Somebody Get Me a Hammer

When the machine went into bonus mode, irrespective of whether it was Cleopatra or Used Cars, head-witch would shout to her two followers, "Touch it!" and the two would dutifully start touching the 'belly' of the machine. "Rub it!" she would order, and they would both do as they were told. I don't know which disturbed me more, the fact that Macbeth's witches had escaped into the 21st century and were disrupting my game; or that of the three grown women, not one had the sense to know that there were no mechanics in the 'belly' of the machine to effect play.

I mean, the only way to stop a touch-screen video slot is to touch the screen itself. Hello?




Somebody Get Me A Hammer!! covers the gamut of gamblers: from witches, those who stalk, win, lose, ban themselves, and sue. Witty, dark, and enlightening, author Hope Barrett's two year blog on gambling has been assembled into one policy-changing, readable whole, featuring the alchemist Moon and the bedevilled Gary, whose parsimony is punished with the cruel appearance of a $10,000 win on the one line he is not playing...