I've recently been worrying that blind people weren't losing enough money gambling. "When," I've wondered, "will the gaming industry realize that they've been neglecting a potential gold mine among the sightless?" Well, my worries have been put to rest. Bally Industries has come out with a line of slots and video poker machines featuring the likeness and music of Mr. Ray Charles.
These devices, which are turning up in casinos the world over, feature Braille labels and special audio assists. And for the patriotic gambler, the machine also plays a video of Ray singing "America the Beautiful." Another machine in the line is called, "What'd I Pay?" which I guess is someone's clever switch on Ray's song lyric, "What I say." Or maybe it's intended to suggest that the machine is blind and doesn't know how much it's paying out. (On that machine, Ray appears with, not his back-up singers, The Raylettes but with the "Paylettes.") I have the feeling that, when one of these machines cleans you out, you hear a rousing chorus of, "Hit the Road, Jack."