"It's this slot machine. Trust me, barring any accidents, you'll definitely hit the jackpot before you run out of tokens."
Mike led Meemaw Connie, who had exchanged over two hundred tokens, to a deserted gaming machine.
There's an unspoken rule in arcades: the more popular a machine is, the easier it is to hit the jackpot. This involves the "probability compensation" theory.
Although the slot machine Mike chose was currently deserted, many people must have patronized it before. The reason for its lack of popularity was probably that the owner had set the winning probability too low. Players who never saw returns eventually gave up on this machine.
However, under the law of conservation of energy, this machine was actually more likely to hit the jackpot.
"I trust you~"
Meemaw Connie, returning to the arcade, seemed to be holding her breath. Without saying another word, she took the box full of tokens to the slot machine.
The gameplay of the slot machine is simple: for every one-dollar token inserted, you can press the machine's button once. Three rows of various picture sequences will appear on the screen. When the scrolling pictures stop, if three identical pictures appear, it's a win. To hit the jackpot, all three pictures on the screen need to be gold cups.
With the "clattering" sound of coins dropping and the "ding-ding-ding" of the button, the tokens in Meemaw Connie's box gradually decreased. Until more than fifty tokens were inserted, this slot machine still hadn't produced a single small prize.
Meemaw Connie's frantic coin-inserting behavior also attracted the attention of many players. Many of them looked like they wanted to say something but stopped, seeming to want to persuade Meemaw Connie. But in the end, they chose to continue watching.
"Mom~"
Mary, who hadn't been to the arcade much, saw her mother throw away more than fifty dollars in such a short time and finally couldn't help it. The excitement of gambling is really not something ordinary people can enjoy.
"I'm fine!"
Meemaw Connie, who was already caught up in the moment, had no time to pay attention to Mary. Easy to get addicted, wanting to win back losses, wanting to win more after winning—this is also the terrible part of gambling.
"Mike, Connie won't be in trouble, right!"
Seeing her mother looking possessed, Mary turned her gaze to Mike and asked for help. The group accompanying them also looked at Mike; their moods were similar to Mary's.
"It doesn't matter; the result will come out soon."
Mike was very calm at this time. In this situation, the less frequently small prizes appear, the greater the probability of a jackpot. Meemaw Connie seemed destined to pick up a big bargain this time.
Sure enough, with the sound of tokens falling and the noise of buttons bouncing. Not long after, a firework celebration screen finally burst out on the slot machine where Meemaw Connie was.
Appearing simultaneously with the fireworks were three golden cup pictures in the center of the screen.
This is hitting the jackpot!!!
Feeling so unreal, Meemaw Connie was stunned for a moment, then burst into hearty laughter. At the same time, other players who had been watching the excitement also gathered around.
For a moment, the arcade was full of envy and blessings. And Meemaw Connie, who created all this, couldn't hide her pride and happiness at this time.
"What happened?"
Boss Collison, who hurried over upon hearing the news, had a premonition that something bad was happening.
"Collison, did you see that? It's gold cups, and three of them..."
Meemaw Connie stepped aside, displaying the gold cup pattern on the slot machine more clearly in front of the boss.
"Let me think, hitting the jackpot means you need to pay me ten thousand dollars..."
Meemaw Connie had never felt so good. She pulled the ashen-faced boss and urged proudly: "Quick, give me the money!"
"This, this must be a mistake somewhere. Yes, the machine malfunctioned..."
Boss Collison, also feeling unreal, subconsciously wanted to renege on the debt. It must be said that this boss reacted quickly; in a short time, he figured out that the reason this slot machine hit the jackpot was because he had adjusted the winning probability before. Otherwise, with only one gold cup pattern among hundreds of patterns in each column, rolling three gold cups simultaneously was almost an impossible event. That probability was about one in several million.
But who asked the boss to cleverly tamper with the machine? Regretful Boss Collison had decided to renege on Meemaw Connie's jackpot; the specific method was to blame the machine.
"This game machine is yours. We didn't say anything when we didn't win. Now that we hit the jackpot, you want to renege? What about the money everyone lost before?"
Mike guessed the boss's thoughts immediately, so he chose to block the other party's retreat first. You know, because of Collison's probability adjustment, quite a few people have lost money here recently.
If we really talk about it, the cost of him reneging this time wouldn't be small; anyway, ten thousand dollars definitely couldn't settle it. These days, quite a few people have inexplicably lost money. Not to mention if the matter is exposed, Boss Collison's character and credibility will also be questioned.
See, many smart people on the scene have already started making noise, supporting Meemaw Connie while shouting for the boss to refund the money.
On the other side, the usefulness of "bodyguard" George was also reflected. With his broad build and height over 1.8 meters, standing there looked very intimidating.
"I, I'll pay..."
Boss Collison, who had been silent for a while, finally chose to yield: "It's just that I probably don't have that much cash on hand right now."
Boss Collison, who hadn't expected to encounter twists and turns, had long transferred the money earned in the arcade to his son to buy a house in the big city.
"Then tell me what to do; anyway, don't think about shorting me a single cent of my money."
Meemaw Connie, enjoying the fruits of victory, was not someone to be trifled with.
"How about this, I'll give you all the cash I have on hand first. I'll convert the insufficient part into game tokens for you, which you can use anytime."
Collison thought of a compromise.
"OK, deal~"
Meemaw Connie, feeling great after successful revenge, thought for a moment and agreed to the boss's proposal.
Then, Meemaw Connie received over five thousand dollars in small bills and an IOU for over four thousand dollars in game tokens. In the spirit of sharing joy, Meemaw Connie, having received the prize money, counted out one thousand dollars and handed it to Mike as a labor fee. Then she gave each of the Cooper family members and Paige a one hundred dollar "tip".
Of course, Young Sheldon and Missy's money definitely couldn't be kept; before it was even warm, it was confiscated by Mary in the name of a mother.
"Mike, do you have any other suggestions next?"
Meemaw Connie, having distributed the money, didn't plan to stop there. At this moment, the look she gave Mike was like looking at "God".
"That coin pusher over there, you can go try it."
Mike, having received the benefits, didn't spoil everyone's fun. You know, at this time, not only Meemaw Connie but even George and Mary were interested in the gambling in the arcade.
And their gazes towards Mike also changed.
"Let's go, let's play the coin pusher now."
Meemaw Connie, holding over four thousand tokens in her hand, couldn't wait to show her skills again.
Before long, Meemaw Connie dragged a large group of followers to the coin pusher. Yes, the other players in the arcade had stopped their games and chosen to continue following Meemaw Connie to watch the excitement. It could be said that Meemaw Connie had become the "coolest kid" in this arcade.
Next came another long coin-inserting process. The coin pusher has no skills; it's just constantly putting coins into the machine, using the "waves pushing waves" method to push the game coins inside to the exit. This kind of gameplay is about taking wool from the sheep.
Of course, to attract customers, amidst the scattered waves of game coins in the coin pusher, there stood a "big mountain" made of stacked game coins. But to shake this stubborn "big mountain," besides probability issues, abundant capital and a little bit of luck were needed.
Isn't it a coincidence? What Meemaw Connie lacks least now is luck and capital. So, under everyone's witness, Meemaw Connie didn't even frown as she threw hundreds of game tokens into the coin pusher in a row.
During this period, Meemaw Connie also invited the Cooper family and Mike to help scatter game tokens into the coin pusher in various ways. Facing her mother's lavish behavior, Mary didn't have any objections this time.
Just like this, with Meemaw Connie's spare-no-expense investment, the neatly arranged mountain of game coins in the coin pusher was tilting towards the exit bit by bit at a slow speed.
Finally, after over two hundred "cushioning" attempts, accompanied by the exclamations of the onlookers, the mountain of game coins crumbled towards the exit.
Crash~
A massive amount of game coins slid down, making a wonderful sound.
This is the sound of money!!!
Behind them, Boss Collison, staring at Meemaw Connie's group, almost fainted from exhaustion upon hearing this sound.
"Collison, what do you say now?"
Meemaw Connie, having won the ultimate grand prize again, smiled at the pale-faced Boss Collison.
According to specifications, a mountain of game coins consists of ten thousand tokens, and the tokens currently squeezed at the exit are conservatively estimated to be over eight thousand. That is to say, Meemaw Connie won a grand prize of over eight thousand dollars again.
"This, this..."
Boss Collison, who had lost everything, had large beads of sweat on his bald scalp. His throat was dry, his mind went blank, and he opened his mouth several times but couldn't say a complete sentence.
"What, do you want to continue keeping tabs for me? Then I'll use these tabbed game tokens to continue playing on other machines."
Meemaw Connie, knowing how to irritate people, put on a troubled look: "Oh my, having too many game tokens is also a trouble~"
"No!"
Seeing Meemaw Connie's group about to move to other game machines, Collison forced himself to calm down and shouted: "Sorry, due to personal reasons, the arcade is closed for the day. Please forgive me if I've inconvenienced anyone."
It has to be said that Boss Collison has some business sense. With a smiling face, he soon sent everyone out except for Meemaw Connie's group.
"Connie, how about this? I'll transfer the arcade to you, and our debt will be wiped clean."
Collison stated his plan. Originally, he was going to enjoy retirement at his son's place in the big city at the end of this year; now it's just over a month early, which isn't a big problem. On the contrary, if he kept the arcade, not only would he owe a large sum of money, but he would also have to live in constant fear praying that Meemaw Connie wouldn't hit the jackpot again. That kind of mental torture is miserable just thinking about it.
"Is this broken arcade worth that much money?"
Although Meemaw Connie was tempted by the boss's proposal, she was still unforgiving with her words. And doing business is naturally about asking for a sky-high price and paying back on the spot.
"Worth it, of course it's worth it. Just the game machine equipment here cost me more than ten thousand dollars when I purchased it. Plus the decoration and location here, you definitely won't lose..."
Speaking of his professional field, Collison showed good eloquence.
"Okay, I'll take a loss. We'll sign the transfer contract in a while. After that, our debt will be wiped clean."
Meemaw Connie, after pondering for a while, agreed to Boss Collison's proposal again. As a senior gambler, who can resist owning an arcade? Moreover, Meemaw Connie, who frequently came here, also knew that Boss Collison wasn't lying. This small arcade, which didn't look like much, was indeed worth that price.