Casino Wizard

When I decided to start a casino five years ago, there were certain principles I set out to follow.

never open 24 hours.

no more than one glass of wine.

20 silver per bet.

All for dopamine suppression.

I compromised and increased the betting limit to 30 silver, but I still keep the other rules.

These rules were put in place to create fewer deadbeats and keep them around for as long as possible.

There were many customers who complained about this.

– “How am I supposed to play when I work until the evening? I can come in like a madman as soon as I get off work, but you’re already closing!”

– Play on weekdays. Don’t go crazy.”

– “You want me to put up with once a week? That’s ridiculous! That’s ridiculous!”

I’ve had customers cry that they can’t stand once a week.

-Hey, Hyden. We ran into each other a few times when you were in the hero party, didn’t we? Actually, I’ve got a favor to ask on behalf of some friends. Uh, something about baccarat? I don’t really get what they’re talking about, but they’re practically begging me to ask you to set up a 200-die game instead of the usual 30-die one.

I also had a client who was pressured by a high-ranking nobleman to create a high-stakes table.

I understood what they were thinking.

I understood what they were thinking: ‘They want to win big, and they’re not comfortable.

One silver is worth about 10,000 won in a past life. One hundred silvers was one gold.

We had the best tables with a 30-die, or 30-silver max bet.

There’s an idea to open a VIP room.

But it’s something that needs to be done carefully. I was still looking at the angles to make it as safe as possible.

It might seem like I’m being overly inhibited.

But even with all this restraint, sometimes things happen.

Apparently, today was one of those days.

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

That’s what I thought when I heard the scream that just erupted from the baccarat table.

“It’s blown. For better or worse.

I smiled bitterly and looked in the direction of the sound.

The attention of not just me, but everyone in the room…

The person who made the noise didn’t seem to care.

“It’s heeere! It’s heeere!”

“Uh, sir? Please calm down.”

“Banker7! Player7! You’ve tied, huh…!”

“Congratulations. Now please calm down.”

“This is how we do it!”

I saw an old man jumping up and down in excitement.

He didn’t seem to listen to the dealer’s pleas, and even the servers who were carrying drinks joined in and tried to restrain him.

He even said.

“Didn’t I say it would come up…!? Didn’t I!? Didn’t I!?”

“Please, maintain your dignity.”

“Dignity, my ass!”

Unable to control his excitement, he started shaking his shoulders and dancing.

He pounded on the table and did a break dance to mock the people playing baccarat with him.

“What the heck, this guy.

As I stared in disbelief, one of the employees came up to me and explained.

“Hey, boss,” he said, ”he’s been playing for two hours.”

“I see what you mean. I guess he lost a little bit and finally won.”

“Yes, so it seems people around openly mocked him. Right after that, he hit the mark and got excited, apparently.”

“Not going crazy would actually be the abnormal thing.”

“Baccarat is ultimately just a game of odd or even.”

However, apart from the odd/even bet, you could also bet on a tie (when the player and banker have the same score) or a pair (when the two cards dealt have the same number).

A tie pays 8 times the bet amount, and a pair pays 12 times the bet amount.

It was that difficult to hit. The probability of a tie occurring is 9.5%. They don’t offer 8 times the payout for nothing.

It’s a shortcut to disaster if you bet recklessly, but…

Sometimes you hit like that.

Once you taste that feeling, you can never escape baccarat. You become convinced that “the bet I made based on my intuition paid off.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. I… did it!”

“Let’s keep it reasonable. Are you done, or not?”

“Of course I’m going! I’ll keep going until I die!”

Luckily, things calmed down after a while.

I didn’t intervene, I just took a back seat.

It was a little loud, but nothing major.

I’m sure everyone is betting hard, envious of the jackpot (not really a jackpot) winner who’s having a blast.

“Okay, that’s taken care of.

Up until this point, I was just a spectator.

A pretty fun spectator, too.

But every once in a while, something would happen that I would have to intervene.

“Uh… Hyden oppa?”

It was oppa, not the boss. When I turned my head, the female archer was standing there.

Shirt, vest, bowtie.

Not exactly the attire of an archer at a hero’s party.

But when it comes to hospitality, there was no choice. If she wore a scout uniform with pockets all over it, she’d be immediately suspected of using tricks.

The female archer also considers her time at the hero’s party to be a black mark on her history, so she doesn’t regret it.

On the contrary, she was quite happy to be a dealer, but for some reason, she was openly nervous now.

“Brother, don’t look at the game table from now on, just pretend you’re chatting with me.”

The archer smirked and slid her butt across my table.

This means she’s conscious of someone’s gaze. I crossed my arms, deciding to respond appropriately.

“Okay, tell me.”

“Actually, there’s a woman who’s been hanging around the baccarat and blackjack tables for a couple months now, watching the games and only occasionally playing at the lowest bets.”

“Don’t you get a lot of customers who just pay to watch?”

“It’s just that she don’t seem like a total loser.”

“You think there’s an ulterior motive?”

“Yeah… maybe.”

Lucy works as a dealer herself and is in charge of managing her subordinates. I wasn’t surprised to know she caught something I hadn’t seen from the second floor.

I wondered what the hell was going on.

There were three possible scenarios.

“Thieves?”

“I thought so at first, but no.”

“So you were just looking for a chance to pick up some big bucks?”

“Sorry, no.”

That leaves one possibility.

Maybe it was something much worse than shoplifting.

“Lucy, I’m just going to ask, did she exchange money with any of our clients?”

“You guessed it, Hyden oppa.”

“Because that’s all there is.”

“Yeah. I think she’s a loan shark who’s taking advantage of our customers.”

So that’s it.

I let out a short sigh, thinking I’d become a nuisance.

“It was bound to happen eventually.

The casino was full of patrons who had run out of money.

If you didn’t have money, you had to go home. Or visit a safe deposit box or pawn shop.

But that’s not how gamblers work.

…I need to recover my losses and leave. I was too hasty earlier and lost, but if I challenge again, I can count cards calmly and make it. I’ve got a feeling, but I don’t have any money in my pocket. If I just had some cash, if I just had some stakes, this time for sure.

“I can win!” they would always end up convincing themselves like that.

It seemed like there was someone who was exploiting that mindset to make money. Or maybe they’ve been around all along, and I’ve only just noticed.

“she’s lending money to customers who need it in a hurry, after all.”

“I’ve only recently caught on.”

“…Phew.”

A loan shark, sneaking profits without my permission.

I soon recognized the face.

“oppa, over there, don’t look too closely.”

The archer pointed with a sideways glance at table four of blackjack.

A young woman with green hair was talking to a man. She was in her early to mid-20s, wearing an off-the-shoulder dress.

At first glance, it looked like just a conversation between a man and a woman.

But this isn’t a social club; there’s no room for casual conversation here.

The green-haired woman gently coaxed the man, who was gaping open-mouthed as if he had lost his mind, and eventually led him outside.

Up until this point, it was just a picture of a woman picking up a man and taking him out…

But the two returned shortly afterward.

Not together, but separately, with a roughly five-minute time difference.

“Oppa, do you see? The man who was just staring blankly a moment ago is sitting back at the table. And he’s at the 30 silver table, no less.”

“Yeah. I see it too.”

“And the green-haired one is playing on the Big Wheel. They’re not even making eye contact with each other, are they? They’re so sneaky, I never caught them.”

This was enough to convince me.

That the green-haired woman was a loan shark operating in our neighborhood.

“What’s her name?”

“Miriam. I got it from the lobby clerk.”

“Miriam… Yeah.”

“What are we going to do, oppa?”

The archer asked as she slid off my desk and stood.

The loan shark. Honestly, in the short term, it couldn’t hurt.

‘It might even help sales.’

A customer with empty pockets from gambling, and another who approached him and offered him a small fortune.

…Actually, the latter isn’t really a customer, but she’s paid the entrance fee and occasionally plays, so I guess I should call her a customer.

In the end, it was a private monetary transaction between customers.

Technically, it was none of my business.

Even with the terms of lending money with a 10% interest and a 1-night, 2-day deadline, or with the condition that if the money isn’t repaid, they’d relentlessly follow and use violence to collect outside the casino.

But in the long run, it was harmful to the business.

Once you start spending money, your life goes downhill too fast.

From my previous life, I knew all too well how debt collectors can destroy a debtor.

If I left it alone, I would lose customers and it would become a burden on me.

‘I can’t let this happen.’

Besides, my business was outside the capital.

A casino set up by remodeling the old grand mansion.

What if word got out that the casino was producing debt-ridden, dying humans? penalties were likely to come.

Being from a hero party didn’t exempt me from any penalties. In the first place, we weren’t a respected hero party to begin with.

And there was another, even more annoying reason.

“You’re saying they were playing loan shark games without my permission.”

“She probably knows too. That it’s not a good idea to get caught by you.”

I glanced down at the casino, which was still bustling with customers.

Green-haired Miriam wove her way through the patrons, her buns bobbing gently. Probably picking out another prey.

At first glance, she seemed like just a lively young lady.

But in my eyes, she only looked disgusting.

“I’ll have to cut her out. As soon as possible.”

Because she was a parasite that had latched onto my precious business.