Across the Richmond area and around the state, more than 4,000 similar machines can be found in gas stations, bars and mostly locally owned convenience stores eager for a new stream of revenue. The convenience store, near Thomas Jefferson High School, is just one of the locations in which these machines have popped up in the past two years. When I was younger, I used to have to drive out of state to play. Just the other day, I got a $120 jackpot, but it looks like I’ll be giving that back to the store,” said the 39-year-old pharmacy technician. The store has an arrangement that allows players to get their winnings almost immediately from a clerk. The symbols revolve on the screen like slot machines.Įvery now and then when the symbols line up right, a player can hit for a jackpot of $2,000. Hill has her choice of seven cash-operated, computer-controlled machines that mimic the push-button slots of Atlantic City and Las Vegas. Inside, past the chips and snacks and close to the coolers of beer and sodas, Ms. Instead, the Richmond resident prefers to get her daily “gambling fix” at a convenience store near her job, the Quick N Easy in the 4100 block of West Broad Street.
Hill is a self-confessed “slot machine grinder,” but she still hasn’t visited the new Rosie’s Richmond Gaming Emporium in South Side to try her luck on the array of slot-style machines.
