Coin-less Casino

Lets start off this article by the disclaimer that I, in no way, support the idea of Casinos. They are designed to suck the money out of the pockets of addicted individuals with deluded dreams. That being said, they are also designed to entertain, which is why I don’t object to visiting one with my friends every four years or so.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Montreal Casino with my friend. What I discovered shocked me.

Its part of my Casino culture to hear the sound of coins at the slots machine. That sound, combined with the cheesy sound effects, define what a Casino is for me. However, when I walk into the Montreal Casino, that sound was strangely missing. Coins had been replace with this …

The idea is that you insert you money directly into the slot machine. Once you are finished and ready to move onto the next machine, the slot machine will print out this voucher for you. At any time, when leaving the Casino, you can exchange the ticket for real money. There are still a couple of machines that still use coins, but they are quietly being phased out.

I find this pretty sad. I found that lugging around a large bucket of coins was part of the experience. With this coin-less system, its even easier to burn through money, and has none of the satisfaction of hearing the coin go ca-chink in the machine. Well, thats one less reason to go to Casino.