He was too warm in his suit. He returned to the air conditioned hotel
and entered the casino.
Loud music. Hellish reds and blacks. The women that Jacky had
remembered were seated in front of rows of flashing slot machines. The
women pulled long levers mechanically; win or lose, they pulled again.
Bells rang as an occasional jackpot cascaded from a machine.
Oliver recognized the crap tables--elongated mahogany figure eights,
surrounded by players leaning over the action. Dice rolled, bounced,
and tumbled to a stop on the gleaming green felt. People cheered or
groaned.
The roulette wheels were in a different section. The blackjack dealers
were beyond the roulette wheels. At the far end of the casino, behind
bars, cashiers exchanged chips for money or vice versa. Cashing in your
chips, for real, Oliver thought. He pushed $1000 toward a cashier.
"What do you want?" Oliver hesitated. "Hundreds, twenties, tens, fives,
what?"
"Give me one hundred dollar chip," Oliver said, "the rest, tens and
fives."
"You want to leave some in the cage?"
"Five hundred," Oliver said. The cashier issued him a plastic card with
a magnetic strip.
"Give this to the pit boss when you want more.
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