The Winchester Grand Casino has a total of 4 floors.
It boasts spires that Su Ya into the clouds, colorful stained-glass murals, and layer upon layer of grand arched doorways adorned with intricate, thought-provoking carvings. The walls of its corridors are lined with various master paintings. Compared to a casino, it resembles more a grand cathedral, a town hall, or a theater showcasing countless works of art.
And at this moment,
Following the beautiful young lady in the red dress inside, as the grand doors of this casino slowly opened before them,
What appeared within was not rows of seats and a towering, sacred statue at the end of a grand hall.
There were no praying devotees, nor compassionate priests.
First to meet the eye were various vibrant colors: burgundy marble floors, black-and-gold bordered ceilings and wallpapers like a starry sky, and countless warm-white spotlights embedded in the ceiling or alcoves, suspended high above the exceptionally spacious and tall hall.
Underfoot was a thick, sound-absorbing, top-tier custom carpet, intricately interwoven with luxurious patterns of sapphire blue, dark green, and gold.
And after that,
Were the one hundred luxurious gambling tables, gleaming in red, white, and blue, distributed throughout the grand hall, surrounded by elegantly dressed members of high society.
Slow, soft music, the clinking of chips on tables, the shaking of ice by bartenders at the counter, the tapping of high heels on the floor—all blended into a symphony. The wonderful evening had just begun—
"Welcome, all three of you, to the Winchester Grand Casino!"
Griflet stopped, turned her head, and revealed a playful smile. Though young, seemingly of similar age to Suya, she introduced the casino to the trio like a seasoned gambler:
"Here, you can find all the gambling games in Britannia: Blackjack, Roulette, Texas Hold'em, Sic Bo, Baccarat..."
"So, where would you like to start playing?"
At this point, Merlin, who had endured painful lessons here before, put on a stern face and looked at Suya, saying:
"The casino has four floors in total. Even I only gambled up to the third floor last time. Griflet, if nothing unexpected happens, should be on the fourth floor. It's rumored that his gambling skills are even more exquisite than Princess Morgan Le Fay's."
"Only by breaking the record set by Morgan Le Fay is it possible to see him, but that's basically impossible."
She glanced at Suya, hesitated slightly, then leaned in and whispered: "I still have 2,600 gold pounds here. With your 2,000 gold pounds, that's a total of 4,600 gold pounds. According to kingdom law, there's an upper limit to the amount you can gamble at a single table, which is 1,000 gold pounds."
"As long as we can win 30 times consecutively on the first floor, I can get back all the Conceptual Armaments I pawned here."
"Let's play it safe and go for Blackjack. As long as you can remember six decks of cards, we should be able to beat everyone on the first floor without a hitch."
Blackjack, this card game uses 4 to 8 decks of cards shuffled together for dealing. The rule is to see whose card total is higher. The reason for shuffling and dealing is specifically to prevent certain gamblers with exceptionally good memories from counting cards.
If one can remember all the cards played, and apply formulas left by predecessors, the win rate can be significantly increased. This is also documented in 21.
Generally, an ordinary person can remember at most two decks, a super gambler can remember four, and some exceptionally gifted mathematicians can remember six. Merlin thought that with Suya's incredible brain, he could at least remember eight.
Suya nodded, then confessed:
"I can't remember."
"Then I'll go exchange chips—wait, what did you say?!"
Merlin stared blankly at Suya, thinking, This isn't right. You beast, you could remember the entire route of the Macedonian scouts, so how can you not remember six decks, a total of 324 cards, now?
Suya, however, knew his own limitations. He didn't have a super brain that could instantly memorize everything with photographic memory. Rather than recording, it was more like imitation.
To put it more bluntly, his mind was actually single-threaded, just like an ordinary person's. The difference was that he could rely on a vast accumulation of experience to put himself in his opponent's perspective, predicting their moves by imitating their actions.
And, based on considerable experience in imitation, this process would be very fast.
Fast enough to accumulate hundreds of times in an instant.
However, asking Suya to play Blackjack and use the formulas designed by those math gurus from MIT to count cards?
That wouldn't work.
After all, a desperate person can do anything, except math problems—if you don't know it, you genuinely can't do it.
At this moment,
Responding to Merlin's shocked expression,
Suya suddenly pulled out a small booklet titled Common Gambling Rules from his pants pocket and began flipping through it.
After a short while, he suddenly nodded thoughtfully, looked at Griflet, and smiled:
"Alright, let's play Roulette."
Griflet was slightly startled.
Roulette.
A common casino game. There are 37 numbers in a roulette wheel, from 0 to 36. The dealer spins the wheel and drops a ball, and the number where the ball lands is the winning number.
According to Britannia's rules at the time, there were seven betting methods: betting on color, high/low, 1 number, 2 numbers, 4 numbers, 8 numbers, and 12 numbers. Each betting method had different odds.
But if one could correctly bet on the exact numbered slot where the ball landed, they could win a whopping 35 times their chips!
Unlike poker, where you can count cards, rely on experience, or apply psychological pressure to force opponents to fold,
This was almost entirely a game of chance.
And if it were a smaller casino, the landing spot of the ball in roulette could even be manipulated by the house.
Although the Winchester Grand Casino, given its status, wouldn't stoop to such methods,
This meant that,
It would become purely a game of luck!
Thinking of the arrogant words the golden-haired youth had just spoken, and then his chosen method, Griflet couldn't help but smile.
"Are you sure you want to play this purely luck-based game to win the entire casino?"
Suya nodded earnestly, saying seriously:
"I came here to gain Griflet's allegiance, so there's no need to bully the casual gamblers."
"If I'm going to gamble, of course I'll gamble against the casino, as the house."
Griflet blinked her beautiful eyes and asked again: "But there are many other games where the casino acts as the house, like dice. Why did you choose this one?"
Suya looked up at the hundred gambling tables in the hall before him, a hearty smile appearing on his face.
It is said that after studying roulette, Einstein once remarked:
The only way to win at roulette is to steal.
And Suya came here today to steal money!
So,
Clutching his 2,000 gold pound wallet, and dragging a horrified Merlin, who was desperately gripping her own wallet, he headed straight for the chip exchange counter without looking back, leaving Griflet with only a faint statement: