Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 194 Little Trouble

Ethan is very familiar with New Jersey because it is right next to New York.

In his previous life, when Ethan was following the Mosaic League, the place he went to most often was not Madison Square Garden, nor did he watch the New York Knicks games. Instead, he went to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn to watch how hardcore Comey Kyrie Irving dismantled the Nets step by step.

The Nets were already in New York at the time, but before that, they had been entrenched in New Jersey. If Ethan remembered correctly, when Yao Ming was still playing, the team's record was very poor, and it even had the worst record in history with 12 wins and 70 losses in a single season.

Compared with the Golden State Warriors' 73 wins, there is a world of difference.

As for the runner-up?
Cough cough cough cough——

This fact impressed Ethan so much that after arriving in New York, America, he curiously wandered around New Jersey, wanting to visit the birthplace of shame.

Stories that happened in student days are always fresh in people's memory, and recalling them many years later can make people feel deeply moved. After putting aside the New Jersey Nets, a historical concept that has disappeared, the Atlantic City mentioned by Ballmer is actually the biggest highlight of New Jersey in Ethan's eyes.

Because it is not only the venue for the Miss America beauty pageant, but also a gambling city on the East Coast of the United States that is as famous as Las Vegas. Not only does it have a dry stage that can entertain tens of thousands of people at the same time, it also has the Taj Mahal, the largest gambling venue in America, which was once owned by a New York manufacturer.

"Hey~ This really is where all the fun comes together!" Ethan complained in his mind.

When he heard the name Atlantic City, he realized that the one thousand copies of "Fat Man" might have been ordered by the owner of the gambling den there.

"So the person who placed the order is the owner of the gambling market?" Thinking of this, Ethan asked casually.

His casualness made Ballmer stunned for a moment, and he asked in confusion: "The owner of the spinach farm?"

This reaction was somewhat beyond Ethan's expectations.

He looked at the bald man strangely and asked, "You don't know?"

As he finished speaking, Ballmer shook his head decisively.

Then the two of them stared at each other.

After a while, Ethan, who felt something was wrong, pressed down his right hand, indicating that the work in his hands should be stopped for the time being. Ballmer also handed over the order record with understanding, turned around and ran away.

When he came back again, he was holding a stack of newspapers in his hands.

Ballmer looked at Ethan apologetically and said, "Boss, I'm very sorry. I have checked the information and it is indeed possible to open a gambling field there. This is our mistake..."

It turns out that in New Jersey, spinach and spinach farms are two different things.

Spinach has a long history in New Jersey. During the French War and the War of Independence hundreds of years ago, income from the spinach industry was even the main source of military expenditure. There is also the oldest horse racing track in the United States. Even churches and various non-profit organizations make money through bingo games.

To put it bluntly, spinach is the biggest business in New Jersey. As a New Jersey native, if you don't do spinach, you are not doing your job properly.

But even so, there has been no gambling venue here like in Las Vegas for many years.

First, this kind of thing is not legal from the perspective of state law. Second, the opening of gambling venues after the entry of big capital will definitely affect the income of other gamblers.

But in order to enter this industry, big capital is building momentum every day.

They say their entry will bring more revenue to New Jersey.

They would also contribute more tax revenue to New Jersey.

They hope New Jersey will accept them.

It’s a pity that people in New Jersey don’t trust those capitalists.

In order to protect its own interests, New Jersey held a referendum in 1974 opposing the legalization of gambling venues across the state, and then something bad happened.

Big capital decisively admitted defeat after the referendum results came out, and then said that they came to invest with good intentions. Since the people of New Jersey do not accept the legalization of gambling venues across the state, then they will do this in just one city, just like Las Vegas, Nevada.

The city they chose was Atlantic City.

At the same time, they also said that their actions would bring many jobs to the local area.

cough--

This is a perfect illustration of the compromise of human nature.

When the big capitalists began to learn from Zhou Shuren, their proposals were quickly accepted by the people of New Jersey. These people, like playing, held a referendum in 1976 and agreed to build a gambling field in Atlantic City. Then, various capitalists came to Atlantic City to invest crazily.

A businessman named James Crosby took the lead in building the Resort International Gaming Center in Atlantic City, which officially opened on May 26 this year.

Since the referendum in New Jersey is more like a game than the one in the UK, the outside world is too lazy to watch their fun. In addition, there is Las Vegas on the West Coast, and the Destiny game has been very busy selling goods recently, so it is normal that Ballmer does not understand the situation there.

"I just asked the marketing staff to call the purchaser back and ask for their specific information. They said that they are indeed from the Resort International Gaming Venue, and the 1,000 electronic arcade machines they need will also be placed in their gaming hotel..."

"They also urged us to ship the products quickly because Fortune Drop is very popular with them. They even designed some gameplay specifically for Fortune Drop..."

"But unfortunately, those projects cannot be carried out on a large scale for the time being because there are not enough machines."

Ballmer reported.

“What the fuck?”

This result made Ethan frown slightly.

"They already have our machines?"

"When did this happen?"

"I do not know how?"

Ethan was very surprised.

As far as he could remember, they never seemed to have shipped machines in large quantities to Atlantic City.

"It should be bought from another merchant."

Ballmer had a different view. "I just looked at the report and found that the sales volume of "Snowfall" in New Jersey was 500 units, which is the highest among all states. Many of them must have flowed into Atlantic City, but we don't know it."

"After all, we can't ban the second-hand trading of video arcade machines."

Ethan agrees with this idea.

Before the official arrival of the Internet era, or before CNC technology officially entered industrial production, things like machine transfers could not be controlled at all.

In the Internet age, if manufacturers want to prohibit transactions between users, they can simply connect to the Internet to verify the IP at regular intervals. Once the IP changes, the device will be locked directly. But now?

forget it.

After they sell the machines, they have no control over what the merchants want to do.

In the past few years, many merchants who purchased their arcade machines would ask local engineers to repair them when they found that the arcade machines were broken. This is not only because the repair fees disclosed by Destiny Game to the public are very expensive, but also because it takes time for Destiny Game to dispatch repair engineers, and they are unwilling to wait.

I will only buy new parts from them if I find that the motherboard is burned or the chip is damaged.

Since many businesses have given up after-sales service in order to make money, Ethan is happy with it. As long as they don't engage in malicious copying, he will turn a blind eye.

But this time——

"Please help me contact United Airlines and charter a plane to Atlantic City."

"I have no travel plans, the sooner the better."

"Oh yeah, you come with me."

After learning that the gambling owners in Atlantic City had designed a unique gameplay for "Falling Money", Ethan was really curious about how his own arcade machines had been ravaged by those merchants.

Why does the spinach farm over there need his machine so urgently?
He will not accept the order or ship the goods until he sees the reason.

So, at 2 p.m. Pacific time, Ethan set off directly from San Francisco International Airport, and after a nine-hour flight, he finally arrived in Atlantic City at 2 a.m. the next day on the East Coast.

then……

He then saw a striking building.

The building is all snow-white, with neatly arranged windows like the frames of a waffle. The towering building with about twenty floors looks like a tower used for marching and fighting in medieval Europe. The round dome high above gives people a feeling of being able to climb up and look far and wide and the surroundings.

Under the illumination of colorful neon lights, a huge golden sign also appeared in front of Ethan.

The 'Resorts International' logo introduces them to outsiders, while the word 'Casino' tells their function.

Below the sign that says "Casino", there is a golden arch with extravagant decorations, a red carpet that stretches to the intersection, and that shabby appearance...

It is indeed luxury in the eyes of the public in this era.

However, to Ethan's surprise, when he arrived here, the door under the 'Casino' sign was closed, as if it had closed down. When he walked into the main entrance of the resort hotel with doubts, he asked the saleswoman at the front desk why...

He heard a strange rule.

"Excuse me, sir. Our gambling farm is open for a limited time each day."

"The business hours from Monday to Friday are from 10 am to 4 pm, and on Saturday and Sunday, it is open all day. At that time, as long as you are over 21 years old, you can enter the gambling field to have fun."

Ethan was stunned by these words.

At this moment, he even suspected that he had come to the wrong place! He came to the spinach farm, right?
The gambling market is not open 7 hours a day, 24 days a week?
This is ridiculous...

Is there any way to prevent addiction to spinach?
Ethan couldn't figure it out.

Ballmer was also confused.

With a look of surprise on his face, he asked directly: "Why?"

“You’re only open six hours a day?”

"You still want to compete with Las Vegas?"

"Uh, sir, I'm very sorry," the receptionist explained awkwardly, "This business hour is actually a regulation in New Jersey."

"To ensure that gambling does not affect other industries and social order."

"It is also to avoid the addiction and crime problems that spinach may bring."

"If you want to have fun during the off-hours of the gambling field, you can go to our experience hall and try out a video game called "Windfall"."

This remark made Ethan and Ballmer look at each other.

Then the two of them walked in the direction pointed by the front desk lady.

When they arrived at the door of the experience hall, a buzzing sound suddenly came out from the gap of the heavy door. After the waiter guarding the door helped them push open the golden solid wood door, the scene of smoke and crowds of people opened their eyes.

There are at least a hundred movies of "Total Fortune" placed in the magnificently decorated hotel lobby.

Even though it is two o'clock in the morning, there are still a lot of people around the machines here.

Some people stare at the screen with a grim look, cigarettes between their lips;

Some people hold cigarette butts in their hands, bend their bodies slightly, and hold the joystick tightly and fiddle with it;
Some people hold the machine with one hand, put the other hand on their waist, and lean forward to watch others play games;
Some even held their bottles and cheered for the good results.

As Ethan entered, the waiter guarding inside also came up.

"Hello, gentlemen. Welcome to the lounge of our resort hotel..."

"The game you are watching now is "Windfall", and its gameplay is very simple..."

The uniformed waiter introduced them to the game. Then he said, "Our machine costs 25 cents to play. If you can get 50 cents in one game, the next game will be paid for by our hotel, and our staff on site will insert the coins for your next game."

"If you get 100, 200, 300, 400 or even 500 points in a game, our hotel will give you a chip of one dollar, five dollars, ten dollars, fifty dollars or one hundred dollars according to your score."

"And if you get 666 points or 888 points in a game, our hotel will give you one or two days of hotel accommodation depending on the number of points you get."

When this rule appeared, Ethan suddenly felt that this hotel was really doing charity!
Although the game "God of Wealth" has both bonus points and deduction points, the bonus points of gold coins, gold nuggets and gold bricks correspond to two points, six points and ten points, while the deduction points of stones and rocks correspond to one point and three points. When the bonus points are always greater than the deduction points, the score of this game is actually very easy to get. When testing it, Ethan could get 100 points after playing two games at random.

If someone knows about this game, they might say that there is a meteorite setting, and when the player is hit by a meteorite, the whole game will end.

However, when designing this game, in order to give players a better gaming experience, meteorites will only officially appear one minute into the game.

Just based on the accumulation of the previous minute, anyone can get 50 points.

With this level of difficulty, the resort hotel actually set the free game score at 50 points?

So what’s the difference between this and paying 25 cents for permanent access to the game?
And when you can get the chips with 100 points...

Isn't playing this game just about making money?

"Fuck you! I can bankrupt him in one night with this trick!"

Ethan thought that this hotel might be sick.

Then he signaled to the bodyguards to squeeze out a machine for Ballmer to try out.

As for why he didn't go himself?
He and gamblers are sworn enemies!
After the bodyguard spent some time queuing up to help Ballmer get a machine, a group of people gathered there to watch Ballmer play. The big bald guy was also very powerful. He scored 72 points in the first game, winning them a chance to play for free.

In the second game, he scored 100 points and won a chip with a face value of one dollar.

And at this time, Ethan discovered the problem.

Because in the resort hotel’s reward list, the only rewards in the 100-point column are chips.

If you want to play a third game, you can only continue to invest twenty-five cents.

Although from the current situation, they only used 25 cents to get a one-dollar chip, this low price made them a huge profit, but...

This account is obviously not calculated this way!
"Boss, I think I understand."

Ballmer asked the bodyguard to continue inserting coins to start the third game, and he moved closer to Ethan and said, "The owner of this hotel probably wants to use the gimmick of discounted chips to attract guests to stay in his hotel and make a steady stream of money from them."

Ballmer's words made Ethan laugh.

With a simple look around, he soon discovered that almost everyone present had bargaining chips.

This fact made him pat Ballmer on the shoulder and signal the boy to continue playing.

After they invested nearly ten dollars and received chips worth more than fifty dollars, Ethan asked Ballmer to go to the exchange counter to exchange the chips into U.S. dollars, and then...

The staff member in charge of exchanging chips said, "Sir, the chips you get in the game of "Windfall" have no expiration date. You can go there to play at any time when the gambling field is open. However, these chips cannot be exchanged for money."

"Only after you have played a round of games in our gambling venue and obtained the chips there, can you use those chips to exchange them for US dollars of the corresponding denomination here."

Such words made Ballmer put away his chips.

Ethan smiled brightly after hearing this explanation.

This kind of rhythm is really special, right?

"Bait."

Ballmer commented with a smile, handing the chips to Ethan.

"Yeah." Ethan took the chips and shook them.

Then he waved his hand, loosened his five fingers, and threw it into the trash can on the road in front of the hotel entrance.

The rustling sound made him look emotional.

"Steve."

"Ok?"

"The thing that this world lacks most is talent, right?"

Ballmer nodded and said, "Yes."

Ethan wasn't joking, he really thought those guys in Atlantic City were geniuses.

After a few hours of watching, Ethan had discovered why Atlantic City wanted his arcade machines, because New Jersey had regulations that gambling venues could only be open for six hours on weekdays.

This regulation is very disadvantageous to them.

This will not only affect the income of the gambling casino, but also the occupancy rate of the hotel, because the core selling point of the gambling casino hotel is that the guests staying here can go to the gambling casino to play a few games anytime and anywhere. The kind of life where they play when they wake up and sleep when they are tired is not only a paradise for gamblers, but also the real purpose of the gambling casino hotel owners. They want to squeeze all the money of all the guests.

If the gambling hotel is fully occupied during normal operation, then the loss of guests is acceptable to the owner. However, if the gambling hotel is not yet fully occupied and guests are forced to leave due to the anti-addiction mechanism of the gambling venue, then this loss will definitely become a thorn in the owner's heart.

If it was before, this problem could not be solved, because the players who came here were all here for gambling. If they couldn’t gamble, then they would have no reason to stay here.

But now, "The Fortune 500" provides them with a way out.

New Jersey does have laws that prohibit gambling venues from operating 24 hours a day, but New Jersey law does not stipulate that hotels cannot provide electronic gaming services!

Since they can provide electronic gaming services, the hotel can use the jackpot to keep customers here! Just like what they are doing now, selling low-priced chips for 25 cents per game! On the surface, they seem to be losing money, but -

As a gambling venue, it is impossible for them to let their guests leave with victory!
The best proof is that the chips earned from electronic games cannot be directly redeemed!

The best inducement is to go to the gambling field and take home the winning chips!

This--

"Damn it! These people really know how to have fun!"

Ethan spat.

"Let's go to New York."

He got into the car provided by United Airlines.

"I'm going to have a good sleep, and then think about how to solve this problem!"

Note: ① The chip numbers in the article are not wrong. The chip marks in that era were so small because the US dollar was very valuable. On the first day of the opening of the resort hotel, their public revenue was only 1.3 million US dollars, which is simply incomparable to now. ② Atlantic City originally had an "anti-addiction" mechanism, but it was cancelled in June 1979. From then on, they were open 24 hours a day.

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(End of this chapter)