Everyone knows the worst part about gambling is waking up in the hotel room and realizing that you aren't dead. The money you spent, the room temperature shrimp you ate, the "free" watered-down scotch in the plastic cup next to a roulette table that made you feel like a character in a Dostoyevsky novel minus the European locale—all of it was real. Who would want to leave bed to do it again? Which is why The Borgata has developed a system that will let guests gamble from the TVs in their rooms. And you thought watching Maury was the saddest thing you could do from an Atlantic City hotel suite at 4 p.m.
The AP reports that gamblers will be able to wager as much as $2,500 a day on in-room slots and video poker, and that the technology could be expanded to hand-held devices anywhere on the property. "This puts us in a position to leverage the technology into true mobile gaming and Internet betting later on," Borgata's president and CEO said. The system is subject to a 90-day trial period before implementation.
Staten Island gambler Susan Marzetti felt that hotel room gambling would spoil the romance of losing sums of money in windowless rooms without clocks: "I like the ambience of being down here on the casino floor. I like the noise of the machines. In my room, I'd find it depressing, to be honest."
But another gambler, Willam Frawley, begged to differ: "I think it would be a great added feature. I'd be willing to invest $100 and run it through there. Video poker, I'd definitely play." No word on what Frawley thinks of another game currently in development, "Calling Room Service Just To Hear A Human Voice."
