Slot Machine Whacking in Queens

Lindsay Beyerstein

Talk about senseless violence

Forty-one people have been arrested for attacking slot machines at the Resorts World Casino in Queens since the facility opened last October.

It happens like three, four times a week, and that’s only on my shift,” said Mike Persaud, a security guard at the casino.

Mr. Persaud described the usual scene: fuming gamblers who have punched, kicked or slapped a slot machine that refused to spit out a jackpot, leaving flickering rows of cherries and number 7s beneath a pane of shattered glass. Their rage sometimes costs them more money than was lost to that unlucky machine in the first place.

I lost $300 without a bonus, so yes, I broke the machine,” George Govan, a 56-year-old man from Brooklyn, told security guards when he punched through a terminal screen in January, according to court records. And I’d do it again.” (Mr. Govan pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 90 days in jail.) [NYT]

Happily, gamers seem more likely to take out their frustration on property than people. There have been only 19 arrests for assault at Resorts World Queens.

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Lindsay Beyerstein is an award-winning investigative journalist and In These Times staff writer who writes the blog Duly Noted. Her stories have appeared in Newsweek, Salon, Slate, The Nation, Ms. Magazine, and other publications. Her photographs have been published in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times’ City Room. She also blogs at The Hillman Blog (http://​www​.hill​man​foun​da​tion​.org/​h​i​l​l​m​a​nblog), a publication of the Sidney Hillman Foundation, a non-profit that honors journalism in the public interest.
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