Five does not necessarily mean five. South Carolina law allows a maximum of five video poker machines per business. Fast Freddie's has 25. The machines sit inside five small rooms carved along the lobby's walls, each the size of a walk-in closet. There are five machines per room.
Video poker can be downright hypnotic.
The bare-bones environment means there are few distractions from the blinking, glowing poker screens. On this Friday afternoon, eight or nine people occupy stools in front of machines, feeding in bills, poking, poking, poking at the screen and looking not unlike kids transfixed by a Sega Genesis on Christmas morning. Most machines have a dozen games, and switching to a new one is as easy as a flick of your finger. On this day, Ann Danford, a manager at Fast Freddie's, shows a visitor how simple it is to play. Her boss doesn't let her bet on the machines at Fast Freddie's, but Danford says she likes to try her luck at other game parlors.