Livin in LA - Gamble Near Los Angeles (pt. 2)

Another segment in M&F's ongoing series Livin in LA - Vacation in LA

Welcome to the Winners Circle!

Lol, this post is about the winnings, and the dreams of winnings that keep casinos in business.

Each of the slot machines now comes with built in television screens.  They would flash advertisements for the resort along with pictures of the Big Winners.  These people, like Deloris G. above and Cassandra F. are the lucky ones.  These are the prizes that keep the hopes and dreams of winning for every person who comes to the casino.  The thing is, winnings like the $20,000 and $50,000 are extremely rare.  These pictures are not even dated, so these earnings might have happened years ago.  But it is the dream. The chance that it might happen and you might get rich is what motivates thousands like us to lose smaller amounts of money at the casino.  M&F is not a natural gambler, and we always remember that it takes 200 of the $100 losers to make a $20,000 purse winner.  You might be lucky, but the odds are not in your favor.

In fact, casino's seem to attract an unusually unlucky looking crowd.  Nearly everyone there was over 50 and the place was not a beauty contest.  People looked rough.  Almost everyone there looked like they had got their ass kicked--by life.  These were not happy people, but they were clinging to a dream that they might win big and life might get better!

The games themselves seem to capitalize on child-like elements.  Each slot machine has a theme, and the themes were made to get in touch with and exploit the player's emotions.  They did this through tapping into familiar childhood icons.  There are mythical games, patriotic machines, luck themed machines (The Luck o' the Irish!)  and pretty girl machines with hip shaking hawaiian dancers.  Each machine is then fitted with all kinds of lights and buzzers and dings and sounds.  You know how comforting your iphone sound is when you get a text?  Imagine an ocean of sounds like this, and the addition of visual eye candy with moving videos and bright lights popping everywhere.  This is life on the floor of the casino.

It is crazy how the games are built to make you feel like you just won big--bigger than the $20 you just scored anyway.  While the slot machine winner's bell is ringing with and all kinds of noises and images tell you that you just won, well, it is a thrilling experience and you do feel somewhat like champion of the world.

So, how much did we win at Pala?  The most that we were ever up at Pala was at one point when we were $27 over the amount we had played.  However, we did lose that money.  But as things were winding down, M&F had quit playing.  Our friend handed us a dollar to play on the penny machines just to stay busy.  We lost a few rounds and took the dollar down to its last bet--when at this point we won 'big' and scored 750 credits at once, or $7.50.  After losing $2.45 of that, we decided that the best way to walk out of a casino is a winner.  Even if we did lose $90 that day, dammit, we cashed out and left winning $5.05!  Lol, guess that makes us winners?

Anyway, for followers of M&F looking to gamble near Los Angeles, we recommend Pala over Pachenga.  And we wish all the gambelrs luck!!!

Stay up~

^The slot machine floor at Pala.

^Pala even had live music.  Although it was live, these guys only played covers, but it was so tight that it sounded like an album was playing in the background.  These guys were great musicians, and kind of feel sorry for them with no one watching their performance.

^Some amazing clouds on the drive to Temecula.

^The drive from Temecula to Pala Casino was a gorgeous road twisting and turning through lush green California hills.

^Pala Casino on the approach.

^The front of Pala.

^Action around the Poker tables at Pala.

^This machine cracked us up.  The girls in Hawaiian dresses would shake their hips and look puzzled like "What is this for, again!?"

^Shot of the big winner!