1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 204 Natural Selection

"If God of Gamblers maintains its current attendance rate, it can stay in theaters for at least two weeks, and it won't be a problem for the box office to break the 20 million mark."

Sanhe Film Company.

Chen Lan sat on Xu Jiaqiang's lap, holding a stack of freshly sorted theater data in her hand.

If nothing unexpected happens, "God of Gamblers" will become the second movie in the summer to break the 20 million box office after "Shaolin Kid".

But there was no joy in her tone, instead it was a little bit sad.

Xu Jiaqiang hugged his wife's waist and asked belatedly, "Isn't this a very good result? Why are you unhappy?"

Chen Lan slapped his mischievous hand away and said angrily, "If the results are too bad, I will be more relaxed. The better the results are, the more we can't do without 1024. If they fall out because of the gambling boat incident, Sanhe won't even be able to make a second movie."

Xu Jiaqiang smiled and said, "No, Xinji has already discussed it with Zhai Yuan. Fu Toujun called me to reassure me that he and Zhai Yuan are now in a cooperative relationship. It's not as complicated as you think."

Chen Lan felt that Xu Jiaqiang might have turned his brain into muscle through practicing martial arts, so he thought everything was simple.

If Zhai Yuan could have done it so easily, he wouldn't have gone from a housing estate boy to his current position in just two years.

Seeing that she was still frowning, Xu Jiaqiang smiled and comforted her, "Don't worry, Zhai Yuan will cooperate with Xinji, and we will continue to make movies. If he insists on turning against us and asking 1024 to terminate its cooperation with Sanhe, Xinji will not allow him to participate in the gambling ship business, and will compensate us with % of the shares of the gambling ship. No matter how you calculate this account, we will not lose money."

"You are so smart in your calculations. You are worthy of being my husband."

Chen Lanqiang smiled and pinched Xu Jiaqiang's cheeks twice, pretending to be confused and asked, "But I heard that the higher-ups are discussing the ownership issue. It can be seen from Lianhua Cinema Line that Zhai Yuan has a good relationship with the higher-ups. If the two sides reach an agreement this time and return Hong Kong to the higher-ups, then who do you think will have a longer life, being a gang member or a patriotic businessman?"

Xu Jiaqiang shrugged his shoulders and said confidently, "We'll talk about it after we've reached an agreement. They always say they want to talk, but we've been talking for more than 30 years without any conclusion. I think this time it won't be a conclusion either."

Middle-aged men always have a kind of mysterious confidence in politics.

Xu Jiaqiang spoke a lot, analyzing to Chen Lan from multiple angles the reasons why the British would not return Hong Kong, and his speech was full of saliva.

Chen Lan looked at his confident appearance with an expression of admiration on her face, but she couldn't help but sigh in her heart.

Although I am a woman who doesn't understand politics, I understand Zhai Yuan very well. Xinji has taken over his gambling boat business, and he will never let it go.

…………

Fresh paint, carpeting, CCTV...

With hundreds of workers working day and night, the renovation of the Sea Dragon Star cruise ship is progressing rapidly.

In just a few days, the somewhat old cruise ship was completely transformed.

The name Sea Dragon Star has also become a thing of the past.

Ye Zhiming registered a cruise company. Zhai Yuan originally wanted to take advantage of the popularity of his own movie and gave the cruise ship a new name, God of Gamblers.

However, Shen Wei told him that although it is legal for a cruise ship to open a casino on the high seas, it is too blatant and may easily attract unnecessary inspections.

Zhai Yuan thought for a moment and said, "Then let's call it Natural Selection."

Ye Zhiming said with dissatisfaction: "What a crappy name! Princess Star, Queen Mary, Ocean Oasis, I can come up with a few that sound better than yours."

Zhai Yuan didn't bother to pay attention to him and asked Shen Wei, "Old Shen, what do you think of the name Natural Selection?"

Shen Wei nodded in an exaggerated manner: "Okay! Natural selection means that all guests who come to play cards will win or lose by fate. The boss is thoughtful."

So with a huge advantage of two to one, the Sea Dragon was officially renamed Natural Selection.

…………

"Brother Jun, the God of Gamblers will be able to go out to sea in three days, so you should get ready."

Standing on the deck of the God of Gamblers, Zhai Yuan introduced the layout of the newly renovated cabin to Huang Jun.

The hotel is fully equipped with luxurious guest rooms, a bar dance floor, a mini theater, and a bone press.

The most important thing is of course the casino.

In addition to the traditional games of baccarat, roulette, blackjack, pai gow and sic bo, Xin Ji also imported several slot machines from Taiwan, giving customers the illusion that if they can't beat a real person, how can they beat a machine's knife sawing a tree? In fact, all the chips have been tampered with, and the winning and losing odds depend entirely on the casino's mood.

All the clocks in the gambling hall were taken down, and when the lights were turned on, it was impossible to tell day from night. Cigarettes and coffee were provided free of charge.

Closed-circuit televisions are installed everywhere, and there are no less than ten split-screen monitors in the monitoring room. Even if a gambler scratches his crotch, you can see it clearly.

After Huang Jun's visit, he was even more impressed with Zhai Yuan. Not to mention the ocean cruise ships, even the horse racing and gambling halls of this era might not have such complete facilities.

"As expected of Mr. Zhai, this God of Gamblers is definitely the most luxurious cruise ship I have ever seen."

The carpet under his feet was so soft that it seemed to cover his knees. Huang Jun said impatiently, "Let's go out to sea in three days. I've already made preparations. Those big bosses are also very interested in gambling ships. We'll kill them all on this maiden voyage!" Zhai Yuan glanced at him and said with a smile, "Okay."

The next morning.

Newspapers such as the Oriental Daily published news about Natural Selection.

The reporters used photos of the interior of the gambling ship as the caption, and titled it "Las Vegas at Sea", which was enough to advertise the Natural Selection. The contact information and registration requirements of the gambling ship were left at the end.

As the world's first high seas gambling ship, the Natural Selection is full of gimmicks even though it requires registration to board the ship.

Gamblers do not need to carry large amounts of cash on board to avoid taking risks. They only need to exchange their cash for chips of equal value in advance and bring them on board.

Chips are divided into mud chips and cash chips, but the Natural Selection does not exchange cash chips on shore. If guests want to board the ship, they need to exchange more than 50,000 mud chips first.

The so-called mud code, also known as dead code, can only be used for betting but cannot be exchanged for cash.

The rise of this type of chips is closely related to a new profession in horse racing in the past two years, the jockey. In order to attract customers and promote sales, casinos will issue clay chips that are about 1% cheaper than the face value to the jockeys, allowing them to attract customers to enter the casino.

Once you get the mud code, you can no longer exchange it for cash of equal value. You either lose it all or win cash codes at the gambling table and then return to the shore to exchange them.

There are a total of 150 guest rooms on the Natural Selection, and the wealthy people brought by Huang Jun and Ye Zhiming occupy thirty or forty of them.

These wealthy people can board the ship without buying chips. Even if they take out a piece of white paper and fill in one million on the ship, they will be given corresponding chips.

The remaining spots didn’t take too long either.

The day after the advertisement was published, the remaining more than 100 rooms were fully booked. Even though the minimum requirement to board the ship was 50,000 mud chips, there were still people who exchanged hundreds of thousands at a time, intending to make a big splash after boarding the ship.

In just two days, the Natural Selection has not yet left the port, but just through the pre-sale of mud codes, it has accumulated an exaggerated amount of more than 46 million.

"This money is the gambling capital and cannot be divided for the time being. After this maiden voyage is over and the passengers' winnings and losses are counted, the remaining money will be the profit."

Huang Jun couldn't stop grinning as he looked at the amount on the account. The individual gamblers alone had a total of 46 million in gambling capital, and the amount from those wealthy guys who didn't use mud chips was definitely even more exaggerated.

Zhai Yuan pretended to be unhappy and sighed: "It's a pity that I can only get 10%."

"You must be loyal and give your two parts to Ye Zhiming!"

Huang Jun smiled and put his arm around Zhai Yuan's back, comforting him, "But even if it's 10%, you should be able to make millions in one trip. You don't have to do anything, all the risks are borne by Xinji. If the gambling boat goes out to sea a few more times a month, you can easily make tens of millions. Isn't it easier than making a movie?"

Normally speaking, the gambling industry is subject to heavy taxes, and the gambling king pays billions of taxes to the Portuguese every year.

But gambling ships on the high seas don’t have to worry about taxes at all, and all the profits go into their own pockets.

Zhai Yuan lowered his head and smiled, not showing any surprise at the number.

He asked Huang Jun, "Have you arranged the security for this trip?"

"Don't worry, Xinji has picked out fifty good ones this time. In addition to the talents from the club, there are also talents from the Netherlands."

Huang Jun was obviously showing off his muscles in front of Zhai Yuan on purpose. He stared at him with a smile on his face and said, "Everyone carries a Black Star, and Dutchman also brought an AK and a pineapple. If anyone dares to cause trouble during the journey, I promise to make him regret going against Xinji!"

Zhai Yuan frowned and asked in confusion, "Bringing the arsenal on board? I'm afraid if we can't leave the Xiangjiang Pier, the marine police will seize the entire ship."

Huang Jun grinned confidently, "I have arranged two large aircraft carriers to be on standby at sea. After the Natural Selection leaves the port, they will accompany it as escort and will officially board the ship when we reach the high seas."

Zhai Yuan suddenly realized, smiled and nodded in praise: "It's really sharp!"

9 month 16 number.

The Natural Selection cruise ship officially starts its maiden voyage.

More than a hundred guests boarded the ship one after another. After days of news publicity, even though everyone knew that this was a gambling ship, the Hong Kong police could do nothing about it.

There is no cash on the entire ship except for the mud codes. Even if the policeman and the ship go out to sea, the dealers on the ship will not open the table. They have to wait until they reach the high seas before officially starting the gambling party.

"Mr. Ye, thank you for taking the initiative to follow the boat this time."

In front of Kwai Chung Pier, Huang Jun greeted Ye Zhiming with a big smile on his face and said meaningfully: "Don't worry, the boat is full of my people. Most importantly, the croupiers have been with us for many years. In addition, there are two large aircraft carriers escorting us at sea. Safety will definitely not be a problem."

After that, he added with a smile: "But it's better to be safe than sorry. If something unexpected happens and scares the guests on the ship, or injures one or two of them, I'm afraid no one will be able to do business in this shop in the future, so Mr. Ye still needs to put in more effort."

Axe Jun knew that he had offended Ye Zhiming this time, but he was confident that whether it was Zhai Yuan or Ye Zhiming, as long as they still wanted to do the gambling ship business, they would have to hold their noses and cooperate with Xinji.

Holding the two trump cards of security and dealers, and with the ship full of money-spending boys who cannot be offended, what kind of storm can the two bridge kings stir up together?
(I have a migraine. I took two packets of Acacia powder to feel better. I will update one chapter first, 3K, and continue later.

(End of this chapter)