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I rarely gamble. So when I found myself at the Borgata recently with a little time on my hands, I was prepared to lose money.

Big money. Maybe even the entire $30 I had with me.

Yeah, I was braced to lose the whole enchilada. So imagine my surprise when an hour later, I had yet to lose my initial $10 stake at the slot machines. Fact is, I was ahead $2.84.

I had discovered the wonderful world of penny slots.

Such trends may escape local residents who don’t gamble much. A decade or so ago, it was sometimes hard to get to a 25-cent machine on a busy night. Casinos used to be required to have 5 percent nickel slots, but when the requirement was dropped the nickel slots disappeared. Penny slots were nonexistent.

But casinos now are packed with slots that cost only one, two or five cents a line.

And apparently the penny slots are doing quite well, one of the few areas of growth at a time when gambling revenues are down.

After all, it's a terrific recession-era diversion. And recession aside, losing money slowly always beats losing money quickly. (Although I'm told that if you play enough lines, you can lose money quickly at penny slots, too.)

Of course, I was lucky that night — and prudent. I decided to bank my winnings and quit while I was ahead. After all, I’d just won enough to buy myself ... well, maybe half a diet Coke at a casino bar.

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