"Wh--what does it mean?" asked DeLong blankly.
"It means that you had little enough chance to win at a straight
game of roulette. But the wheel is very rarely straight, even
with all the odds in favour of the bank, as they are. This game
was electrically controlled. Others are mechanically controlled
by what is sometimes called the 'mule's ear,' and other devices.
You can't win. These wires and magnets can be made to attract the
little ball into any pocket the operator desires. Each one of
those pockets contains a little electro-magnet. One set of
magnets in the red pockets is connected with one button under the
carpet and a battery. The other set in the black pockets is
connected with another button and the battery. This ball is not
really of platinum. Platinum is nonmagnetic. It is simply a soft
iron hollow ball, plated with platinum. Whichever set of
electro-magnets is energised attracts the ball and by this simple
method it is in the power of the operator to let the ball go to
red or black as he may wish. Other similar arrangements control
the odd or even, and other combinations from other push buttons.
A special arrangement took care of that '17' freak. There isn't
an honest gambling-machine in the whole place--I might almost
say the whole city. The whole thing is crooked from start to
finish--the men, the machines, the--"
"That machine could be made to beat me by turning up a run of
'17' any number of times, or red or black, or odd or even, over
'18' or under '18,' or anything?"
"Anything, DeLong.
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