Aruba Trip Part Five

While in Aruba, each evening was spent socializing, feasting on the abundant assorted foods, more socializing,..........and then finding my way to the hotel casino. It was very convenient to have a casino on the premises of the hotel. Even though the casino was not huge in size......way smaller than what you would find in Charlestown, WVA.....but much larger than what you would find on a cruise ship. Along with slot machines, there was poker, craps, and roulette. In the casino there is a bar and each night a three-piece band would perform. They were pretty good actually............except I got tired of hearing "Sweet Caroline" every night. It seems that "Sweet Caroline" is very popular in Aruba......I do not know why that is........for all I know it could be their national anthem.......hehehe.

For some reason I did pretty good on the slot machines. Ordinarily, one would hope to maintain.....or at least be able to spend alot of time enjoying the games with only spending a minimal amount of money. If you only intend to spend 40 dollars per night and you can win enough to play for 4 or 5 hours before you ultimately lose that 40 bucks....well.....you did pretty good. Think of it as reasonable entertainment costs. The slot machines at this particular casino, though, seemed to be a bit looser than at other places that I have been. Not all of the machines were loose, but it appeared that I was fortunate enough to sit at the few that were.

It has been said to look for the slot machines located nearest to the entrances or stairs or elevators. Those are alleged to be looser so that passersby might be lured into spending some time in the casino themselves...........if they see somebody winning they will want join in. If they hear a machine making alot of noise, that does the trick as well. Obviously there is a science to the operation of a casino.....they have it all figured out. Ultimately, the odds will be that the house is hard to beat............they will get every dime that you bring and they will get every dime that you have won.........unless, of course, you are very lucky or at least are able to find a strategy that works for you. I am not so stupid that I cannot figure out that these slot machines are computerized and computers are PROGRAMMED to function in certain ways. I keep that in mind whenever I play a slot machine. While I would love to rake in a lot of cash every time I play, I am realistic and know full well that the likelihood of anyone getting rich participating in gambling of any kind is the equivalent of getting hit by a bus while selecting ground beef inside your local grocery store.

But I can safely say that I was fully entertained each night in the casino. If I lost any money, I would win it back. For some reason I was calculatingly lucky. I DID sit at the machines nearest the entrance of the casino. It was those particular machines that I was able to "maintain" and then some.

Here was one where I ended up hitting for $118.75.......not bad for a penny machine.

And there was the one slot machine that I nailed for $332.00!

This machine paid out in nickels. The machine only holds $120 worth of nickels at a time. I went way over that and could not cash out unless an attendant came and handed me the cash.

I really enjoyed the casino at the Occidental Grand hotel in Aruba :)

It was a great vacation and this was icing on the cake.

Stay tuned........more to come.