Reznet

Slot Machines Made Easy

By Sunnie Redhouse and Jordan Dresser | Video edited by Breanna Roy

SAN DIEGO—At the National Indian Gaming Association's trade show, reznet reporters asked vendors how to play their newfangled — and often complicated-looking and intimidating — slot machines.

We gave them 30 seconds to explain all the bells and whistles of their gambling machines, as if they were teaching newcomers to the gaming game how to play.

Some of the slot-machine vendors couldn't tell all in the allotted time — and some were so much fun to talk to, and look at, that it didn't matter ... like Elvis, for example.

Sunnie Redhouse, Navajo, is a senior majoring in journalism at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. A graduate of the Freedom Forum's American Indian Journalism Institute and a Chips Quinn Scholar, Redhouse interned at Sports Illustrated last summer. This summer she'll intern as a sportswriter at the Salt Lake Tribune under the Sports Journalism Institute internship program.

Jordan Dresser, Northern Arapaho, is a senior at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. He is a graduate of the Freedom Forum's American Indian Journalism Institute and a Chips Quinn Scholar. Dresser has had summer internships as a reporter at the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star, the Fargo (N.D.) Forum and the Salt Lake City Tribune under the Chips Quinn Scholars Program. This summer, he will intern as a feature reporter at The Denver Post.

Breanna Roy, Blackfeet, is studying broadcast journalism at the University of Montana in Missoula. A 2007 graduate of the Freedom Forum's American Indian Journalism Institute, Roy interned at the St. Cloud (Minn.) Times last summer, producing multimedia reports for the newspaper's Web site. This summer she will intern as a reporter at KELOLAND-TV in Sioux Falls, S.D.