
It's 9pm and it's casino time - have a few drinks, have a little gamble, win a few grand, lose a few grand... it's the experience that counts more than anything.
I look at my watch - it's only 11pm and lady luck is on my side - I've got a King of Clubs and a 7 of spades, but do I stick or twist? Well I'm on a lucky run and I can afford to lose £500 considering I've won the last five hands, and if I win then that's another £1000 in the wallet, so what the hell - "Twist!"
The big hand has struck 1am and I've only got a £20 left - oh look, there's that slot machine I jackpotted at the start of the night and that old guy's been on there for hours and won nothing, so it's money making time for sure!
Oh well, I don't know what the time is because I traded my watch in for chips, I would get a taxi home but I've got nothing left and nothing to look forward to but my bed... at the end of a long walk home.
This is the premise of Hard Rock Casino, a game where you can gamble your way to success or lose oh so very badly but without any real life consequences - an interesting concept if you consider how poker has exploded onto the late night TV scene; some of the bigger tournaments are even screened on actual sports channels nowadays. However, this popularity has yet to be seen within the gaming fraternity - and I can see why.
I used to work in a casino funnily enough - I called the bingo, kept an eye on the slot machines old and new, and there were even the old table-based games like craps and roulette situated in the building. It was a weird place to work - at one end of the scale you had the razzmatazz associated with big wins, but at the opposite end you would see all the losers who had gambled their last pennies away. In this game you can experience both extremes, but without the actual realisation of losing thousands of pounds or being able to count your winnings. That's the biggest problem with Hard Rock Casino; trying to simulate an activity that millions of people play for real, but without the risk of losing or the reward of winning real cash to put in your bank account.