ClubHooligan.com - Burning it up at both ends

ClubHooligan.com - Burning it up at both ends: "
Brian Wallace / Juneau Empire

PULL TAB PALACE, Nugget Mall, suite 24: Don't be fooled by the richness of the name. The 'Palace' is actually a no-frills, white-walled, nook across the hall from Susan's Hallmark and around the corner from Lucky Louie's.
'A lot of the people that play (at Louie's), if they win, they go (to the Palace) and play,' Horton said. 'Or they come from next door, and play over here. It's all pretty friendly. It's not real competitive between here and there. They have their regular customers, and we have ours.'
'There's three types of people that come in,' Palace dealer Eli Soriano said. 'Some people have money, and they can spend it. Some people are addicted. And some people are playing for fun and they can control themselves.
'The people who think it's fun are people who come back routinely,' he said. 'They'll come back every other day and spend $20 on a certain game.'
The Palace, like its counterpart parlor inside the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall on West Willoughby Avenue, raises money for the ANB Grand Camp 2 scholarship program.
And like Lucky Louie's, Criss Cross is the popular game.
'People like those games because they're smaller,' Soriano said. 'There's fewer tickets and a higher percentage. It's a one-jar game. The whole game fits in one jar. People like that, or they like to play the big games, the ones with $400s and $500s. It's a matter of preference.'
Soriano has been at the Palace for about 18 months.
'People go to different shops for different dealers,' Soriano said. 'Some people will ask you information, like 'Are there any winners that came out of here.' That's cheating. I just want to deal the tab"