Gambling

The smell of smoke and alcohol was thick in the air, only overshadowed by the sound of ringing bells, spinning wheels, and card dealers calling out what was occurring at their tables. People were packed tight, all spending their life savings in a wild attempt to win back even more than they had arrived with, though less than a single percentage of them were lucky enough to do so. Most left with a deficit, and a select few who dove too deep could hardly call it leaving at all, having accrued a debt that they could only pray to god they could pay off. A good number of those would keep gambling, hoping to win enough to pay it off. They weren't playing the odds. They were playing against them.

Gorgeous women in equally gorgeous gowns stalked the halls, serving drinks and collecting more cash than those drinks were worth, stuffing the surplus between their breasts in a seductive manner that only called forth higher prices and higher tips. They tended to stick closer to the winners than the losers in the games of chance and fortune. After all, they couldn't let people walk away with too much of a profit. The men could hardly pull their eyes away to look at their games, causing them to dig too deep and lose an easy win. The women grumbled at how low some would stoop whilst they threw their money away, hoping that if they could win the fortune, maybe the men would look at them that way.

And over it all, a single man presided, a wry smile on his face as he traced a finger along the rim of his whiskey glass and watched the money fly. He watched man and woman alike throw their money at a chance to gain more, and hardly any of them stuck. In the meanwhile, all of their money that fell to the floor disappeared, only to end up in his pockets. There was no gamble that he made. His was a carefully concocted contraption, in which the patrons who arrived at his establishment would gladly fork over their hard earned money and never once demand that he treat them in any special way. They were here to play the odds, and odds he would gladly provide them.

It amazed him at times that more people didn't do this. That they were too blinded by the constantly skyrocketing numbers that could potentially fall in their pockets. They couldn't see that the chance of that actually occurring was less than one in a million. And even if they could, the thought that they might be that one in a million was too brilliant for them to turn away from. Meanwhile, his own pockets were lined with even more than they were playing to win. He could afford to give those winnings to those ones in millions. It was barely a dent in his own winnings.

What fools, he thought to himself. To think that people could be so dumb. It made him wonder what else he could get them to do. Now that was a gamble that sounded worth taking.