Empire of Shadows

The change of ownership at Golden Port Casino caused quite a stir in gambling circles.

On one hand, Bandi was actually a decent guy. After he started running the casino, he gathered many gambling experts, or rather, cheating experts.

Not only did he not despise these people, but he also befriended them, gave them valuable gifts, and even gave them money.

Including those professional gambling hounds.

These professional gambling hounds are not cheaters. They are more like people who use scientific calculation methods to obtain the maximum probability of winning and then always stand on the side with the highest probability.

Although there are wins and losses, overall, the probability of winning is higher.

When blackjack swept the Federation, a true story emerged in Paradise City of a high school math teacher winning hundreds of thousands from a casino.

As long as one calculates and analyzes rationally, then with enough sample data, the more rounds of hands played, the greater the probability of winning, and the more profit gained.

This group of people also gained Bandi's friendship. They frequented different casinos in different regions, indirectly promoting Bandi's reputation.

Secondly, Bandi always gave people the feeling that the Kodak family would never fall. He always talked about the big shots and upper-class figures he knew, making people mistakenly believe that he was also a member of the upper class.

Coupled with his firm control over the gambling industry in Golden Port City, the state government had not issued any new casino franchise licenses for many years, which also made many people believe that the Kodak family had a great influence in the state government.

But such a family with great influence and wealth was disintegrated in an instant and became a thing of the past, which inevitably shocked some people!

Inevitably, some people will have some unfriendly thoughts about Lance and the Lance family, who are not very famous.

The gambling industry is also a relatively closed industry, and it also has its own unique rules.

Many people think that cheaters should be despised, but in fact, those who are despised are those whose skills are not good enough and are easily discovered.

Those who are truly skilled cheaters become the objects of respect and emulation, and of course, this also includes those gambling hounds with special talents or special abilities.

For example, some people have a good memory. After they sit down, they will ask the dealer to change to a new deck of cards, and then remember the approximate order of the first dozens of cards by observing the shuffling process.

Some people can also judge what cards others are likely to have by obtaining some elemental information, thereby winning.

These people are respected by gamblers. Not only do they earn a lot of money through their gambling skills, but they also become important VIPs in various casinos, achieving both fame and fortune!

This time, with the change of ownership of Golden Port Casino, whether it is to repay Bandi for the benefits he once gave them, or to show their faces in front of the new casino operator, so that the other party knows that they are not easy to mess with, so as to reach a new cooperative relationship.

They all need to make this Mr. Lance realize that in this industry, without a deep enough background and ability, a casino is not so easy to open.

At a little after eight in the morning, four gentlemen gathered at a table in the hotel restaurant that was part of the Golden Port Casino.

The hotel's breakfast has many varieties and is very rich.

The accommodation price here is not cheap, but many people still choose to live here because it is right above the casino.

Every day, after waking up, they only need to take a shower and take an elevator to reach the casino below, which is the most suitable place for those gamblers who don't even have enough time to gamble.

On the plates on the table were their breakfasts: ham and egg sandwiches, bacon rolls, macaroni and cheese, and some fruit.

These four people have a lot of fame in the gambling industry because they all have their own unique skills. In other words, they win more and lose less, and are the kind who are blacklisted by many casinos.

Their gathering in Golden Port City this time is definitely not for tourism, but also for the Golden Port Casino.

"Yesterday I remember that guy already went in, is there any new news?"

One of them, a man in his forties wearing round-framed glasses who looked like an honest and simple person, said.

He ate breakfast while looking at the others.

The short man sitting across from him shook his head, "I don't know, I didn't see him."

As he spoke, he straightened up and looked around, but did not see the person they were looking for.

"Could something have happened?"

Another guy in his thirties, wearing a floral shirt and looking a bit handsome, asked with some worry.

He was actually uneasy in his heart. These people were considered friends with good relationships. They met in the casino and exchanged gambling skills with each other.

Without considering cheating, everyone's level was actually very good, so they were able to become friends.

After becoming friends, they swept through the casinos of the entire Federation together, and also made their own reputation, and at the same time earned a lot of money.

Many casinos would give them a sum of money to avoid trouble and then add them to the blacklist.

Although they can't gamble in casinos now, they can still play in competitions. Some casinos will hold some card game competitions from time to time to increase the popularity of their casinos.

As long as they don't cheat, these competitions are still welcome.

The total prize money for some competitions is as high as two or three hundred thousand, and the average is also thirty to fifty thousand.

There are more than a dozen such competitions every year. As long as they are diligent and lucky, they can always win one or two games.

An annual income of thirty to fifty thousand, plus the money they earned before, is enough to maintain their expenses.

This time they came to Golden Port City, in addition to someone suggesting to vent their anger on Bandi, there was also an idea to knock a sum from the new casino boss.

The floral shirt was very worried that something would go wrong, but the others thought that nothing would go wrong.

As long as they are not caught cheating on the spot, then with their reputation in the gambling industry, it is very likely that the casino will follow the rules of this industry.

Give them some money and then send them away.

Although this approach seems like begging, they ultimately get a sum of money, and they can also vent their anger on Bandi.

The floral shirt felt that the Lance family's ability to replace the Kodak family was definitely not the reasons reported in the newspapers—that there were internal problems in the Kodak family, and that the capital chain had broken, there must be deeper problems, but these people were unwilling to listen.

Now that guy hasn't come back, which makes him even more worried.

The restaurant is located on the twelfth floor of the entire hotel, right in the middle and upper part.

The surrounding circle of floor-to-ceiling glass windows allows them to overlook the entire Golden Port City, whether it is the city center, the Starlight District, or the most beautiful Bay Area, all can be seen.

Just as they were worried about what happened to their companion, suddenly someone exclaimed, and then more people stood up and walked towards one side.

Just at that moment, something screamed and fell from outside the glass curtain wall on one side, it was a person!

Someone in the restaurant immediately exclaimed, "Someone jumped off the building!"

This is one of the casino's reserved programs. Many people lose all their money in the casino and owe a lot of money, and after they are unable to repay it, they often choose to jump.

If a casino has never had anyone jump off the building, then there must be problems with this casino in terms of operation and income.

But people can't jump off the building often, that would mean that this casino is collecting too harshly.

People like to watch the excitement, even if they understand deep down that the guy lying downstairs may be themselves tomorrow.

A large group of people surrounded the glass curtain wall, and the floral shirt and the others also squeezed to the glass curtain wall and looked down.

Here you can just see the corpse. He landed on the platform on the sixth floor and broke into two pieces, looking extremely miserable.

Many people were commenting on something, while the faces of the floral shirt and the others gradually became not very good.

Because they found that the clothes that person was wearing were the style of their missing friend.

"It should be...a coincidence."

The crowd was dispersed, and the four of them no longer had the idea of continuing to eat breakfast. They discussed it and decided to go down and take a look.

Before the police arrived, they saw the dead guy.

Although his whole body was deformed, they could still tell that this guy was their "late" friend.

The four people fell silent for a moment.

"He's not the kind of person who would jump off a building,"

Someone said.

The middle-aged man with glasses nodded, "Yes, you're right, but he jumped off the building, you saw it, right there."

The floral shirt couldn't help but say, "Let's leave here!"

"I feel a strong unease, he was thrown down from above!"

The other three fell into silence. The middle-aged man with glasses exhaled, "They broke the rules."

The floral shirt was a little numb, "What the hell do you care if they broke the rules, people are dead now, brother!"

"They are using this method to warn us, to tell us to stay away from here, don't you feel it?"

"I really am...I have to go back and pack my luggage, I'm leaving here!"

"I don't want my parents to receive a call from the police station in a few days, and the police tell them that I also jumped off the building!"

The floral shirt left without hesitation, he was obviously frightened.

Yesterday everyone was still chatting together, talking about the friend who was competing in September, and now he is lying on the ground and has become two pieces.

His eyeballs had been squeezed out by the massive impact. The mere thought of that gruesome image filled him with both fear and disgust.

The other three looked at each other, and ultimately, they all chose to leave.

Clearly, the Lance family wasn't like the operators of other casinos. They didn't care much about, nor did they respect, people with skills like theirs.

Soon, the police arrived at the scene. After a brief investigation, they concluded that the man had committed suicide.

The injuries from the fall concealed other wounds on his body, and the medical examiner cleverly touched up some of the unhidden injuries.

Currently, the entire police system was receiving subsidies from the Lance family. Moreover, Lance had established a foundation to ensure that all police officers wouldn't miss out on treatment or their children's college opportunities due to a lack of funds when a large sum of money was needed.

Everyone sincerely appreciated Lance. If a poll were taken to determine who the most respected person was in the eyes of the Goldport City police, without a doubt, it would be Lance.

Later that day, more photos and news about the jumper were published in the newspaper.

Because his corpse had dirtied the hotel's sixth-floor terrace, and because it had shattered and splattered everywhere, approximately seventy dollars in cleaning fees were incurred.

The police and the hotel required his family to pay this cash before they could take away his body or ashes.

Some people who had seen this guy in the casino, as well as some who knew him, realized in this incident that Lance was not Bandi. He wouldn't allow those people to extort him and his casino.

Although this made many professional gamblers somewhat dissatisfied, they could only keep their dissatisfaction to themselves.

In the afternoon, the casino disseminated information through various channels, welcoming any normal guests to gamble in the casino.

Not only could they lose money to the casino, but they could also win a large sum of money from the casino, but there was a prerequisite: cheating was not allowed.

As long as they didn't cheat, even if a guest won a million dollars, the casino would guarantee their safety and the security of their funds.

But if someone cheated, even if that person only won a dollar.

Lance guaranteed that he wouldn't leave Goldport City alive!

In addition to this message, which was verified with someone's life, there was another message.

Each floor of the casino would introduce a new game called "Lance Poker." Its rules and gameplay were simpler, but it was more fun and playable than ordinary games, and everyone was welcome to try it.

This new "Lance Poker" game was actually Zha Jin Hua (炸金花, a poker variant), which didn't exist in the Federation, at least not in this era.

The greatest joy of this game was that even if you had the smallest hand, as long as you were brave enough, you could scare away those with big hands.

The casino didn't participate in the game but would deduct five percent of the pot from each round as a table fee.

The gamblers were very interested in the new gambling method, and the casino mentioned "winner takes all" in its promotion, which made those gamblers who liked excitement very interested.

The suicide of the cheater during the day did not affect the casino's business at night. No matter which floor, the Lance Poker tables were crowded with people, and there were even not enough tables!

The tables were divided into eight-person tables and twelve-person tables. The most popular were always the twelve-person tables. Using one dollar to win eleven dollars, the gamblers knew how to choose to maximize their interests.

The gameplay itself was not complicated, but these people had already figured out some of its fun. When someone took the whole table with a small hand, it would cause a burst of exclamations from the onlookers!

There was no more exciting and thrilling game than this. In just a few hours, it became the most popular game in the casino, without exception.

Even Morris sincerely admired Lance's "omnipotence." Don't think that this game seems very simple, as if the casino can't make much money, but in reality, it's not like that.

According to current statistics, the tables on the first floor can generate at least two dollars of income per minute, and a table's daily income is about three thousand dollars.

This number doesn't seem very amazing, but what if the number of tables is ten, twenty?

And this is just the first floor.

The minimum bet on the second floor is ten times that of the first floor, which means that the tables on the second floor generate about twenty dollars of income per minute, which is close to thirty thousand dollars a day.

There are fewer tables on the second floor, only eight. Even if only three tables are full every day, that's still at least eighty to ninety thousand dollars in income per day.

On the third floor, the minimum bet is increased to fifty dollars. If an eight-person table only checks in the first round every hand, it can still generate at least twenty to thirty dollars in profit.

But when people really get to the third floor, it's impossible for them to just check for the first round, so the profit generated per minute is more than fifty dollars.

As long as one table can be filled, it can bring at least about eighty thousand dollars in profit to the casino every day.

Adding these up, a new game can bring in a guaranteed income of 200,000 per day, not including the free-spending tables on the fourth and fifth floors.

The casino does not participate as the dealer in this game, which means that the casino has no losses.

Unlike games like Blackjack, which are gambling between the casino and the players, sometimes the casino even loses money.

Winning two games and losing two games is like playing for nothing, but Lance Poker is not like that. All income is profit, and there is no possibility of losing money.

The more crazy the players are, the more money the casino makes!

A city with a population of two million on the East Coast, and still expanding, this is definitely not its limit!

With the upcoming influx of hundreds of thousands or even more high-income earners, the casino's revenue will exceed people's imagination!

After the first day of trial operation, Morris was dumbfounded. He had never imagined that this game would make players constantly throw money onto the gambling table!

Perhaps it was because of greed, wanting to win more, but in the end, they lost even more!

And this game has another advantage, that is, the hatred generated by the players is not directed at the casino.

Unlike other games, if players lose too much and their mentality collapses, they will feel that this is the casino's problem.

That the dealer cheated, or some other reason, they will resent the casino for taking their money.

But Lance Poker is different, they will only hate other players, not the casino.

Lance is a genius!

However, Lance told him not to be too happy too soon. The popularity of Lance Poker now is only because it has just appeared.

As it begins to drain people's pockets, this crazy income will drop. Perhaps by the end of next year, the profits it brings will decrease.

But even if it drops by half, it will still be the most profitable table among all the games in the casino, without exception!