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People yelled, slots avalanched coins, drinks flowed, and spirits soared. It was another day at The Treasury casino, though instead of a normal night shift, I was working in the afternoon. It was a different vibe from the late-night crowd. In a word: saner. A woman with giant acrylic-framed glasses that covered most of her face—the parts that weren’t covered by the long blonde bangs and flowing locks framing it—was staring intently at the cards in front of her. The other players were out, and it was just her and me. She indicated for me to give her another card with a tap on the table. She already had eighteen. Chances were, she was going to bust. Not my problem. I dealt her a card. A three. She nodded to herself, then looked up, bug-eyed behind the glasses, long spider-leg eyelashes flicking up and down in excitement. “Does that mean I win?” She’d been losing. Hard. It was about time her luck changed. She hadn’t been helped by some of the bad choices she’d been making—like taking another card on eighteen. Statistically speaking, it had been a terrible decision, even if it might work out this time. I was on fifteen. I turned over another card. A king, and the house busted out. “You do win.” “Oh, yay!” She turned to the young guy next to her—he wasn’t with her, he was just a nervous-looking college kid playing a few hands while he waited for his friends to arrive. “I won!” The college kid nodded and muttered a congratulation. He was about forty dollars down and wasn’t happy about it. Big Glasses was two hundred down, and now she’d won twenty bucks, she seemed pretty delighted. “Is there a trick to it?” she asked me, her nose twitching inquisitively. “Some people have favorite techniques. On average, the house wins though.” “You can get a one percent advantage over the house if you know what you’re doing,” the college kid piped up confidently. “Is that true?” Long Blonde Hair asked. “Perhaps,” I told her, trying to put her off discussing it further. The Treasury doesn’t like us to talk about systems or ways to beat the house, even if most of the so-called systems themselves are just books or courses designed to separate a gambler from their money in a slightly different way to how the casino does it. “Thanks, have a good afternoon.” The college kid got up and left us. He was the last one, apart from Big Glasses. “Do we still play if it’s just you and me?” “We can.” “Oh, that’ll be fun. Hit me!” I didn’t correct her—you can’t hit until the game has started—but I dealt again. Big Glasses tapped her chin and pushed the frames higher up her nose while she examined her cards. She had fifteen, and when she hit, she landed on twenty-one again. I busted out at twenty-two. “My luck’s finally coming in!” After a couple of quick wins, she started playing faster, really getting the hang of the game. She won several hands on just seventeen, got lucky with blackjack straight out of the gate, and finally lost one hand after winning nine in a row. The house was down a thousand bucks in short order. It wasn’t serious money, but the rate—rather than the amount—at which Big Glasses was winning was getting silly. “Your luck definitely has changed,” I probed. “Yeah? You think my ship’s coming in? It’s about time.” “Sure looks like it.” When she won five more hands in a row, each time squinting at the cards through her glasses before making a decision that often went against standard blackjack strategy, I began to get suspicious. My gaze left her and traveled toward Bear, the nearest security guard. He raised his eyebrows at me and indicated toward his ear. He’d heard something. My eyes flicked up involuntarily toward the black dome above the pit behind which sat a camera, or maybe half a dozen, I don’t know how many. Everyone is being watched inside a casino, and it’s near impossible to get away with anything, from pickpocketing to trying to use electronic surveillance tools to see the dealer’s cards. Whatever scheme or scam people try and come up with, the House is always one step ahead. “Again!” Big Glasses said urgently as I glanced up. -- Click the "Learn More" button to continue reading.