Jason considered matters and remembered horror stories of lucky gamblers getting beaten up or accused of cheating and their winnings confiscated before they were physically thrown out of the premises. Admittedly, the stories were from the good old days, but he could imagine there were modern equivalents so that the casinos made sure they didn’t lose. He wandered away, trying to look casual and as if he was going to try his luck on another table, that one there, maybe, no, not that one, maybe this one. He hoped he was putting on a convincing act as he moved across the casino floor nearer and nearer to where the cashier’s booth was. And then he had his chips changed for cash and was casually walking outside without a problem. His shoulders slumped in delayed relief as he headed up the street without anyone accosting him!

He saw a Burger King sign, so he wandered into their air-conditioned comfort and spent some time recovering while he had a small burger with a coffee and let his nerves settle down. He generally tried to avoid junk food, but the burger was just what he needed right then. Forty minutes later, he wandered into a different casino that was rather less pretentious than some of the bigger ones. He quickly found the few roulette tables, and he stood and studied them for a few minutes. He found a table with a stack of purplish-looking chips against the back rail, which he guessed were the five-hundred-dollar chips like the ones he’d had been using at the end in the previous casino. All the casinos had the same basic color scheme for their chips. For instance, green was for the twenty-five-dollar ones, and black was used for the one-hundred-dollar ones. They all used different shades, though, and had different colored flecks and bands in their chips to differentiate them from the chips used by other casinos.

He pulled a wad of notes out of his wallet and counted out two thousand, which he placed on the table after the next spin. The dealer scooped the cash up, counted it out front of him with the deliberate manner they used in casinos, and looked up at Jason.

 “Color, sir?”

“Ah. No. Just four of those five-hundreds you’ve got back there.”

The dealer glanced over, then reached for the stack of purple or mauve chips and spread four out next to the cash.

“Two thousand cash.” He announced.

The black jacketed person was leaning on the plexiglass barrier at the back of the chip area, watching already, and nodded.

“Go ahead.”

With which the dealer put the four chips in front of Jason and dropped the cash through the slot in the table.

Jason put the four chips on black and then readied himself to watch the next spin while mentally trying to keep calm. The dealer announced,

“Chips played.”

Jason stood ready to cast the kinetic energy spell to move the ball if it landed in a red number, but it bounced about and lobbed straight into four black! Great. Jason doubled the two piles of chips up in the approved manner he had learned since he first started playing and waited for the next spin. Thirteen black, again without a nudge. Excellent. The dealer sized his stack into Jason’s stack and left the eight winning chips there. Jason couldn’t leave them all there because the table limit was only five thousand. With the second result, he had sixteen chips or eight thousand’s worth! Holy crap!