
I was in St. Louis for business and stayed at the Harrah's Casino. To simply enter the casino, even if you aren't planning to gamble, you need to get a card with your name on it. Apparently, in Missouri, the law does not let gamblers lose more than $500 every 2 hours, so these cards, which are inserted at slot machines or at the tables, track your losing or winning streaks. But there are loopholes: The Harrah's, for instance, has two casinos, so you could theoretically lose $500 at one and then go to the other fifty feet away and lose another $500 within the 2 hours. Which leads me to believe it's an elaborate scheme to snare your address from your driver's license for their mailing list and all the mailing lists they sell to.





Ah...but the readers merely want to know how much you won and lost while staying for "business" at Harrahs...
"Apparently, in Missouri, the law does not let gamblers lose more than $500 every 2 hours, so these cards, which are inserted at slot machines or at the tables, track your losing or winning streaks. But there are loopholes..."
Even with loopholes, having this card would have saved Bill Bennett a bucket full of cash.
I didn't actually use the card, because I had no cash, thanks to the evil St. Louis cabdrivers who were very mean to me. I picked up some money from the ATM, but luckily it was a $100 bill, making me less willing to put it down on black, because I alway bet on black, baby.
I'm from Saint Louis and have been to Harrahs a number of times. I have a few anecdotes as well as additional information on gambling in Missouri. The first thing you should know is that only Riverboat Gambling is legal herei. We have a real boat on the Mississippi, and two other so-called "boats" nearby. This particular Harrah's is supposedly a "boat." They actually flooded the area where Harah's is, and built it as a sort of floating platform. You would never know it unless you heard about it when it was built as it seems like any other building. I've actually heard rumors that there is a Captain there at all times as well as various doors marked with things like Engine Room on them. I know there was a lot of controversy when this casino was given it's license because i tis not on a river nor is it really a boat but you know how lawyers and loophols are. I'm not 100% if the $500 loophole actually works as the casinos are linked. At one time they were actually two separate casinos (Players Island and Harrahs) but Harrahs took over. The card thing is a pretty big pain because I usually never have mine with me when I go to the Casino and often have to get a new one. Another couple of things to note are: I actually rarely get mail from Harrahs and never saw any increase in junk mail from what I got before visitng the casino. Any mail that I do get from Harrahs is usally in the form of a coupon. If you gamble there enough and lose enough they actually send you coupons for free meals and special events and other random crap. We were also there one time and a friend of mine traded in a $100 bill for $100 in chips. They were so busy checking his card they forgot to take his $100 bill. After it sat there for a minute we urged him to pick it back up, play one hand and then get out of there and cash his chips in, which he promptly did. On the same night another friend of mine went to cash in his $25 in chips and he was given a $100 bill. Apparently this casino makes so much money they can afford to have a staff that doesn't really care. There's plenty more but I've already passed the limit where people will actually still read.
re:because I alway bet on black, baby.
Well, you know what they say...once you go black...
sorry. couldn't resist.