Dear Mark: Here in Detroit we have
Las Vegas style casinos so I have never
found the need to travel there, at least
till now. The company I work for is sending
me to work a booth at a tradeshow this
spring and I will have at least one evening
free to take in a show. After 12 hours
working on the floor, what I am looking for
is to just sit and be entertained. Any
recommendations? Dolores N.
WARNING: Flashing red lights -- A biased
opinion is about to come your way --
Flashing red lights.
Dog-tired after standing like a statue for
12 hours, what you need, Dolores, is a
breath-taking 90-minute Broadway theoretical
journey, one that combines music, comedy and
some multimedia WOW. So even though two of
my past recommendations were either Cirque
du Soleil or the magic of Lance Burton, I
now add to my must see/do list in Las Vegas
the Blue Man Group at the Venetian.
I must admit, I knew nothing about Blue
Man’s unique, unconventional, avant-garde
comedy until my son, Nick – speaking of bias
– became a Blue Man. Yes, he’s one of those
drum-beating, Cap'n Crunch-chomping, Blue
Men who can catch and pack 30 marshmallows
in his mouth and regurgitate the yummy mass
into a gestural abstraction valued at
$4,000. This, he tells me, is where studying
theater at the Cincinnati Conservatory of
Music and the Chicago College of Performing
Arts was well worth the cost of the big $$$
tuition. While I, silly me, sort of saw it
like playing on a non-paying slot machine,
$$$ down the drain.
So, what’s the show about? Well, even after
seeing it a half-dozen times and am now
blood-related to it (currently Nick’s doing
his Blue Man shtick at the Briar Street
Theatre in Chicago), the show is still
somewhat hard to describe, but in a way, you
may be better off not knowing. So, Delores,
I will just wrap it up with this. If you are
looking for a part Broadway show, part rock
concert, and part performance art, and like
to be entertained by things you have never
seen before, then this is the show for YOU.
Dear Mark: You mentioned in a recent
column regarding Megajackpots that the
winner is not paid until the win is
authenticated. Can you explain that sequence
of events, from when you pull the handle to
getting a check in your hand? Brian L.
Yes, Brian, I did state that when those
geeenormous progressive jackpots on machines
like Megabucks, Quartermania, the Wheel of
Fortune, Jeopardy, The Price is Right, etc.,
are hit, they are paid by the manufacturer
of the slot, who, in the above examples
being IGT, would send a representative to
authenticate the win, and yet another rep to
then pay off the winner.
So let’s say you are playing Megabucks in
Laughlin, NV and your stars align allowing
those winning symbols to line up perfectly
on the payline.
Five hundred and fifty miles north in Reno
at an undisclosed location known only to
Dick Cheney -- actually it’s the IGT
MegaJackpots operations room -- your jackpot
triggers an alarm that a jackpot of size has
been recorded on the system. That system
will alert staff monitoring mainframes 24/7
which game you were playing on, as well as
the location, time and the amount of your
win.
Reno will then notify a technician in the
area where you are playing so that he or she
can inspect your machine and verify that the
jackpot is legitimate. The techs do this by
comparing various machine readings to the
information originally received at IGT’s
secret bunker.
Once your jackpot is authenticated, a
separate jackpot response representative
will ask you to present two different forms
of identification showing you are who you
are, have you sign a bunch of forms like a
W2G (IGT usually doesn’t withhold state or
federal taxes), and then present you with a
check for the first of 25 annual
installments if it was on an annuity game,
or the full amount if you were playing on an
instant winners game.
You then smile for the camera, and off you
are on your merry way to start living the
champagne wishes and caviar dreams
lifestyle, or, blow it all in one year and
then get on Oprah and tell us all how you
did it.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week:
"Looking for justice in poker is like
looking for virtue in a whorehouse." --Peter
Alson, Take Me To The River
