Welcome to the latest look of Las Vegas. What may seem like just a grocery receipt above is actually the newest form of gambling currency in Vegas.

What with E-tickets and home printable boarding passes, I guess it was only a matter of time before Slot Machines caught up to with technology. At the new hotels in Vegas, Slot machines are now coinless. Yes it is true, the Slot Machine no longer has a slot for coins. Promissory currency only.

This week I went to drop my usual high stakes quarter in a slot as I walked through the Casino, but couldn’t fine the coin drop. That is because there is no coin slot anymore. There is only a bill insert and a credit card swipe. So you have to invest at least a dollar before you gamble a nickel slot machine now days.

When it is time to collect your winnings, if any, you press the “cash out button” and a receipt like the one above prints out. However, there is a speaker that plays the trademark sound of quarters hitting the return tray, just like the good old days giving you the virtual thrill of hands filled with coins.

This barcode piece of paper can be used in other machines by placing it in the dollar feed. Goodbye to those Dixie cups once used to carry coins to the cage. Only paper receipts, that by the way, unlike a quarter in your pocket has an expiration date. And also unlike a quarter, the receipt is absolutely no good outside the casino if you happen to forget to redeem it at the cage.

Vegas used to have the pretense of class, albeit, Jersey Class. You could hit a jackpot and rake in the chips or coins or cash. For that moment you felt like a high roller. Now you fold up your grocery receipts and feel like you just had a nice trip to the market.

I miss the mob. Being soaked by modern capitalism is just no fun.
As you were,
Jay