I've got a Golden Ticket...

Roz and I went to the RSL for a snack and a drink after work tonight and were pretty confused about quite a few things:

• Why did the Keno screen freeze on game 381 for like 15 minutes and no one noticed except me (clutching my ticket)? After a phone consultation with my friend C.Ro the Keno guru who advised a rebooting of the system (although I wasn’t feeling it that she really knew what she was talking about), I went and pointed out the frozen screen. He pressed a button to reboot the system and voila! Keno was back in business. As 15 minutes had passed though it was now up to game 393 so I had to go up to the counter again to get my ticket checked. Yeah it was a loser – I still can’t help feeling cheated though...missing all those games live.

• Why did the man who had ordered a meal, walk around looking confused when his meal pager things started beeping, vibrating and flashing?  He obviously knew where the counter was as he had placed his meal order there. He walked around holding the pager out like a divining rod trying to find his way to his wedges. Odd.

• Who was the man with the “Bookie” case taking bets and calling what seemed to be fake horse races from a script? People were going up, making a bet, and then he would read a horse race out while everyone cheered like they were watching a real race. He then confounded us even more by saying “come up and I’ll give you a free bet – it’s play money anyway”. Pardon? What? We still don’t get it. 

• Why did I put $4 into a Pokie machine that felt lucky (well there was a bird on it), manage to win my way up to around $30, but then walk out with nothing? What happened? Damn those bet 10 lines buttons. As Roz said it’s all about the highs and the lows.

• Who was the little man with the stick that came and tried to tell me how to play the Pokie machine (when I was doing quite well thank you very much)?

• Why do we keep telling each other “I’ve got a Golden Ticket!”