We have a friend who has been taking care of her elderly mother who seems normal, but has some cognitive problems and nearly burned the house down on a couple of occasions while she was at work. She tried to drop her off at senior daycare centers, but her mom was unhappy about it and couldn't get along with the other people and kept getting booted out for causing trouble.
Finally the day after her mom had gotten kicked out of another senior day care center she was in a real bind and dropped her off at one of the indian casinos on her way into work. She gave her mom the $40 she had in her purse so she wouldn't go hungry and told her she would be back at the end of the day. Her mom was really happy to be at the casino.
She didn't have any trouble finding her mother when she got back. Her mom still had a few bucks left and she had managed to make an elderly friend who had also been dropped off by her daughter. She started leaving her at the casino every day. If you play the slots for more than two hours they give you a free pass for the buffet. Her mom now has a whole group of friends who spend the day playing the penny machines and eating at the buffet. Our friend says it costs her less than the senior day care and the casino staff know her mother and make her feel welcome. If anything goes wrong with anyone in her little group the casino just calls 911. She said it was just like dropping her kid off at school. She says there is a line of people dropping their elderly parents off in the morning at this particular casino.
Most of the people you find in the indian casinos around here are 70 or above. They cater to this age group and for the most part it seems like most of them are having a good time. It almost seems like a public service. I think most of the people playing a penny at a time have no expectation of winning big.
That’s very interesting and might explain the people I see playing pennies (always the older people). I never thought of it that way before.