"But, go on, go on," came the chorus from about the table.
"No," said Kennedy quietly, "that is part of the system, too--to
quit when you have won back your stakes and a little more."
"Huh!" exclaimed DeLong in disgust. "Suppose you were in for some
thousands--you wouldn't quit. If you had real sporting blood you
wouldn't quit, anyhow!"
Kennedy calmly passed over the open insult, letting it be
understood that he ignored this beardless youth.
"There is no way you can beat the game in the long run if you
keep at it," he answered simply. "It is mathematically
impossible. Consider. We are Croesuses--we hire players to stake
money for us on every possible number at every coup. How do we
come out? If there are no '0' or '00,' we come out after each
coup precisely where we started--we are paying our own money back
and forth among ourselves; we have neither more nor less. But
with the '0' and '00' the bank sweeps the board every so often.
It is only a question of time when, after paying our money back
and forth among ourselves, it has all filtered through the '0'
and '00' into the bank. It is not a game of chance for the
bank--ah, it is exact, mathematical--c'est une question d'
arithmetique, seulement, nest-ce pas, messieurs?"
"Perhaps," admitted DeLong, "but it doesn't explain why I am
losing to-night while everyone else is winning.
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