Don’t gamble, kids
It’s scary how long ago it was now, but almost 20 years ago, I visited Greektown Casino – now Hollywood Casino at Greektown – in Detroit. I was on a business trip for a horrible consulting job I quit after about four months, making the rounds in the Midwest to different car parts factories and offices, interviewing managers and what-not. So yes, Michigan was obviously going to be one of the states to which my colleague and I would travel.
We had plenty of time one night in Detroit to just relax, so we went to Greektown – the district, not the casino – for a massive Greek feast that was way more food than the two of us could eat. Though neither of us were gamblers (I was not in the poker industry yet), we decided to check out the casino, since it was next door.
My colleague just wandered around while I sat down at a low stakes blackjack table. Don’t remember how much I plunked down, maybe $50, $100 tops. I hear the minimum stakes are higher now, but I’m guessing I was playing for $5 a hand, as I’m too scared to play for anything more.
It was a miserable night. To give you an idea of how I did, the picture attached to this article represents all the money I had left when I exited the casino.
A different kind of bad night
But my night was not nearly as bad as Jarome Quinney’s last Thursday. Quinney was playing at Hollywood Casino at Greektown and took a break to get something to drink from a self-serve Pepsi fountain drink machine. We’ll let him take it from here:
“As I came back for a refill,” he told Fox 2, “I grabbed my old top and then grabbed a new cup, and as soon as I grabbed a new cup, (there were) a whole bunch of roaches were coming out of my cup.”
That’s something Freddy Krueger would do to someone in their nightmares, except all the cockroaches would have Freddy’s face.
Quinney said he was so grossed out that he went to the restroom and puked.
When he returned to the casino floor, he saw several people drinking out of the same set of soda cups. His desire for a cold beverage had evaporated.
“That means anyone that was hot or gambling and came for a drink they most definitely got contaminated.”
Quinney said he notified the casino and asked to speak to someone “important,” but never got any answers. Jeff Morris, Vice President of Public Affairs & Government Relations for Hollywood Casino, told Fox 2, “Out of an abundance of caution, we…contracted with Ecolab who examined the area and they confirmed that there was no additional evidence or infestation concerns. Regardless, we conducted a deep cleaning of the area in question and similar self-service beverage stations.”