As Eli was playing another three hands, winning another $50, his shoulder was suddenly tapped, startling him. When he looked to the side in askance, a 70-year-old man came to view, wearing dealer clothes and a kind smile on his withered face.

The old man opened his mouth and asked politely, "Hello there, Mr. White. I'm Sawyer, the pit boss around here. Are you enjoying your stay?"

Eli felt awkward but still answered, "Yeah, having a blast. So... What do you want, Mr. Sawyer?"

Sawyer smiled, "Oh, no, it's nothing. I just felt a bit bored and wanted to chat with you for a bit."

While he said that, he signaled the nervous female dealer to continue the game and then sat down next to Eli.

He asked Eli, "Are you thirsty, Mr. White? Would you like a drink? It's on the house."

While he was saying that, the dealer said, "Place your bet, sir."

Eli himself didn't place the bet, but his auto-pilot controlling his body did it for him, placing a $50 bet. While it did that, without looking much to the table, Eli smiled and said, "Yeah, sure. Can I have a mojito?"

Sawyer smiled back and made a small call with his earpiece. Inwardly, however, he was surprised at Eli's behavior.

He is actually acting so calmly while talking to me, the pit boss. He should know that this means I marked him, and he is not trying to run away. Also, I don't see any electronic device or even earring on his ears. His sleeves are also folded, and he is not wearing a necklace or glasses. I can even tell that he isn't using contacts. He doesn't have a bracelet on, only a crappy wooden ring, and I can't spot any hidden camera on his person. He even ordered a goddamn mojito! That's like ordering a glass of wine. Only novices drink while gambling. It's like... Like he is just playing for fun.

In truth, at this point, Eli really was having fun. He was currently playing with a player edge of about 20-30%. For each $100 he bet, he earned $20-30 on average. He didn't even need to concentrate. He just let his precognition do everything for him. Although he still needed some part of his concentration to be on the table, to have a normal conversation while gambling was easy. Since his alcohol tolerance was increasing along with his stats, he was less worried about getting drunk.

Eli didn't care if the pit boss or even the casino manager came to him with suspicions. He knew that he technically didn't cheat, so he was bulletproof.

While the game was progressing, Sawyer started asking questions. Those questions involved things like Where are you from, or What do you work in? He even asked things such as if Eli gambled before. When Sawyer had nothing more to ask, he started to have small talk with Eli, such as sports and music. He even gave Eli advice on basic strategy moves in blackjack, although Eli didn't use that advice.

After 60 more hands and earning another $750, Sawyer felt his left eye twitching.

This Elijah guy already drank two mojitos. Now, he's going through his third one, and he looks as sober as before. Also, I kept harassing him with questions and small-talk, but he is still scoring! I can't find a dent in this... I wonder... Will he score when I am dealing instead of using the CSM? It is actually rather tempting, considering that I didn't get to do it for a couple of years now...

Sawyer smiled and said, "Mr. White. I have a proposal. Would you like to play hand-dealt cards? I can even change the 6-5 rule to 3-2. Are you interested?"

Eli didn't really mind, as it did not affect him. In fact, it benefited him. 3-2 was better than 6-5.

While smiling, he said, "When you put it that way, I can't really say no, now can I? Sure. Game on."

Sawyer smiled and motioned to the dealer that he will handle it.

Before the female dealer left, however, Eli passed over a $50 tip. The female dealer blinked her eyes at the tip and smiled broadly. Rarely was she tipped so much. She was only dealing using a CSM, and many patrons barely gave her a $5-10 tip, if anything at all. Right now was the low season and in the middle of the day, no less. After saying her thanks, she left. In any case, it was now the end of her shift anyways.

Sawyer, who saw that, had a glint flash through his eyes and had a sudden change of heart. His eyes became friendlier and less inquisitive.

He just tipped $50 to a dealer. Usually, edge players won't do that, not even for cover, as they would lose their edge over the casino... Cover or not, though, I'm starting to like this guy already. I honestly only bust cheaters because they don't tip us, the dealers, anything. If he is at least a tipping cheater, and he isn't doing anything suspicious, I guess I can start going easy on him. Besides, his earnings until now barely make a dent.

Having reached that conclusion, Sawyer took out 8 brand-new decks of cards from under the table, unwrapped them, and started shuffling. After he finished in just under 2 minutes, the game started.

After one hour, 120 hands, and finishing two shoes, Sawyer came to two conclusions. First, Eli is a good tipper. Every few hands, Eli would tip $5. This made Sawyer happy and less inclined to find fault with Eli. Second, Eli was not a cheater or card counter. He was just a lucky man. In 120 hands, Eli bet using $100 bets and $10 bets all the way and won $2,240, and didn't even use basic strategy or any card counting method. Honestly, Sawyer didn't mind that he was losing money to the casino. If Eli is really an authentic winner, the casino will never find fault with him. In fact, it might even use him as an advertisement.

Eli was also satisfied. He actually got to talk with Sawyer, and it was not such a boring game. In truth, earning money was secondary for him. First and foremost, he just wanted to train precognition. Earning a bit more money on the side was optional. He already earned more than he did in a month, and he was more than satisfied. Anything more was piggish. That was also why he was so generous with his tips, as he actually felt a bit guilty for earning so much.

Eli felt that it was enough blackjack for today and passed $100 as a tip to Sawyer, "I had enough blackjack for today. I'm heading over to the slots. Maybe I will play blackjack next week."

Sawyer smiled as he received the tip, "Thank you, Eli. See you next week."

After Sawyer saw Eli leave, he pressed on his earpiece, "There is no need to continue marking him. His clean. Maintain low priority surveillance just in case."

Unknowingly, Eli managed to buy over Sawyer, the pit boss, by just tipping. If he didn't tip generously, while Sawyer wouldn't have thrown him out of the casino, he would have likely limited his gambling to minimize damages.

Not knowing that he dodged a bullet, Eli happily went to the slot machines. He wanted to test the full power of his autopilot. After looking around for a bit, Eli found a slot machine. It was a 2-credit slot machine with three wheels, and one could bet a minimum of $100 to a maximum of $500 per spin. It was a bonus that nobody sat next to him, or near him for that matter.

Eli started with gambling using $100 bets. Each spin, including the time it took for Eli to spin again, had an average of ten spins per minute. After just 20 minutes and 200 spins, Eli already earned over $4,000. Feeling more confident, he raised it to $200 per spin for another 200 spins, earning another over $8,000. With this money, he decided to go all out and started to bet $500 bets.

However, unlike previous times, he didn't try and win money. He decided to maintain it. Just purely betting for a period on what he thought he would lose, and sometimes on what he thought he would win. Just like that, he spent four and a half hours playing, only stopping for bathroom breaks and eating a hotdog.

After spinning the wheel about 2,000 times, it was already 10:30 pm.

He checked his winnings so far and discovered he had earned until now $19,002, including the tips he made. Seeing this amount gave Eli a great sense of self-mockery at how easy it was to earn this amount. An amount that was close to a year of his salary post-tax.

I can't believe I actually earned so much... And I could have probably earned more than five times this amount if I really tried. I guess I won't have any money problems from now on.

After reaching that conclusion, he smiled to himself as he went to the money counter by the entrance. The previous cashiers were no longer present as their shift ended. Instead, he saw a new batch of cashiers, some young, some old. Seeing that the other cashiers were occupied, he went to the only available cashier. A lady that was well into her sixties.

Eli said, "Hello, I want to cash out." And handed his card.

The lady took the card and checked the rewards before she widened her eyes in slight amazement.

"You actually earned $19,002 tonight, and your reward credits are enough to get a seven-star reward card! You can get an Elite diamond card instantly at the machine." She then smiled, " Congratulations!"

"Eh... Alright, thanks. So, can I cash out now, please?"

Eli didn't really care about the card benefits. He just wanted his cash.

"Certainly, sir. Are you a local or a tourist?"

"Local, born and bred."

"Alright then. Would you like your winning in a lump sum or an annuity? Note that getting an annuity will reduce taxes on your winnings."

After thinking for a bit, Eli said, "Lump sum."

He could really use the money right now. Besides, if he wanted more, he could always gamble for it.

"Very well, sir. According to American laws, we will withhold 24% of your winnings, which is $4,560.48 as federal tax and an additional 6% as state tax, meaning you will get 70% of the winnings right now, and you will get a total of $13,301.40. Also, by the end of the tax year, you would need to pay up to an additional 13%, which amounts to $2,470.26, leaving you with $10,831.14. Is this alright with you, sir?"¹Check lottery laws if you don't believe me. Lottery and gambling winnings actually count as taxable income after a certain point.

Eli was stunned at the amount of taxes on his winnings. He finally understood that the real winner was not the gambler or the casino, but the country! Gambling was certainly not a lucrative business for a gambler... Unless he had precognition like Eli.

It only took a second for Eli to recompose himself, "Yes, it's fine."

"Very well, sir. Cash or credit card?"

"Can I get $800 in cash and the rest transferred to the bank?"

"Certainly, sir."

The female cashier typed some things on her terminal before opening a drawer and giving Eli $800, along with his credit card.

"Here you are, sir. Please come again!"

"Thanks."

After Eli walked out of the casino, he suddenly remembered to check his precognition and see by how much did it increase. When he saw the numbers, he was a bit surprised.

[Precognition LVL 0 (73/1,000)]

It increased by 33 points! Hm... Well, I did use the autopiloting thing a lot... And I did use it on slots. Now that I think about it, why do I even have that autopiloting thing anyways? It was not in the skill description at all. Oh well. I will think about it at a later time.

When he wanted to take the streetcar home, he decided against it since his muscles were stiff from sitting too much.

Nothing like a good walk to loosen up stiff muscles. It's not so chilly tonight, and the sky is clear. Besides, it would only take me an hour or so to get home if I use a detour.

Having decided on what to do, Eli started walking home. After half an hour of enjoying the cool night breeze, seeing the night crowd partying, getting solicited by three prostitutes, one probably a shemale, and a friendly drug dealer that tried selling meth to kids, he saw a couple, with the guy wrapping his large arm over the girl's shoulders.

The guy looked 21, 1.9m tall, wide-shouldered, bald, and buff, the type that went to the gym regularly and with overinflated muscles. His face was kind of handsome yet at the same time looked like it begged to be punched.

The girl, on the other hand, was only 1.65m tall and possessed a slim build. Her hair was in a bob cut and dyed brown. Her irises black. Sharp and trimmed eyebrows, slightly sunken cheeks, and low cheekbone. Her nose was convex, and her lips were thin.

However, that was not all. Her left cheek seemed to be bruised and was covered by a bandage. Her upper lip had a nasty cut and was swollen in that area. She had a black eye on her right eye. She had a pale complexion, and in general, didn't look too healthy. Her eyes almost oozed with suicidal thoughts.

Normally, Eli would ignore this, as it was just another common case of an abusive and failing relationship with a narcissist and violent asshole and an unconfident and/or unlucky woman. However, this time, he couldn't ignore it.

Eli began shaking, a mixture of pain and guilt in his voice, "Trinity? Is that you?"

It was his Ex-girlfriend.