Special Investigation: A paradise for gamblers where time is truly irrelevant
It was about 1am on a Saturday and despite the fact the ball had landed on one of the many numbers she had picked, she had still made a loss.
The casino in the centre of Cork City was full — men and women from all walks of life, students, workers, and unemployed people, all of them gambling. The crowd was a mix of Irish and non-Irish.
Saturday was a busy night. When I arrived at the door, I was photographed and had the details of my ID taken, but on a quiet Wednesday night earlier in the week, I was allowed to walk straight in.
Inside, it’s a timeless gamblers’ paradise. The decor is tasteful and the bright neon lights and lack of windows makes time instantly irrelevant. It has the feeling of being abroad, some place you would only visit on holidays.
Roulette, blackjack, three-card poker — tables for Texas Hold ’Em tournaments filled the room that stretched back about 40m back from the door.
The back corner room housed flashing one-armed bandits and slot machines that offer to take your small change if you’ve already blown the bank balance on the main tables.
On my mid-week visit, when I placed my chips down to see what hand chance dealt, Lady Luck smiled.
I was invincible, convinced that I had a superior understanding of probability allowing me to grow my stack of chips at will.
I sat down at a blackjack table, across from a Texan drinking whiskey. The croupier popped cards down in front of me. Face card followed by ace were slid out of the card holder and into my hand — unbeatable.
I won the first four hands comfortably, and was pretty bored with how easy blackjack was.
It was time to celebrate. At the back of the casino was a hatch; there was no drink on display but everyone seemed to have one.
At the hatch I ordered a beer. The girl disappeared and about two minutes later returned with my drink and a very reasonable bill of €3.
Next up, roulette. Covering sections of the table, which paid out at odds of 2/1 — ie, you bet a fiver and get back €15 — it seemed the logical thing to do. It worked: In less than an hour I’d turned €30 into €100.
Another lady in her early 60s wasn’t doing as well. She flitted between two roulette tables casting chips across numbers, seemingly with out any thought, laughing to the croupier, “ah, sure there’s lots more where that came from” when she lost.
Back on the blackjack table, a well-dressed man in his 50s sat down with a couple of hundred euro in chips.
He was betting between €100 and €500 a hand and when he won, he was tipping the croupier a €25 chip. The croupier made about €100 in 20 minutes on tips alone.
My last stop was the slot machines. As I sat down the girl playing at the slot machine beside me, managed to win €130. I couldn’t even understand the rules of the game. The impenetrable instruction on the machine said “mask is wild symbol till it makes winning combination itself”.
After a few goes of whirling lights and odd noises, I had lost my €2 and had no idea what had happened. Time to go home.
As I left there was a man sitting at the end of the roulette table eating oysters and gambling the night away.
That was Wednesday.
On Saturday night I returned. The casino was busy. A Texas Hold ’Em tournament was in full swing and there was a couple of thousand euro for the winner.
I sat in at a side event full of the players who had already been knocked out of the big money game. Texas Hold ’Em has a more social aspect to it with the players talking to each other between hands.
Texas is not my forte. I went all-in. As the players around the table folded one after the other I thought, this is easy. Beside me sat a man wearing large beats headphones, a scarf, sunglasses, and a puffa jacket. He glanced sideways, saw me shift in my seat, and called my bluff.
Within half an hour I’d lost €50, but I thought, I’ll easily make that back on the roulette table.
But once at the table my mastery of probability had deserted me. I lost and lost.
A small Arab man moved between tables putting €100 on a single number while rubbing his nose. He lost too, but didn’t seem to care.
After a last trip to the metal grill to change notes into chips, I returned to the table. Chips don’t seem like real money. They have a weight to them but your mind struggles to attribute any value to plastic.
Watching notes being raked off of a green felt table would cause you to think twice. A pile of coloured plastic being neatly stacked, does not seem real.
In total I lost €130. The temptation to try and “win” it back was there, but I left.
As I walked towards the door the final hand was being dealt in the Texas Hold ’Em competition. There were about 30 people standing around the table. They were all hoping that a spade would be the final card dealt.
The croupier turned a card over and a four of spades appeared. The crowd went wild. One of them had won.
Casino owners don’t view people winning as a loss. They view it as a loan. They know that if the punter returns, the loan will be paid off, with interest.
In the taxi home the driver told me that sometimes early in the morning he gets called to pick up people who have lost everything. The casino foots the bill, he said.
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