48 Hours a Day

Forty thousand euros wasn’t a sum worth mentioning for a large-scale casino like this.

The problem was that no casino wanted to be treated like an ATM.

The casino staff with high cheekbones had recently heard some rumors from his peers. A couple known by the gambling industry as ‘the Lucky Fingers’ had got royal flushes from four casinos in just three days. These casinos, however, only reacted to the matter after it happened.

The couple also made sure that they controlled their urge to win more money in every casino. They would usually play a game or two and win 50 to 60,000 euros. Under normal circumstances, this amount of money would not attract the attention of the casino.

Thousands of tourists walked through the doors of the casino every day, and most of them generally lost money the moment they sat down on a table. There was, however, the occasional one or two who win a healthy sum of money when the sample was large enough. Professional gamblers and cheaters were the kinds of people that the casino would pay attention to. It was also impossible for them to pay attention to everyone who won money. Although the probability of getting a royal flush was very low, there were so many poker machines in the entire casino that sometimes, a lucky winner would be born from time to time.

When one of the casinos noticed the couple, they quickly took a look at the CCTV footage on the monitor and found that the man received a call and left his seat for a while right before hitting the royal flush. This made him suspicious, and he tried his best to control his facial expressions. He was no professional actor, though, and his acting was all amateurish.

By that time, Lucky Finger had already left, and that casino quickly made corresponding arrangements to handle this matter. However, the couple did not show up the next day. This move not only failed to dissuade the casino’s suspicion, but it made them grow even more suspicious of their previous win. After contacting other casinos, they found out that the couple had won four royal flushes in three days in different casinos.

Even if the man’s finger had been kissed by the goddess of luck, such a bizarre streak of good fortune was close to impossible. It was therefore concluded that the Lucky Finger couple pair were cheaters. According to their modus operandi, there was a high probability that they hopped from casino to casino to commit the crimes. Following the discovery, the casino that fell victim immediately notified other casinos about it. That was why the staff had initially approached the couple.

From the moment they walked into the casino, their every move was under surveillance. When they magically hit royal flush again, the casino staff wasted no time to approach them. This time, the lucky couple would not be able to leave so easily.

The high cheekbones employee had worked in this industry for more than 20 years, accumulating a lot of experience in that long time. Before being employed here, he worked at Macau and Las Vegas, and through the years, he had seen more than his fair share of characters walking into the casino. When compared to professional gamblers and cheaters, however, the young couple was tenderer than the new shoots just sprouting out of trees.

This indicated that they had just must have just started scamming casinos not too long ago. Such greenhorns were easy to deal with; he was sure. This time though, he seemed to have made the wrong judgment. The woman’s acting skills were obviously rather convincing, where she had been yelling and laughing all this time, trying to attract attention and put pressure on the casino. It might seem vulgar, but the staff had to admit that the crude and simple method was indeed very effective.

Naturally, a large number of people began thinking that the casino was overbearing. It was undeniable that many underground casinos operated in such a manner. However, for those famous casinos that targeted tourists, they valued their reputation a lot. Forty thousand euros might be a huge amount of money for the ordinary person, but for these big casinos, it was simply a drop in a bucketful of water. They desperately wanted to catch the Lucky Finger couple, but doing so would certainly affect their reputation. Such a small gain wasn’t worth the loss.

The woman’s male partner was trying to show his strong side too, but he was a mediocre actor, looking guilty as if he had just committed a crime. The staff with high cheekbones was starting to get unhappy about the ever-increasing crowd that had gathered around them. He initially thought that as long as he showed up on time to catch the couple’s cheating, this matter would be quickly resolved. However, things did not go his way. Even the results of the inspection showed that this particular poker machine was still intact and fine.

The staff with high cheekbones had two choices at a time like this. He could either let the two of them leave the premises while the situation was still under control, where the casino would have to swallow the loss and minimize the impact silently, or he could insist that they enter a private room for further interrogation.

The staff wished that he could frisk them right here, right now, but by doing that, he would surely expose whatever dirty little secret they were carrying on them in front of all the guests. Casinos tried to avoid using illegal methods like this unless it was a last resort. It was all in the name of protecting reputation, where they would try to make the whole debacle look more acceptable to the public eye. The best way to do this was to “invite” the two to a room, continue to exert mental pressure on them, and to keep going until through their psychological defense broke. This was especially true for the Lucky Finger man. The staff with high cheekbones was confident that he could make him confess within ten sentences.

In the end, though, he chose the third method.

The staff with high cheekbones asked someone to bring a bottle of Bordeaux wine and presented it to the young couple. At the same time, he apologized and said, “We are so sorry. Our mistake has caused you unnecessary trouble. This is a gift from the casino. I hope you will have a good time here tonight.”

There was a look of surprise on the Lucky Finger man, while his counterpart snorted coldly, “Mistakes were made. How can we still have fun tonight?”

The staff with high cheekbones smiled, “I’m extremely sorry. If you do not wish to stay here any longer, you are free to leave at any time.”

“Are you sure?” the woman asked. “Of course! We have neither right nor reason to keep you here.” The staff with high cheekbones took two steps back and politely gestured to the door with both hands.

“You’re always welcome to visit us again.”

“Hmph, I will never come back to this kind of place in my entire life!”

The woman in the camisole dropped the sentence and dragged her husband to get the money that they won. The pair grabbed the cash and stormed out of the casino in a mighty hurry.

As soon as he got out, the Lucky Finger man in a flannel shirt and a silver watch heaved a massive sigh of relief. He could not help but start to complain, “I told you to stop just now, but you insisted on playing another round of poker. Great! Now, we can’t enter this casino anymore.”

After they walked to a place with no one around them, the woman immediately let go of her husband’s hand. “What are you afraid of? I know you well! With whatever little guts you have, you wouldn’t come here again anyway, even if they didn’t approach us. Best thank me because you got to make some more money before you left. I should take more than 10% this time. You should pay me half the reward!” she sneered.

“Half? Are you kidding? You didn’t even do anything! All you did was pretend to be my wife to cover me. My partner and I did all the technical work,” flannel-shirt argued.

“You are just a bunch of nerds. If it weren’t for your crappy acting, they would have never approached us. What’s more, I have already made you almost 200,000 euros, and I still have less than 20,000 euros in my pocket. To be fair, I’ve contributed a lot as well.”

“You just need to dress skimpily, show some skin, and laugh as loud as you can to attract the attention of the cameras and staff. Think about your previous job-you lost nothing in this job,” growled flannel-shirt, his eyes about to pop out their sockets.