Recap-After an18 month tour in Okinawa, I get orders to Las Vegas, Nevada and make the decision to
get out of the service. I enter into the gaming industry as a slot floorman at the Circus Circus Hotel and
Casino.
After working in the slot department for three months, I have gathered a crew together and tonight we
run our first tests at different skimming methods. I have been practicing the skill of setting up jackpots
by opening the machines and turning the reels by hand. I learned this was possible from clearing
machines for customers. When you open a slot machine the reels can be manipulated by hand and after
you close the door; the machine will recognize and pay off the winning combination. On the dollar
machines all sevens paid three hundred dollars a pop and there were only 3 reels to manipulate. I didn’t
know if there was a timer that would shut the machine down if the door was open too long, but several
of the coin jams I had serviced for customer had taken over a minute. I used that as my time to beat. I
used one of the change girls as a lookout and paid her 50 dollars. The collectors were friends from
outside the casino, one of my first recruits was my estranged wife. She recruited some of our friends
from our Air Force days and we had five or six that we used. It was important to keep changing the
times and days of the week and I also checked the logs from the slots reports to insure we were not
picking machines that had high win numbers. Every slot machine was designed to hold a certain
percentage for the house and those that did not were removed for servicing. I did not want the slot
mechanics or shift bosses to pull a machine off the floor and find there was no reason for it to not hold
its percentage. The machines were wired to count all the money it took in and this was verified by the
drop, a process where all the money in the machines was removed and taken to the count room. It was a
pretty impressive to see the drop team unloading the buckets of quarters, dimes, and nickels, and load
them onto the electric carts used for transport. The Drop, as it was called, started at 4am and lasted two
to three hours depending on the days of the week and the seasons. The casinos designed the tokens
used in the dollar and higher slots, some ranging from 5 up to a thousand dollars in value. All the slots
over a dollar were handled by a special drop team. In addition to the workers from the coin room were
accountants and a heavy security presence that was armed. There were 20-dollar machines on my list
and a few quarter and other denominations with higher jackpots. My other skim operation was writing
fake jackpot slips for lower denomination slot machines. It only took the signature of a floorman and a
change girl to write tickets up to three hundred dollars. The ticket had the machine number and
signatures and was checked out on the slot reports, just like the dollar machines to choose those with

lower payouts. The change girl would take the ticket to a change booth or the main casino cage to cash
the ticket, keeping one hundred and giving me the rest. The first night I set up 5 jackpots on dollar
machines and wrote 3 tickets for 300 each, I netted 1600 dollars on the night and took the team for
drinks after work.
After congratulating everyone for a successful night, I told them that we would take the next two weeks
off. The down time would allow us to see if our evening had attracted any attention from the casino
floor, slot operations, and the drop report. Every machine that did not hold the house percentage was
pulled for a maintenance check. A large discrepancy would trigger a full inspection of all machines
made by that supplier. I told the crew that the easiest way to keep away unwanted attention was to
strive to be on time for shifts and breaks, to take such care of our customers that they mentioned us in
comments to casino hosts or bus tour organizers. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary two weeks later,
so, we went back into operation. A few weeks later I was matching my casino check every night. I
worked harder than ever and was nominated for the monthly award given to the top employees in each
department. I won in a landslide (I started with a third of the vote) and was sure to include that it was
the excellent training provided by my supervisors, it and the mentoring of my fellow employees, that
was responsible for my winning the award, when I gave my acceptance speech.
There was a tall girl with long straight hair named Melanie that split time between working the slot
floor and relieving one of the ladies that worked the dollar carousels. The carousels were oval shaped
clusters of dollar slots. A change girl was stationed on a platform inside the carousel, to provide instant
service for the players. Melanie was recently widowed and was a single parent to a little 5-year-old
girl. We started talking one day in the break room after I saw she was reading a paperback instead of
joining gossips on the other side of the room. I learned her husband had died in a skiing mishap and she
had to battle with his parents over custody of her daughter. They had never approved of their son’s
choice of her, and they eloped when she tested positive with a home pregnancy test. The parents were
skeptical of her ability to take care of their granddaughter and went as far as hiring a private detective
investigator to check on her.
A few days later Melanie asked if I was free for drinks after pour shift and I agreed. We went to a local
bar and watched a band perform the day’s hits better than the original artists. I asked who was
babysitting and she said her daughter had gone to see her grandparents for two weeks. After a few
drinks we knew each other’s story and barriers began to fall away. She asked me about my marital
status, and laughed when I told the story of my lost bet. It seems the ladies in the slot department and
beyond were curious about my off-duty life.
“So, that why you asked me out.”, It was a statement not a question, but she answered anyway

“I like hearing you talk. The way you make fancy words seem ordinary. I’m taking some classes so I
can get into nursing school, and I overheard you say you went to Carnegie-Mellon. You must be pretty
smart so I thought you could, maybe help me sometimes….” her voice faded out as she studied my
face, looking for a reaction.
“That is the reason for questions about any relationships?” I was glad Mel couldn’t read my mind or
feel the changes inside me as my body shifted from thoughts of getting lucky to overwhelming
disappointment.
“I can assure you my wife doesn’t have a jealous bone in her body. I would be glad to help you and I
think that calls for another round. I’ll go get us refills.”
The trip to the bar helped to clear my mind and slow down my raging hormones. We both had the next
day off and spent hours talking about school, marriage, civil rights and other subjects. I pulled her up
from her chair when the band went into a disco and soul playlist that ended with the band’s rendition of
the Temprees singing” Dedicated to the One I Love”. We never left the dance floor and after the band
slow finale for a full ten minutes, we stood in the middle of the floor, wanting more. We broke our
embrace and held hands on the way back to the table. Melanie gathered her things and I insisted on
calling her a cab and told her I would get her car back to my place and meet with her in the morning.
Her departing hug and kiss were fueled by the dancing and alcohol, and they were effective. Melanie
got in the cab, turning to blow a final kiss. I drove home thinking about the night and how it ended. This was going to be a cold shower night.