I WON At A Casino in Montego Bay
I’m not a big gambler because I believe once you’re “up” you should collect and walk away. Last time I gambled back home in Canada I spent $7 and won $1008.00 so I have never gone back. I figured that was my winnings for the year. However I ended up at a casino in Montego Bay quite by accident just because I was having dinner alone on a patio at Whitter Village shopping center.
There I sat eating my quesadilla and a random guy walked up to me with the usual “What’s a beautiful woman like you dining alone for?” line. I gave him the usual brush off until he persisted and asked if I’ve ever been to the casino around the corner. Funny thing is that several people have invited me to that casino but I just never went. Since I was already in the area this night I thought “why not!” and told him to let me finish eating and I’d be ready.
So random guy and I walked over there and upon approaching the front door he was fully searched and scanned with a metal detecting wand. I was allowed to walk right through…I was a little disappointed. I wanted to be scanned and searched! So in we walk and immediately we were in front of a window with bars, behind the window was a lady who asks for a piece of identification. What they do is enter your information into their computer system, take a photo of you with their webcam, and issue you a plastic playing card.
Once you have your playing card you are buzzed through a gate into the gaming area and you go visit the cashier who loads money onto your playing card. I thought it was a cool system they have in place – high tech considering police stations in Jamaica don’t even have computers!
I loaded $2000 jmd onto my card which is about $25.00 usd and was ready to play! They have a scanner on the wall near the cashier where you can scan your card once a day to see if you win a bonus prize. Mine didn’t win that night. So I proceeded to walk through the casino and look for a machine I liked, although I didn’t know what I was really looking for because all these machines looked different from what I was used to back home. I sat down and inserted my card which reflected how much money I loaded. You can select if you want it to display USD or JMD while you play. I chose JMD because it always looks bigger.
I had no idea how to use this machine – there were about 10 buttons on it and I’m used to just pulling the slot arm and spinning. One of the attendant girls came to help me and explain a little and she stuck around while I played my first few rounds. This machine paid me a little and she was really nice and told me I should come play her favorite machine. We went over to the one with vampires and werewolves on the screen, it was pretty ugly but she assured me this was the best one in the place. Wouldn’t you know that within about 10 minutes of me sitting there I won a pretty decent amount! So she and I continued to play it! Eventually I hit the 3 symbols that give you 10 free spins and I just sat back and let the machine play itself. I somehow hit the BIG WIN symbols on a free spin and won $80 USD!
The attendant and I agreed that I should move to a different machine now because this one just paid out and we went off and tried a jungle themed one. It sucked so we moved again to a next one and eventually ended up back at the vampire machine and I won again! This girl was right and she was great luck for me! Meanwhile the guy I came in with lost his money within 5 minutes and he along with a small crowd built up behind the Canadian girl who kept winning. You wouldn’t believe the volume and dramatic production this machine puts out when someone wins on it. How embarrassing! Let’s just alert the whole casino that this white girl who’s taking a taxi home in the dark later on, will be leaving with a pile of cash!
On one of the machines I managed to take a secret video on my blackberry of some little winnings. I did try to film my big wins too but I got caught doing it and was told sternly to stop it and put the phone away LOL! Here’s a really quick shot of some small winnings…although it looks like BIG winnings in Jamaican dollars!
At the end of it all I decided to cash out at $160.00 USD….not bad for only spending $25.00. I gave the attendant girl a $1000.00 jmd tip for sticking with me and being my lucky charm. She was really nice, unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take a photo with her. I took my playing card back to the cashier and she cashed me out and paid me my winnings. She also informed me that I’m now in their system and any time I come back I can use the same playing card forever. After collecting I went and sat at the bar with the guy who brought me here and bought each of us a drink. I felt bad that I was winning all night and he lost in five minutes!
We walked to the street together, it was well after dark now and he made sure I got safely into a route taxi to get home. He took the same taxi because it ended up he lives in the same area so I paid his fare too. $100 jmd each. It’s the least I could do for a night out WITH winnings!
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