10:28 AM PST on Sunday, November 2, 2003

Associated Press

SALEM -- Video poker machines across Oregon are rejecting the new $20 bill, which was introduced into circulation in early October.

Lou Torres, spokesman for Oregon Lottery, estimated that two-thirds of the 9,500 video terminals statewide either are already accepting the new bill or will be doing so soon.

The peach-tinged $20 bills are proving to be inconvenient elsewhere, including self-service checkout counters and tribal gaming places.

Spirit Mountain Casino is awaiting the arrival of new microchips for all of its gaming machines, spokeswoman Siobhan Loughran said. She expected that it would be at least a month before the chips would be installed.

The casino planned for the transition, hoarding many of the old $20 bills to exchange for new ones, Loughran said.

Fred Meyer Inc. issued a statement this week that said the company had begun updating bill exchangers at its stores and that the process would be completed in November. Attendants should be available in the self-service area to swap the old for the new.

Jim Eastridge, who owns a tavern in Salem which has five video poker machines, said he received a letter from the Oregon Lottery about the time that the bills were put into circulation, saying that retailers would have warning stickers to put on their machines by the end of the month.

As of Friday, though, Eastridge hadn't seen any stickers.

Few customers have complained about the hassle, but Eastridge's night manager, Del Bayne, said he wondered about the oversight.

"It's kind of silly, really," he said. "They should have planned ahead for all these automated machines. We live in an automated world. These $20s, they knew they were going to come out."