Watch My Casino Seat

Sometimes you come across something new that is so simple and so obvious that you can't help but wonder how is it possible that it hasn't been around sooner?

We walked around a casino in the Midwest and what we saw was very interesting. Here and there scattered about on the chairs of slot and video poker machines were signs with a pleasing piece of artwork that says “I’ll be right back”.

I stopped at a chair and waited a minute or two until a woman returned and asked her about the sign.

She answered, “It’s my seat saver and I absolutely love it”! I pressed for a little more information. She said, "when I come to the casino I spend several hours, and I like to play on my favorite machines. Before I had my seat saver I worried about getting up and going to the bathroom or to get a drink, because when I would return my machine would be taken. Now I just use my seat saver and it is safe until I get back.”

She handed it to me and it is an 8X8 square piece of soft cloth, this one having a lady bug on it.

I spoke to Kathy Pool, the owner and inventor of Watch My Seat. She was a very pleasant woman from, of all places, Oklahoma who almost word for word told me the same story the woman playing slots told me.

"I love going to the casino and when I go I like to spend several hours. In Oklahoma you have to drive thirty minutes to an hour or so to get to one. So I know that I will need to get away from my machine several times on any trip to use the bathroom, grab a drink or cash in tickets if I am lucky enough. So I invented Watch My Seat from my frustration of leaving my machine for a few minutes and having it taken upon my return. One day I just thought to myself I wish I had a sign to put on the chair letting people know that I was coming right back. So I made one on my computer and it worked!"

How did you come to make a business out of it?

"I usually go with a couple friends and they loved the idea. One evening a woman sitting next to me asked me where I got it and I told her I made it, she said she was a security guard at another local casino and that they could sure use them at her place. She went on to say that half her day was consumed with holding slot machines for people when they had to leave it for a few minutes, so that got me to thinking that this would be a great business opportunity."

Kathy went through some trials and tribulations before finding the right kind of cloth and that she knew she wanted it to be soft, washable and as wrinkle free as possible. She discovered that type of cloth was a micro fiber cloth, the same type as many of us have to clean our eye glasses.

"It was perfect,” Kathy said. "I have graphic artists in the family and I had them come up with some fun design and presto - Watch My Seat was born. Now I have several distributors working with casinos across the country selling the idea as a promotional item."

So now, of course, the question that pops up is "How come no one thought of this before?"