U.S. military-run slot machines earn $100M a year from service members

Re:U.S. military-run slot machines earn $100M a year from se... by DonHopkins on Wednesday January 18, 2023 @01:14PM (#34430542)

At the Brainwash laundromat / cafe in San Francisco (RIP) they had a bill changer that took $20 bills and returned quarters, which was quite fun and entertaining to use, sounded spectacularly jingly, earned you lots of attention and accolades from everyone in the room, and gave reliable 1:1 payouts every time. Plus you could have food and coffee and beer and play video games while waiting for your clothes to clean and dry. That should be implemented at every military base.

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Re:U.S. military-run slot machines earn $100M a year from se... by vikingerik on Wednesday January 18, 2023 @01:52PM (#34431134)

Reminds me of a probably-apocryphal story I read somewhere years ago.

"I was in a casino, and saw a doddering old man sitting not at a slot machine but at the change machine. He fed in dollar after dollar, and would cheer and call out 'I won again!' every time it dispensed his quarters. It was harmless, and better he 'play' that than lose at a real slot machine, so I left him alone with his fantasy.

I saw him again the next day. I pointed at the change machine and asked why he wasn't playing that one since it was his favorite yesterday. His reply: 'It was dispensing six quarters for every dollar until they fixed it.' "

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Re:U.S. military-run slot machines earn $100M a year from se... by nerdponx on Wednesday January 18, 2023 @02:59PM (#34432174)

Almost every laundromat bill changer I've used accepts 20s. I always felt very self-conscious getting so much change at once, but maybe it'd be more fun if it had lights and bells on it.

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Re:U.S. military-run slot machines earn $100M a year from se... by Symbiote on Wednesday January 18, 2023 @06:02PM (#34434369)

I remember the opposite experience in the USA when I was a child. We needed to make an international call from a payphone. Struggling with it, eventually my dad called the operator, who said the call cost $8 or so, and we needed to put the coins in quickly. We tried several times, but my dad and I were unable to feed in 32 quarters before something on the machine timed out, and spat them all back out.

We wondered why $1 coins weren't in circulation.

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Re:U.S. military-run slot machines earn $100M a year from se... by nerdponx on Wednesday January 18, 2023 @06:20PM (#34434566)

Interesting. I used some kind of pre-paid international calling card for the handful of times I needed to make international payphone calls. I'm too young to have remembered a time when payphones were in constant use, but I definitely used the payphones at my high school once or twice to call my mom when my cell phone died.

FWIW, $1 coins were (and are) in circulation, but not very common and probably not accepted in payphones. The NYC train and subway ticket machines have dispensed $1 Sacagawea coins as change for as long as I've used them.

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Re:U.S. military-run slot machines earn $100M a year from se... by Symbiote on Thursday January 19, 2023 @04:26AM (#34438354)

We were in some small town with a crossroads and a motel, and it was night. Eventually the motel let us use their phone.

Coming from the UK with £2 coins in widespread circulation (worth over $3 at the time) we hadn't thought to prepare for this.

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