That’s how much Forbes estimates Adelson’s fortune was worth as of March 2019. It was at that point that I remembered the words of Rudyard Kipling: 'If you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss, and lose, and start again at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss - you're drunk. Emitting a short, vowelless sound by way of dismissal, off he went.įriend Doctor and Friend Bursar spent the evening attempting to unpick the byzantine tangle of rules at the craps table, at one point celebrating what they had understood to be a victory, but what - to the amusement of the croupiers - the more seasoned punters had correctly identified as a hands-down defeat.Īs for me, I lost the lot on one final, boozily arrogant staking of my pot on red. 'Can't lose!' he declared: 'So long as I keep doubling up after any losses, I'm bound to come out all right in the end.' Those with a clearer grasp of exponential arithmetic pointed out to him that given the minimum bet was £5, if he came to grief 10 times on the run, he would be having to lay down stakes of £5,120 to recover his losses, which might leave him a bit tight for the bus on the way home. An example: Friend Councillor proclaimed his intent to bet on black at the roulette table all night. All of my little coterie were men of ability and demonstrably functioning brains, yet in that room each of us conceived, however dimly, visions of instant wealth.Ībsurd theories abounded. 'Ah,' smiled my friend, 'I won't be seeing you again this evening then, will I?'Ī refreshing moment of honesty, that - although probably a sacking offence - in an otherwise unrelenting parade of impossible dreams.Ĭasinos seem to cause the soundest minds to become untethered and flap about in hot air of their own making.

'No, no,' she said, 'you buy the chips at the table, and at the end of the night you cash in what you have here.' Our tyro status was confirmed a few moments into the evening when one of our party approached the woman at the cashier's desk, wishing to buy some chips. In the event, of course, we looked crashingly out of place among the Nike caps and Argos jewellery.

Anticipating an evening of glamour and suavity, we had dressed accordingly so as not look out of place among the white tuxedos and the wing collars when flitting from baccarat table to roulette wheel with our thin-stemmed cocktail glasses.

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