If the children knew this they would not fool away their money in
the machines when they go for a boat ride on the lake, and it is
reasonable to suppose that grown men and women would beware of them
if they had learned to figure chances when they were in school. In
the penny machines in the cigar stores the probabilities are harder
to figure. You play a cent in the machine, and if you get two pairs
from a revolving pack of cards, always exposing the faces of five, you
win a 5-cent cigar. In most of the machines you must get "jacks up
or better" in order to win. Any poker player will bet you a chip on
any deal that you will not have as good as a pair of trays, and the
chances that you will have two pairs as good as jacks up must be at
least twenty to one.
Some of the machines consist of wheels of fortune which revolve from
the weight of the penny dropped in the slot. In any event the child
gets a penny's worth of goods, and there are chances to get two or
five cents' worth. Gum machines give an alleged cent's worth of gum,
with a chance for a coupon, which is good for a nickel's worth without
extra charge.
[Illustration: (Men playing slot machine)]
How many steps is this apparently harmless form of amusement removed
from the deceptive slot machines in cigar stores? And, in turn,
how many steps are these cigar machines removed from those in the
saloons? The boy who wins five cents worth in the candy store will
take cigarette tobacco or a cigar, if the dealer be unprincipled.
Next he tries for a cigar in a cigar store, and then for a cigar in a
saloon. If he is lucky in the last named, he is asked to a friendly
game of poker. Beyond asking if it is a pleasure to either lose to or
win from a friend, and to express the opinion that even though the
game be perfectly square, and there be no rake-off, it still remains
true that the time lost, and money spent for drinks and cigars, far
outweigh in value any pleasure that may be experienced.