(These set of articles are written by a reader who would wish to remain anonymous. This reader has been gambling for over 40 years, and has some absolutely amazing stories to tell. At the risk of his life, we cannot reveal his actual name. You’ll know why when you read his stories.

Therefore we are proud to introduce to you: The Masked Gambler)

I remember when one lady supervisor was really perturbed. In fact, she was furious. I could hear her talking under her breath, By that time, I had already moved down a couple of machines. I remember that incident very well. I was playing a machine in the last row next to the back doors. I remember how cold it was when people would open the door to come in and out.

What happened was, I heard the static of a walkie talkie. The only people that had walkie talkies were security and supervisors. It was about 6 or 7 in the morning. I remember I was almost out of quarters. I didn’t want to push the cash out button. I did have a wall mirror to my left, so the first chance I got I looked to see if I would see anybody. I looked in the reflection of my machine. I leaned to my right to take the lit cigarette out of ashtray and continued looking into the reflection of the machine. I leaned to left and took a drink of my coffee, still looking at the reflection from both sides but I couldn’t see anybody, yet I knew I heard the static of a walkie talkie.

I purposely dropped a quarter on the floor so I could get a good look. I even did something that you’ll never supposed to do when you playing an overpayer. I started to play credits. Because if you play credits, and lose, your losing quarters that you would be getting a percentage on. After a while, and watching credits disappear, I convinced myself , I must have been hearing things. It was a matter of seconds, she was behind me after I pushed the cash out button. To this day, I can’t figure out where that women was hiding.

Out of all the overpayers we played, there were two big malaise that occurred. The first one involved Tom and the second one involved me, which put an end to my overpaying career.

Mike came to me and said that Tom was really pissed off. Tom was downstairs playing a machine and apparently someone was trying to take the machine from him. I went down stairs and sat a couple of machines down from him putting one quarter in at a time. I asked him what happened. He said that some guy keeps coming up to him saying that the machine belonged to him.

He said the was playing it yesterday, and he wanted back. He said if he didn’t give it back, he was going to have it closed down. I told Tom to calm down and that he probably won’t come back. Just as I said that to him, a supervisor came up behind him. The supervisor told him he had to look at the machine. I heard Tom say O.K., then he pressed the cash out button. The supervisor stepped in front of him and started catching the quarters in his hands. Tom pushed the supervisor away and he started catching the quarters with his hands. I kept moving down a couple of machines at a time, putting one quarter in at a time. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at.

This is Tom, The one who always instructs us on the proper things to do. Then Tom starts yelling security over and over again as they are wrestling with this machine. I get down to the end of the aisle and walk away. As I’m walking, I’m saying to myself, has Ton gone nuts. I walk all the way around and I get a good view from the hallway. Now he has a good crowd around him. I see Tom waving his hands all over the place. I leaned up against the railing and just kept watching.

After about 15 minutes of this, I see Tom walk away with a couple of cups of quarters in his hands. I waited about a half hour and I went back up stairs. I walked in the room and Tom was really pissed off. I asked him to calm down and tell me what happened. He told me, that he explained to the security guys and the other supervisors that the guy said he had to look at the machine, so I said O.K. and cashed out my money. Then he said that he yelled for security because the guy was trying to take my money.

My story ended my overpaying career. I was playing and a guy came up to me and asked if he could play for a while. I looked at him and told him that I was losing and trying to get even. I told him there are a lot of other machines in the casino to play. He said he wanted to play mine, because he knew it was overpaying. I told him that I don’t know what your talking about and please get away from me. Well, about 15 minutes later I was surrounded by everybody. There were two plain clothes security people and two supervisors and a mechanic. One of the security guys is really ripping into me. The mechanic had the machine door open, and this one security guy keeps talking to the mechanic, and then turning around and saying things to me like, How much did you get us for. Do you like stealing from casinos. You came to the wrong casino buddy.

I’m not a short guy, but this guy was towering over top of me.At this point my back in up against the machines on the other side of the aisle. My mind was racing a mile a minute. I looked, and I had a half of cup of quarters but I have a full cup hidden in the back, on the other side of the machine. I ask one of the supervisors if I can talk to the casino commission. Of course, this big security guy interrupts, and says no, your coming with me. I’m trying to look as calm as I can be, but my insides, are going crazy. The whole aisle, on both sides, are filled up with spectators. I'[m trying to think of everything that Tom had told us in the past. I ask the supervisor again if I could please talk to the casino commission because I don’t know what is going on.

Of course, the big guy starts his mouth again. I wanted so bad, to say something sarcastic to his big guy. The supervisor finally agrees that I can talk to the casino commission. We all start walking to the back where the casino commission booth is. Both security guys are still laying into me as we are walking. Every time one of the guys would make a remark, I would look at one of the supervisors. The supervisors seem to be pretty relaxed through this whole thing. There was one thing that tom had mentioned in the car one time,and I couldn’t get it out of my head. In fact, when tom said it Mike and I laughed. I felt so much better when we got to the casino commission booth. I was still really nervous, but I knew I was free to say what I wanted to say. At this point I have two major problems that I’m really worried about. The full cup of quarters that was hidden, plus the players card in the machine was Mikes.

I had answers for both, because Tom did a good job explaining every scenario. Your allowed to hide cups of coins to protect you from a thieve taking your quarters and running off with it. And as far as the players card, I was to say I don’t have one, because I left it in another machine. I started to explain to the casino commission guy what happened. I said I was playing a slot machine, and all of a sudden, I’m surrounded by these guys, and they made a big scene. I pointed to the two security guys, and said they started making accusations. I went on to say, I just hit for six hundred coins and all of a sudden they claim that it is overpaying. I said, when I was busy losing my money, nobody says anything. I said a lady a couple of machines down is hitting everything, and they didn’t accuse her of having a machine overpaying.

One of the security guys still wouldn’t shut up. The guy behind the booth asked him to let me have a chance to talk. I told the guy how embarrassed and humiliated I felt. I told him half the casino was over there looking at me. I kept trying to pretend that when they say overpaying, that they are implying that I was hitting to much on the machine. Now comes the part where I said we laughed at Tom. I just hope it’s going to work. The guy behind the desk explains that to many quarters are coming out of the machine.

I look at the guy and I say, THIS IS ALL ABOUT A COUPLE EXTRA QUARTERS.

I turn my head towards the supervisors and security, then turn back quickly to the guy and say, a couple extra quarters. I said , How about when I lose quarters in the machine. I never complained to the casino about that once. I said I lost a lot more quarters than I ever got extra, I’ll tell you that. Then something popped into my head. I didn’t know why I didn’t think of this before. I tell the guy I am down here with my family for my birthday. (my birthday really was two days away.)Both security guys at the same time, say , let me see you I.d.. By this time, the other guy behind the desk had walked around and was standing next to the supervisor. I looked at him and asked if I had to show them. He nodded yes. I took my wallet out of my back pocket and held my license out and one of the security guys grabbed it and the other guy leaned over and both looked at my license. They said when my birthday was, and it was two days away. They were all talking to each other after that.

I heard one security guy say, I don’t want him in here anymore. I said to the security guy, Do you really think I would come back to this place. I looked at the guy behind the desk and said, do you really think i would recommend this casino to anyone. Now, I’m really lucky i got away with saying that, because at this point , I know I’m suppose to keep my mouth shut. In fact, the only other option i have at this point is to ask if I can call the police. And I surely don’t want to do that. But if they don’t let me go, that is the only option I got left to try and get out of this thing.

The one thing I got in my favor, is that I am really dressed nice. So I really fit the profile of a tourist. My license shows that I live four hours away. They talk for a little while and I saw one of the security guys walk away. The casino commission guy came over to me and told me I could go. He suggested that it might be best to play in another casino. He gave me back my license and I turned around and left. I just kept walking until I was completely out of the casino. I called the casino and both mike and tom were in the room. I told them what happened and to pack the suitcases and leave. I never played an overpayer in that town again.