Seminole Coconut Creek borrows from 'Deal or No Deal'
Instead of suitcases, contestants pick coconuts.
Instead of pushing a red button and hugging Howie Mandel as the cash starts to flow, they grab a banana and shake hands with Seminole Casino Coconut Creek’s Gary Friedman.
“CooCoo for Coconuts,” the casino’s version of Deal or No Deal, is attracting a crowd.
Contestants pick one of 10 coconuts, which have values of $1, $5, $50, $100, $500, $1,000, $1,500, $2,000, $3,000 and $20,000. Then, just like in Deal or No Deal, they try to drive up the banker’s price by discarding low values.
Originally, the casino considered embedding sheets of paper with the dollar figures in coconut bras that the models would then peel off. (They’d have clothing underneath, too.) But, fearing a Janet Jackson Super Bowl moment, the models now merely hold the coconuts at chest level and shake them.
Still, Friedman implores the models to “show us your coconuts” and the crowd hoots.
The promotion is at 7, 8, 9 and 10 p.m. Thursdays.
NICK SORTAL began playing 3-card "gut" and "Indian poker" on high school band trips, moved on to "night baseball" and "pass the trash" during a Dr. Pepper-infused midnight game in the 1980s at the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, and now play in a regular neighborhood Hold 'Em game in Plantation. I have been given the assignment of writing about the gambling life in South Florida casinos for the Sun-Sentinel...which means sitting around watching poker on TV now counts as research.
