Cha-Ching! Read Online Free PDF

learned about roulette from reading Dostoyevsky’s The Gambler . Rumor has it that Dostoyevsky wrote that story as a way to get money to pay off a huge gambling debt. Theo believed it—only a true gambler could write the kind of roulette scenes he did, with that perfect mix of blind hope and insanity. The grandmother who can’t stop plunking rubles down on zero after just having won on that very number. Zero. Zero. Zero . She won’t stop saying it. Theo was terrified to turn the page because she knew every winning streak eventually has to come to an end. All of the grandmother’s relatives surround her at the table, sickened by her bravado, because if she loses all her money there’ll be nothing left to mooch from her.
    Theo watched the silver ball jump around the wheel.
    â€œRed seven,” the croupier said, setting the marker down next to Theo’s chips and throwing her an apologetic look before sweeping them away.
    This time she put five dollars on number seven and five dollars on number eight.
    â€œGood luck,” the croupier said, spinning the wheel again.
    If either of her numbers hit, she would win $175. She watched the ball rattle around while the wheel slowed down, popping into the number eight slot and then out again.
    â€œBlack thirteen,” the croupier said, dropping his marker and sweeping Theo’s chips away again.
    She thought about betting thirteen, but decided to push her final five chips to the number eight. If she stopped betting eight now and it hit she’d never forgive herself.
    â€œGood luck,” the croupier repeated.
    Theo turned her back to the spinning wheel and lit a cigarette. She could hear way off in a corner of the casino the sound of someone vacuuming, then the clicking of the ball in the slots.
    â€œBlack thirteen,” the croupier called out.
    Theo couldn’t believe it had come up thirteen two spins in a row. She gave the croupier a defeated smile and walked away from the table. Since she’d done well the first time she’d ever played roulette, somewhere in her brain she really believed she had a knack for it or that maybe she was somehow able to will the silver ball to nestle into the slots of her favorite numbers. Winning is the worst thing that can happen to a gambler. After that first big win, Theo took the free casino bus from San Francisco to Reno several times a week, telling herself she was doing it to supplement the income from her job as a cashier at the Party Store. There were coupons in the paper that not only made the ride to the casino free, but gave travelers twenty-five dollars in “free” gambling money. She got paid fifty dollars to work a seven-hour shift at the Party Store, so instead of getting a second job, she would try to win a hundred dollars at the casino. The trick was getting out the door with the winnings.
    Theo wandered over to a table where a few guys were clapping and yelling. The craps table is always the liveliest table in a casino. She didn’t know how to play craps, so she just stood to the side next to a balding white guy wearing a ripped tuxedo T-shirt.
    â€œCocktails,” the cocktail waitress said, stopping next to Theo.
    â€œCoke, please,” Theo said.
    â€œJack and Coke,” Tuxedo-tee said.
    â€œYou playing?” he asked Theo.
    â€œI don’t know how.”
    â€œI can show you. I’m trying to quit,” he said. “I just got married.”
    Theo nodded.
    â€œMarriage is a compromise,” he told Theo.
    She was surprised he was so forthcoming.
    â€œYour best odds in the casino are right here,” Tuxedo-tee said, pointing to the craps table. “If you’ve got two hundred dollars to start with you can practically make a living off this.”
    â€œI like easy living,” Theo said.
    â€œWhat’s your name?”
    â€œTheo.”
    â€œMark,” Tuxedo-tee said. “You got two hundred dollars, Theo?”
    Theo