The Spotted Ball, a True Story by Larry Cohen c 2025
Chapter 13
There is no Chapter 13 here, dear readers, just as there is no 13th floor in many high-rise commercial and residential buildings. Have you ever received a document where nothing is printed on it except the words “This Page Left Blank”? Well, in that same tradition and with that same sentiment, there is no Chapter 13 in my True Story as we continue on with Chapter 14
Chapter 14
“The Enemy”
I never had a sanguine relationship with the roulette wheel spinners. I considered them to be “the enemy” . They worked for the casino, didn’t they, and their job was to hope that we, the players, lost, and they, as representatives of the casino, won. This adversarial relationship only made sense. When I would see players “tip” the spinners after a win, frankly, I found it repulsive. The spinners should tip the players who are losing. I have yet to see this, however.
As I slowly learned the Game of “21” mostly by osmosis. I never studied the game in depth. However, I realized that the casino was not just, in Wall Street terms, the “ market maker”, that is, putting two parties together with mutual interests. No, playing “21” was like having the dealer as well as the guy sitting next to you knowing what the cards were ahead of time. I could never see a winning formula for this game. Yet, a schoolmate of mine (not a classmate since he was two semesters ahead of me) did see a formula. He became so feared by casinos that he was eventually barred from playing anywhere and everywhere in the United States and beyond. I came to learn of his ability and success in this game of Black Jack when I told him I was looking for new material for a script. He sent me notes that he meticulously kept on his years of casino play. What those notes, the script wrote itself. In a later chapter, I’ll detail more about my schoolmate, his background, and how he came to be feared, and then banned, by the casinos.
Back at the roulette table, I once met a retired school principal as a fellow player. For the sake of clarity, I will call this casino, Casino A. He was a small-time player. He introduced himself to me and I could see that he was a friendly guy, a few years older than I was, short in stature but in a well built frame. He always arrived casually dressed in well-ironed button-down collar shirts. He said he liked roulette because it was a “quiet game” unlike the craps tables which was generally surrounded by a vociferous crowd of hard-core gamblers. In fact, he referred to it as “a gentleman’s game” While I never saw it in those terms, I noticed over time his bets had grown larger and so did his losses. Within a month, I saw how gradually he was “circling the drain” as I call it. This happens when one becomes so deeply enamored with the game that he loses sight of the short-term mission. He should have been circling the wagons, not the drain. His habituation had become so intense that I could see he no longer conversed with fellow players. Now, I realized he was just trying to reclaim his losses, something that one never does. Here is where the casinos win and the players, educated as they may be, lose.
To be continued….