Life goes on as usual here in Las Vegas. Every two hours the cards get changed, the dice are routinely changed. Mom's squeeze into their cocktail uniforms while getting the kids ready for bed, dealers squeeze into their black and whites getting the kids ready for school. The professional gamblers go to the bank before heading off to the tables, the strippers wax on and wax off before heading to the dancing pole. In other words, it's business as usual.

But for one Las Vegan who has taken on the job of taking on the Nevada Gaming Commission and City Hall one-handed, he stands everyday in front of the Clark County Courthouse and spends the next ten hours marching up and down the sidewalk with the yellow sign that says "ROBBED!! OF $463,895 BY ARIZONA CHARLIE'S

To baseball lovers everywhere, the name Joe Pepitone rings a familiar bell. He played for the Yankees from 1962 until 1970 and could be found in Wrigley Field playing for the Cubs from '70 to '73 where he retired a very popular player. He still shows up at Cubs games to sing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame".

But the Joe Pepitone we're talking about just happens to be his cousin. This Joe Pepitone was a player also, but instead of picking off ground balls, he picked horses, or pick-up poker games.

He grew up in Brooklyn with all the other Pepitones who were all gamblers. From penny poker games around the family table to running bets out to Yonkers Raceway for the family and friends to get a bet down on a pony. When the lottery was started in New York, Joe bought tickets by the handful. At 62, Joe's a father of three, a grandfather of four He had a successful butcher business in Brooklyn but soon lost that to gambling. They moved up to the Pocono Mountains on the Pennsylvania, New York border to get away from gambling. He once again built up a business, but then Pennsylvania passed a state lottery and once again Joe was spending all his money on tickets. They eventually lost their home to the bank who repossessed it. What they were thinking on their next move baffles me but they packed up everything into a truck and headed to Las Vegas Nevada.

They both took minimum wage jobs to get started and would never make it out of minimum wage. Now living in Las Vegas gave his wife Lynda a chance to get out and taste the action of gambling and after a couple of months they were both stuck in the casinos before and after work. They were both nickel players for the simple reason that was all they could afford. With all the huge jackpots in Las Vegas that are offered to the slot players are mostly offered to the dollar and quarter player, but not much is left to the nickel player. The progressive jackpots that are often offered by nickel machines are only in the hundreds or low thousands of dollars.

But then comes along Nevada Nickels. The statewide progressive slot machines that often get into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but can you imagine the odds of hitting a five-reel nickel machine for hundreds of thousands? The machines give back a penny on every twenty five cents bet, so people play it like crazy statewide and on October 23rd 1997, it managed to work it's way up to $463, 895 one goddamn penny at a time.

Joe and Lynda went out after work to Arizona Charlie's casino, a local's casino a couple miles off the Strip. Joe bought a beer and ten dollars in $2 rolls of nickels. He sat at the Nevada Nickels machine and began to pump until he ran out of the five rolls of nickels. But somewhere in all that furious pumping the machine locked up on the "Nevada Nickels" insignias. But there was a catch. Arizona Charlie's officials claimed the machine had malfunctioned, he hadn't really won, they said.

The casino didn't bother locking up the surveillance tapes, they just waited 24 hours and since it took Joe longer than that to get any answer from the Gaming Control Board, the casino erased the tapes as per their policy of keeping surveillance tapes only 24 hours unless otherwise ordered by a court or the Control Board. They then reset the machine a short time later despite his protests and phone calls to Gaming Control, and a short time later destroyed the machine altogether.

Joe took them to court. He had an independent witness but that was all he had going for him. The casinos had lawyers on retainer, they had their word against one man's claim, and since his "independent" witness wasn't a judge or a priest, it was their words against the casino's $463,895.

"This case isn't unique. The regulation is clear" said a speaker for Arizona Charlie's, "In the case of a mechanical malfunction, the play is voided. The rule is invoked often in the 1,000-plus player disputes the Control Board examines every year."

His case did make it to the ears of state Sen. Joe Neal who introduced legislation to amend the regulation in the player's favor, but of course the proposal was shot down.

But last night, on a rainy and cold Wednesday night Joe stands in his Yankee cap outside the Clark County Courthouse who heard his case then threw it out of court after the casinos lawyer invoked the "Mechanical Malfunction Law". All Joe could say on his way out of court was "but…but…but…but…but"

"The casinos have everything working for them" Joe said. "I gambled my whole life. I never cried when I lost, I never complained but then the day I finally hit something and they take it away from me and I can't even fight it."

No Joe, you're right, you can't fight it. You should have ran into the gift shop and bought a small camera and taken a picture of it, but that's the entire defense you have. It's a Catch-22. The Gaming Control Board says you only have to save your surveillance tapes for 24 hours. A slot machine can be reset if there is no further action taken by Gaming Control Board. But then the Gaming Control Board takes 26 hours to show up where all they see is a pile of steel and glass and computer boards and reels, and all the casinos say is "we're using it for spare parts" By the time they grab the VCR tapes all they find is re-runs of Seinfeld and Dharma and Greg.

How long Joe will stand out there in protest even he doesn't know. One thing I do know is he ain't never gonna see that $463,895 dollars, but as Joe says it, "These people have no heart; they all stick together, the casinos, the Gaming Board, the judges. As long as someone's willing to listen I'm willing to stand out here and tell them what rip-offs the casinos are."

And in response to the poor guy, I can honestly say with all my knowledge of the gaming business, with all my years living in Las Vegas…."DUHHHHH!!!!!"

-Ken Pearlman