couple times.
Just gotta love the people who think dice have a memory 
Me too! I can honestly say that I’ve spent plenty of time in casinos and thankfully have NEVER seen anything like this happen. I have seen a couple empty out their pockets and rifle through their backpacks to scrape together their last bit of change for one last hand of blackjack, which they lost. Very depressing.
IIRC the average payout for most casinos video/slot units is like 92%. How do you expect them to make any money if they are not less than 100% average payout? Its not like they force you to feed the machine. If you want to gripe look at arcade ticket dispensing games. Usually they are 20-50% payout. If it didn’t make money they wouldn’t put it in. Some casinos run a few banks of 100% payout machines even then payouts can be structured so that the rare “big win” is so rare that the casino is getting plenty of interest on the money.
If you look at it like an “adult video game” rather than gambling and operate under the assumption you are going to lose anything you put in the machine, it all works out nicely when you have something left over.
Drachillix - who became very hooked on playing 50 hands of nickel blackjack at once in Lake Tahoe.