Page 26 of The Gamble

Chapter Six

“Again,lastnight?”Sailorasked incredulously. “This could get serious! It’s more than business between the two of you, no matter what you say.”

“I tried to keep it business,” Alessandra said. “But there’s just something about him. I want to be distant, but then, after a while, he’s so damn hot, and I find myself basically propositioning him. He’s difficult to turn down. I know it’s ridiculous.”

Sailor laughed. “I’ve never known you to be addicted to a man. You’re always the one in control. Then again, I never saw you with him when you were younger. That must have been one helluva time. Usually, you don’t let men in your life at all. And Beau, look at you. You’re like a teenager with him. What’s so different?”

“Addicted is right. I don’t really know why again last night. I guess some of it was, like I told you, we had so much fun at the concert. And I didn’t want to think about losing my career, I just wanted to live in the moment, have fun. He won a lot, Sailor, and I was depressed. I didn’t want to think about it. Even though he was the cause, he was also a good distraction.”

Sailor’s eyes widened. “He won again? Shit!”

“He did. For a while he was losing, and I was really relieved—I thought, here we go, finally, some revenue. After you left, he started playing blackjack. At one point, he was probably down around one million. I was hoping he would stop there. But then he asked to double the limits, and when I said okay, he started to win.

Sailor’s eyes widened. “Oh no. You didn’t do that?”

“Do what?”

“You let him double the limits after he was down so much?”

“Why not? The math always favors us, anyway. I figured the odds would work out in the long run, and he’d lose even more.”

“Shit. If Gavin were here, he’d be yelling at you right now.”

“Again, why? What’s the issue? It’s basic statistics, Sailor. We win over time.”

Sailor rolled her eyes. “And how much did ‘we’ win last night, Alessandra? The casino lost last night, right? You told me he won a lot.”

“Okay, so this time, the odds didn’t work out, it’s true. He came back from his loss—”

“And then how much did he win?”

“And then he won another $750,000,” Alessandra replied.

“As I suspected,” Sailor said, her lips pursed into a frown as she shook her head.

“Sailor, I’m not stupid. And neither are you. What’s the problem? We’re the house. We play the odds. The odds always win. At least, over time. .“I know Beau won this time. But playing the odds is never wrong. ”

Sailor sighed. “Obviously you’ve never had to make that decision before, because Gavin’s been here to do it. I can see how you’d want to play the statistics—and in that sense, you’re not technically wrong from a mathematics perspective. But every experienced casino executive knows you never allow a high-roller to double the bet limit when he’s down.”

“But why not?” She felt stupid she’d never heard of this axiom before.

“I know it sounds superstitious and it’s not based on mathematics. It is, however, based on years of working with high-rollers and noticing swings. If you have a high-roller who is betting the max, think of it this way. There are three possible outcomes. First, he might win a little or lose a little, so basically even—that’s what usually happens. The second possible outcome is that he might go on a losing streak—losing for a far longer time than the average. The third possible outcome is that he might go on a winning streak—winning for a far longer time than the average. Making sense so far?”

“Yes, I get it. That makes sense, even though it averages out over time.”

“Exactly. It averages out over time. The problem is you don’t really know when that time will occur. Take someone like Beau, who’s betting the maximum and losing. He’s rich, so he just keeps playing and playing, and losing more and more. Eventually, he knows it will turn around. For him, losing more isn’t ideal, but he can afford it. What he’s really hoping to occur is that he’ll go on a winning streak. So, as it seems happened last night, he asks to double the betting limit. When you did so, you essentially made it so that any winning streak he went on would help him get back his money in half the time it took for him to lose it. And, since the limits were still double, he was able to win even more, again, in half the time it would normally take him.”

Alessandra was now embarrassed. It made so much sense when Sailor explained it. “You’re saying that when he asked to double the maximum bet, that’s what he was thinking would happen?”

“Of course he knew he could lose, too. But after losing for so long, I’m sure he was looking for a way to make up his losses quicker if he did start to win again.”

“That asshole,” Alessandra grumbled. “He let me raise the limits and didn’t say a damn thing.”

“In his defense, Alessandra, why would he? For all he knew, you regularly raised limits when your high-rollers asked. If he thought it was a bad business decision, it’s not his job to warn you. Sorry, boss, but you’re the fucking CEO. I’m pretty sure he didn’t even think to warn you.”

“I can see why the Magnum Atlantic City banned him. He probably took advantage of them, too.”

“It’s not taking advantage to ask, so I wouldn’t blame him for that. But about the whole Magnum thing, more bad news, at least maybe. Remember you asked me to see what I could find out? Well, my former coworker called me back about him. No one can confirm that he’s actually banned from there, but apparently, there was a rumor he was trying to cheat, somehow. No one who works the floor of the casino believe it’s true. But there was a former executive host, Vanessa Navim, who left Magnum around the same time Beau quit going there. My friend told me that the head of Magnum Atlantic City implied to some of the hosts that Vanessa and Beau were working together in some sort of scheme.”

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