8:15pm
After 15 minutes at a slot machine in the Galaxy StarWorld casino, I’ve lost a hundred dollars. But it’s not the end of the world, right? I’ve been ripped off worse before. Everyone else is losing just as much as me, and that’s the main thing.
8:30
The chain-smoking mainland gentleman to my immediate right has just made USD$386. Next to a machine that hot, mine must be cold. It’s time to change seats, if only to get away from my curiously un-elated neighbor. I pick up my bag and move to another machine. It is called “Hot Hot Penny,” and a buxom animated Celtic vixen winks at me; the seductress wants me to play! I sit down again, feed twenty dollars into the machine (start slow, win high), and grab a free coke from a passing tray. The signs are good: surely I’ll win at least enough to recoup my losses. After all, with Hot, Hot Penny at my side, how can I lose?
9:00
Hot Hot Penny has answered all my dreams. Thanks to my computer-animated moll, I’ve recovered my losses and I’m in the black. I’m actually winning! I laugh at all the horror stories. And they said gambling was difficult. I could get pretty rich doing this.
9:10
The flame-haired wench has ruined me. She’s led me on and let me drop. My earnings have disappeared, as has the USD$10 I sent in to fish them back. I’ve sobered up, now. The first flush of love always ends in bitter disappointment. Cursing every pixel of Penny’s toothy grin, I retreat USD$26 bucks down. A massive print of Tony Leung Chiu-wai, spokesman for the Galaxy, smiles just as broadly as I ride the escalator down and out of the casino.
9:15
Slots in Macau are multi-reeled, touch-screen bi-lingual bandits. It’s too easy to hit the “max bet” button and see your remaining cash vanish into the ether. Pah, I think. They’re small fry. Ten-cent bets are for the losers without cash to burn. It’s time to hit up the Blackjack tables at the Wynn. It may have a USD$26 buy-in, but I have this system, see? It’s a guaranteed win. Stand on soft 18; split on doubles over six but under eight.
I shall be writing a strongly worded email to the site administrator of www.blackjack-made-easy.com, complaining that the claims made on his site are in no way accurate and demanding a return of my lump sum payment.
10:00
Dinner with friends. Destitute though we are, there’s always tomorrow. The three of us make a pact: if any one of us wins over US$999 in a single game, it is divided 50 percent to him, 25-25 to the other two. This way, none of us will be tempted to murder the others for the sake of ill-gotten riches.