You all seem to carry the same general notion that slot machines are as useful as flushing dollar bills down the toilet. Which may be true, in a long term sense. But something I've taken in consideration is the possible payouts, compared to that of blackjack. When you play blackjack, even with perfected BS and card counting, you're lucky to even double your money any given time you play, right? Well with slot machines of course there is a higher possibility of winning nothing at all, but then there's of course the chance of winning thousands off of a one dollar bill. The first time I ever stepped into a casino I put 5 dollars in a machine and cashed out with 60 in less than five minutes. That's simply impossible with blackjack. Of course, I just got lucky. And I know blackjack is all about the longterm, but I simply don't see slot machines as a complete waste of money due to your chance of winning substantially larger amounts of money in a very shorter amount of time. And since many machines require as low as pennies to play, why not? I'd rather win 5k in one night and never look back rather than go to a casino every weekend for 15 years to find out you're barely ahead.