"This is the patterned machine. Trust me, if nothing goes wrong, you'll definitely hit the jackpot before you run out of tokens." Mike led Connie, who had exchanged over two hundred tokens, to a quiet arcade machine.
There's an unwritten rule in arcades: the more popular a machine, the more likely it is to pay out. This involves the "cushioning" theory.
And this patterned machine Mike chose, despite its current lack of popularity, had definitely been frequented by many people before.
The reason for its current quietness was probably because the owner had set the payout rate too low. Players who never saw a return eventually gave up on this machine.
But still, under the law of conservation of energy, this machine was actually more likely to pay out a jackpot.
"I trust you," Connie, back in the arcade, seemed to be holding her breath.
Without another word, she took a large box full of tokens and went to the patterned machine.
The patterned machine was simple to play: for every one dollar token inserted, you could press the machine's button once.
Three rows of various patterned images would appear on the screen. When the scrolling images stopped, if three identical images appeared, it meant you won.
To hit the jackpot, all three images on the screen needed to be golden cups.
With the clinking of tokens and the dinging of buttons, the tokens in Connie's box gradually decreased.
After inserting more than fifty tokens, the patterned machine still hadn't awarded even a small prize.
Connie's frantic token-inserting also attracted the attention of many players. Many of them looked as if they wanted to speak but hesitated, seemingly wanting to advise Connie.
But in the end, they chose to continue watching.
"Mom!"
Mary, who hadn't been to an arcade much, finally couldn't hold back when she saw her mother spend over fifty dollar in such a short time.
The thrill of gambling is truly not for everyone.
"I'm fine!" Connie, already hooked, had no time to pay attention to Mary.
Easy to get addicted, wanting to win back what you've lost, wanting to win more when you're winning, this is the terrifying aspect of gambling.
"Mike, Connie won't be in trouble, will she?" Seeing her mother in a trance-like state, Mary turned to Mike for help, asking for assistance.
The others who came with them also looked at Mike; their feelings were similar to Mary's.
"It's fine, we'll see results soon." Mike was quite calm at this moment.
In this situation, the less frequently small prizes appear, the greater the probability of a jackpot.
It looked like Connie was destined to find a big hidden gem this time.
Sure enough, with the sound of tokens dropping and buttons bouncing, it wasn't long before the patterned machine Connie was playing on finally burst into a firework-like celebration display.
Appearing simultaneously with the fireworks were three gleaming golden cup images in the center of the screen.
It was a jackpot!!!
Connie, feeling it was unreal, first froze, 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 filled with sounds of envy and congratulations.
And Connie, who had created all of this, couldn't hide her pride and joy at this moment.
"What happened?" Collison, the owner, who rushed over after hearing the commotion, already had a bad feeling.
"Collison, did you see that? Are these golden cups or three…" Connie stepped aside, showing the golden cup pattern on the patterned machine more clearly to the owner.
"Let me think, for the jackpot you need to pay me ten thousand dollar…" Connie had never felt so good. She pulled the ashen-faced owner, urging him proudly, "Hurry up and pay!"
"This, this… there must be a problem somewhere. Yes, the machine is faulty…" Collison, also feeling it was unreal, instinctively wanted to renege on the payment.
One could say the owner's reaction wasn't slow; in a very short time, he figured out that the patterned machine paid out the jackpot because he had previously adjusted the winning probability.
Otherwise, with only one golden cup image among hundreds of patterns in each column, it would be almost impossible to simultaneously roll out golden cups in three columns of pictures.
That probability was roughly one in several million.
But who told the owner to be so clever as to tamper with the machine?
The regretful Collison had already decided to renege on Connie's jackpot. The specific method was to blame the machine.
"This arcade machine is yours. When we didn't win, we didn't say anything. Now that we've hit the jackpot, you want to renege? What about all the money everyone lost before?" Mike immediately guessed the owner's intention, so he chose to block the other party's retreat first.
One should know that because of Collison's probability adjustment, quite a few people had lost money here recently.
If it came down to it, the cost of him reneging this time wouldn't be small; ten thousand dollar certainly wouldn't settle it.
These days, quite a few people had mysteriously lost money.
Not to mention, if the matter came to light, Collison's character and reputation would also be questioned.
Indeed, many smart people on the scene were already causing a fuss, both supporting Connie and shouting for the owner to refund their money.
On the other side, the usefulness of "bodyguard" George was also demonstrated. With his broad build and height over six feet, he looked very intimidating just standing there.
"I, I'll pay…" Collison, who had been silent for a while, finally chose to yield: "It's just that I'm afraid I don't have that much cash on hand right now."
Collison, who hadn't expected any setbacks, had long since transferred the money earned from the arcade to his son, allowing him to buy a house in the big city.
"Then what do you propose? Anyway, don't even think about shortchanging me a single cent of my money." Connie, enjoying the fruits of her victory, was no easy target either.
"How about this, I'll give you all the cash I have on hand first. For the remaining amount, I'll convert it into tokens for you, which you can use anytime." Collison thought of a compromise.
"OK, deal." Connie, feeling great after successfully getting her revenge, thought for a moment and then agreed to the owner's proposal.
Afterward, Connie received over five thousand dollar in small denomination cash and an IOU for over four thousand dollar in tokens.
Adhering to the principle of shared joy, Connie, after receiving her winnings, counted out one thousand dollar and handed it to Mike as a bonus for his efforts.
Then she gave the Cooper family and Paige a "tip" of one hundred dollar each.
Of course, Sheldon and Missy's money wouldn't stay with them; it was collected by Mary in her mother's name before it even got warm.
"Mike, what's your next suggestion?" After distributing the money, Connie had no intention of stopping there.
At this moment, the way she looked at Mike was like she was looking at "God."
"That coin pusher machine over there, you can go try it." Mike, having received his payment, didn't spoil everyone's fun.
One should know that at this moment, not only Connie, but even George and his wife had developed an interest in the gambling in the arcade.
And their gaze towards Mike had also changed.
"Let's go, we're going to play the coin pusher now." Connie, clutching over four thousand tokens, was already eager to show off her skills again.
Soon, Connie, dragging a large crowd behind her, went to the coin pusher machine.
Yes, the other players in the arcade had now stopped their games and chose to continue following Connie to watch the excitement.
It could be said that Connie had become the "brightest star" in this arcade.
Next, it was another round of lengthy token insertion.
The coin pusher machine had no skill involved; it was simply about continuously inserting tokens into the machine, using the "pushing the old with the new" method to push the tokens inside the machine out to the exit.
This type of game was all about the wool coming from the sheep's back.
Of course, to attract customers, within the scattered waves of tokens in the coin pusher machine, there also stood a "mountain" made of stacked tokens.
However, to move this stubborn "mountain," besides the probability issue, it also required substantial capital and a bit of luck.
Well, isn't that convenient? What Connie lacked least right now was luck and capital.
So, witnessed by everyone, Connie, without even a frown, inserted hundreds of tokens into the coin pusher machine in a row.
During this time, Connie also invited Cooper and Mike, among others, to help scatter tokens into the coin pusher machine in various ways.
Facing her mother's extravagant actions, Mary had no objections this time.
Thus, with Connie's unsparing investment, the neatly arranged mountain of tokens in the coin pusher machine slowly tilted little by little towards the exit.
Finally, after cushioning the blade over two hundred times, accompanied by the exclamations of the surrounding crowd, the mountain of tokens swayed precariously and toppled towards the exit.
Whoosh—
A massive amount of tokens slid down, making a beautiful sound.
This was the sound of money!!!
Behind them, Collison, the owner, who was watching Connie and her group, almost fainted from exhaustion upon hearing this sound.
"Collison, what do you say now?" Connie, who had once again won the ultimate jackpot, smiled as she looked at the pale-faced Collison.
A mountain of tokens, by standard, consists of ten thousand tokens, and the tokens currently crowded at the exit were conservatively estimated to be over eight thousand.
In other words, Connie had once again won a jackpot of over eight thousand dollar.
"This, this…" Collison, who had lost a fortune, had large beads of sweat appearing on his bald scalp.
His throat dry and his mind blank, he opened his mouth several times but couldn't utter a complete sentence.
"What, are you going to keep a tab for me again? Then I'll use these credited tokens to continue playing on other arcade machines." Connie, knowing how to annoy people, even put on a troubled expression: "Oh dear, having too many tokens is also a kind of trouble—"
"No!" Seeing Connie and her group about to move on to other arcade machines, Collison forced himself to calm down and shouted, "I apologize, due to my personal reasons, the arcade will be closed for one day today. I ask for your understanding for any inconvenience caused."
It must be said that Collison still had some business acumen. With a plastered smile, he soon sent everyone out except for Connie and her group.
"Connie, how about this? I'll transfer the arcade to you, and our accounts will be settled." Collison stated his plan.
He was originally going to live with his son in the big city and enjoy retirement at the end of this year; now it was just over a month early, which wasn't a big problem.
On the contrary, if he continued to hold onto the arcade, he would not only owe a large sum of money but also constantly live in fear, praying that Connie wouldn't win another jackpot.
That kind of mental torture was miserable just thinking about it.
"Does this broken arcade really worth that much money?" Although Connie was tempted by the owner's proposal, she remained sharp-tongued.
And in business, it's always about asking for the sky and settling for less.
"Yes, of course, it is. Just the arcade machine equipment here, I spent more than ten thousand dollar when I first stocked it. Plus the renovations and the location, you definitely won't lose out…" When it came to his area of expertise, Collison showed excellent eloquence.
"Alright, I'll take a loss then. We'll go sign the transfer contract later. After that, our accounts will be settled." Connie, after pondering for a while, once again agreed to Collison's proposal.
As a seasoned gambler, who could resist owning an arcade?
And Connie, who often came here, also knew that Collison was not lying. This small arcade, which didn't look like much, was indeed worth that price.