The gondolier, complete with striped shirt and straw hat, long oar in hand swishes me along the canal with incredible accuracy, missing corners and obstacles by inches. My laptop lies at my feet waiting until we get within range of some WiFi area. Here I am in a city famous for one of the earliest casinos in Europe and I cannot gamble. So I decide to lay back and enjoy the unusual ride and wait for the right time to gamble. I have to say I could easily adapt to this very relaxed lifestyle.

Back in the hotel I haul my blood corpuscles onto their feet and connect my laptop to the wireless system. Soon I am deep in an online casino dropping chips haphazardly on the roulette table and alternately yelling and groaning as I win and lose. Then I hit a losing streak and I watch my little pile of chips beginning to dwindle. I decide that I have to take the wheel in my own hands, so to speak. I have been playing with $10 chips.

I pick up two $50 chips with my remaining hundred dollars. I drop one onto my birthday number, 23 and the other onto my lucky number 17. I sit back, biting my lip and waiting for the ball to drop. Why is the croupier moving so slowly all of a sudden? Does he know that the game is almost over? Wait. Wait. 23! I did it! $1,700 in my pocket! Now I get really brave with all that money behind me. I decide to tempt fate. I leave the winning exactly where they are. I do not move a single chip. I watch the spin and I watch the wheel slowing down and hey presto! It’s 23 again! Unbelievable. This is a rare occurrence but not completely unknown. In many casinos one can even take a side bet on this happening.

I close the laptop and check my winnings: $60,000 and change. I rush outside to the landing and hail the first gondola that floats past. “I want to buy you – quanto?”

Posted on: October 25, 2007

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