She was off in the corner of the casino sitting in her
mobility scooter, playing video poker, & smoking a cigarette. Beside her
was an oxygen tank feeding oxygen into her nose. Her name was Dixie.
I started my shift
by walking to my assigned area & noticing Dixie’s change light was on, so I
walked over to her and mistakenly asked, “Is there anything I can help you
with?”
Dixie immediately
went off on a tirade, “You can get me my $200 back!”
She yelled at me, “The
one you stole from me!”
I explained to her
that I didn’t take her money. After ten minutes of her going off on me, I figured
out what Dixie was bitching about.
Dixie was playing a
$1 video poker machine where you can bet up to 5 credits per hands.
Unfortunately for her, she mistakenly bet 1 credit & wound up hitting a 4
of a kind. A 4 of a kind pays $250 if you bet five credits or $50 if you bet
one credit.
House rules, it’s
your responsibility to make sure your bet is registered before you play a hand,
& malfunctions void all pay outs, but Dixie plays a lot, so the casino
should have just paid her to shut her up! For fuck sake, they would have got
the money back in a matter of minutes, in the end the casino spent more on
labor dealing with her, & other customers didn’t get the customer service
they needed, but what do I know? I am an alcoholic & a failed punk rock
musician.
The misplayed hand
happened at 5:30am, that’s four & a half hours before I even started my
shift.
I later learned that
every 30 minutes before I walked on the floor she was hitting the change light
asking for her $200, screaming at any slot floor person or cocktail server that
happened to walk by. She repeatedly asked for a supervisor or manager, but they
told her they were through talking to her, so they never came when she demanded
one. I am surprised she kept playing, if I was in her situation and I felt
ripped off. I would have stopped feeding my money into the slot machine. If the
management refused to “deal with me”, I would have told them to, “eat a dick!”
For the rest of the
day Dixie would call me over and yell at, threaten, or insult me. Dixie even
went as far as threaten to come back at a later date to beat up one of my
coworkers. I was now frustrated at my employer, I shouldn’t have had to put up
with this shit, but middle management doesn’t care, I am disposable &
stupid me sticks around.
At one point in the
day, Dixie even accused me of being the employee who first helped her at 5:30
in the morning. She demanded that I tell the truth about ripping her off. Fuck,
I was probably still drinking at the time of the incident!
Every time Dixie
called me over she would say, “I’m never playing here again” or some bullshit
along those lines. I would stand there quietly, listening, sweating out the
previous night’s booze, hoping that she’d, “show us” & go play elsewhere…
she never did, she remained at the same video poker machine, pumping thousands
of dollars into it.
I kept explaining to
Dixie that there was nothing I could do, I explained to her that management was
through discussing the issue with her, but she kept going off on me. All day
long she’d call me over to yell at me about the $200. After a while, I just avoided
her & never came by. I eventually told my boss that I refuse to deal with
her, he told me, “Fuck her!”
I ended my day, and walked off the casino floor relieved to be through with Dixie, I drove home frustrated,
promising to buy myself some beer.
24 hours later, I was
hung over & Dixie was still off in the corner, sitting in her mobility scooter,
playing the same video poker machine, smoking a cigarette & bitching about
the $200.