The Spotted Ball, a True Story by Larry Cohen c 2025
Chapter 11
“Mommy, Mommy! Look!”
My readers may ask, and rightfully so, Is a 35:1 odds a fair return on one’s “investment”? Well, actually no. I answer in the negative since when the player wins the casino wins, too. How could that be, ask my doubting readers.
The answer lies in the fact that in American roulette there are 38 possibilities in a numerical outcome: numbers 1 through 36 plus zero and double zero. The original European roulette layout, a layout that still remains in Europe, had only a single zero (normally in green), but we greedy Westerners added an extra green number as Double Zero. Therefore, if the House were not to earn anything, the payback would be 38:1, not 35:1. Given the fact that the casino is a business, we allow them a percentage of our win. To give them three dollars from our thirty-eight dollars is a bit on the greedy side, no?
However, most North American casinos include that extra Double Zero. That small addition gives the casino a huge advantage since, should either the Zero or now the Double Zero win, all of the odd/even and red/black bets lose as well as the column and other various bets outside of the numerical portion.
Momentarily returning to Chapter 1 and to Howard’s Variety Store, I realized only when I was older that Mr. Howard was not as generous as he seemed. The House, “Mr. Howard”, kept the original penny invested as well as the spotted gumball. Thus, we kids really only gained four cents on our penny investment. At the roulette table, the player gets to keep his original bet. Apparently, Mr. Howard was not up on casino play (or maybe he was and just thought it was easier to cheat us kids than adults). The point here is that in casino play, players keep their original bet should they win.
“Mommy, mommy! Look! Two yellow Corvettes in row” exclaims the excited little girl in the back seat of their car to her mother as her mother patiently waits for the traffic signal to change to green. The part of this sentence that should draw my readers attention is not the fact that the little girl recognizes Corvettes, but that she sees an unusual pattern in that two, relatively rare cars, are there, one behind the other at the same time. Even the little girl can spot what seems to be a rare event. But, is it?
What if there were a car show going on?
What if there were a car auction nearby?
But even notwithstanding those possibilities, it makes perfectly good sense that there would be two yellow corvettes back to back. Allow me, dear readers, to explain.
To be continued: