mechanically; win or lose, they pulled again.
Bells rang as an occasional jackpot cascaded from a machine.

Oliver recognized the crap tables--elongated mahogany figure eights,
surrounded by players leaning over the action. Dice rolled, bounced,
and tumbled to a stop on the gleaming green felt. People cheered or
groaned.

The roulette wheels were in a different section. The blackjack dealers
were beyond the roulette wheels. At the far end of the casino, behind
bars, cashiers exchanged chips for money or vice versa. Cashing in your
chips, for real, Oliver thought. He pushed $1000 toward a cashier.

"What do you want?" Oliver hesitated. "Hundreds, twenties, tens, fives,
what?"

"Give me one hundred dollar chip," Oliver said, "the rest, tens and
fives."

"You want to leave some in the cage?"

"Five hundred," Oliver said. The cashier issued him a plastic card with
a magnetic strip.

"Give this to the pit boss when you want more."

"I got these complimentary dollars," Oliver said, "when I checked in."

"Over there." The cashier pointed to a barred room within the main
room. "Promotions." Oliver walked over to Promotions.

"Could I exchange these for chips, please?" A man with a neat mustache
swept up the fake coins. He flicked his wrist and thumb. Oliver's chips
fell on the counter in front of him. Oliver counted. "Wasn't there
supposed to be thirty-five?"

"Yeah, man. You short?" Oliver pushed the chips toward him. "Sorry,
man. Mistake," he said, adding a five dollar chip to the pile without
changing expression. Oliver put them in his pocket and walked toward
the crap tables. That was a scam, he thought. Get away with that once
an hour, your pay would go up--a couple of hundred a week.

He straightened as a feeling shot through him. It was like waking up.
It was time. He approached the front craps table and stood with his
arms hanging down and his weight evenly balanced. Fifteen feet away, a
man shifted sideways so that he was directly in front of Oliver. He was
expensively dressed, medium sized with wide shoulders and a dark
angular face. He stared at Oliver. I see you, he was telling Oliver.
You aren't like the rest of them. I'm watching. He was intense and
deadly. Pit boss, Oliver realized. Well, fuck you. Oliver's spirit and
body fused as though they had been sleeping in separate rooms. For the
first time in years, he felt his whole strength. A slight smile crossed
his face.

The pit boss was called aw