Calming himself down took some time, and it was several minutes before he finally sidled over to the roulette wheel he’d chosen and watched for a couple of spins. The wheel looked no different to ones back home except for the double zero, so he trotted out the now finely tuned kinetic energy spell he had designed and which he had used to good effect back in San Diego. He had found it easiest if he used it to make the ball flop into the next number over to the one it appeared to land in, which could be either right or left, depending on the spin of the wheel. The ball bouncing onward in the direction it had been traveling looked much less suspicious than if he tried to make it bounce backward. With the small push, the ball simply jumped over into the next number, usually in a quite natural-looking manner, thus moving from red to black or black to red, depending on which color he had bet on that spin. It was also much easier than trying to time the push to press the ball down into a red or black number slot and stop it from bouncing out again. The only problem areas were the zeros, with the single one having black numbers on either side and the double one having red numbers on either side. Oh well, he still had better odds than anyone else!

He cast the spell five times as practice, aiming for a black number and hitting black numbers five times in a row without any problems, after which he let the dealer have a few spins without bias to settle things down. He noticed with surprise that his butterflies were under control now that real action was imminent, and he pulled a hundred dollars out of his wallet and put it on the table. The dealer grabbed the money, and moved it back to the table area in front of him, and looked at Jason questioningly.

“Color?”

Jason shook his head. “Got a hundred-dollar chip?”

The dealer nodded and put a single black chip next to the cash.

“One hundred cash.” He announced firmly, and the lady with the coat standing in the gap between the table Jason intended to play, and the next table over glanced their way.

 “Go ahead.”

The dealer put the hundred-dollar chip on the table in front of Jason, and Jason put the chip in the section for betting on red. There were a couple more money changes, so it was a few minutes later before the dealer finally spun the ball, and after several rotations, the dealer announced in a clear voice.

“No more bets.”

This was accompanied by the usual wave of the arms over the table. The ball was slowing and rolled down into the numbers, bounced about, and went to settle into eleven black before Jason hit it with the spell and made it flip over into seven red.

“E… Seven Red!” The dealer announced and began clearing the betting layout of the losing chips with those smooth motions the experienced dealers developed. After clearing the table of losing bets, he paid the outside winning bets, including Jason’s one hundred dollar bet. It was all pretty much the same as Jason had seen before, but it was the first time he’d played with a single hundred-dollar chip!