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> The dereggers had managed to get a licence to run casinos in space that was, technically, Alliance space, but was so far from the beaten path that the CRC had trouble keeping an eye on things. There's where Lucky as people called him, came in. He was a lucker with only a single real talent. He never lost a bet. Didn't matter if it was cards, dice, board games, slot machines, whatever, he never lost. So, when it became clear just how crooked and underhanded these places in, a whisper or two in his ear, and he was off to have some fun. -- [DaniAndShali](https://www.internutter.org/bb/user/daniandshali)

Deregulation Far South East had done everything by the book, which raised a lot of red flags. Dereggers _hated_ obeying the laws and ordinances of Alliance space and them playing by the rules was a sure sign that they were up to something. Not that Deregger CEO's and Executive Quadrillionaires are ever _not_ up to something.

The trick was in the area they were building the casino station. A little out-of-the-way station and planetoid in an area that the CRC had immense difficulty policing. Close enough to lure the well-to-do, but far enough away that the already-stretched agents would be hard pressed to monitor any shenanigans the Dereggers were up to.

So they put the word out in certain corners of the infonets. It only took a week, but Galactic citizens who visited noted the signs of stressed employees and one got "creatively lost" to take secret snaps of the employee accommodations. That was when "Lucky" Ambrose Luci stepped in.

She was a Good Lucker with a very specific set of luck. She never lost a bet. She had been banned in thirty-two gambling establishments before gaining permanent employment by _not_ visiting gambling establishments or casinos. Well, those operating properly under the laws of the Alliance, and within Alliance space. Lucky arose to the call to action.

She knew what the Dereggers liked to see, and they liked to see "Whales", people who could drop big money in their direction and not seem to care. Just the initial series of tips had the entire staff at her beck and call and the more exclusive treats offered for next to free.

They thought they were going to skin her for everything she had. Adorable. If they only knew what she knew... Ah, but if they knew, they may have turned her away at the door.

Lucky began by betting herself she could find the most rigged game in the Casino, and then sat at it. Put down a modest pile of chips... and then started winning legitimately. The trick to really skinning a Casino for everything it had was to only play any given game for a handful of minutes. Three consecutive wins wasn't anything new, even in a rigged game. Five was suspicious but not alarming. Seven got the notice of administration. Between three and six was the gem. Lucky could pretend to be dither-headed and leave chips from her winnings as tips on the way out.

They didn't track her so long as she was leaving enormous tips. Their mistake. What she gave out was only a portion of what she was winning. Lucky had already figured out exactly how much she needed to break their bank lightly enough for them to take it as a slap on the wrist. To give them a true punitive sign of how playing by _all_ the rules could work in their favour.

It took her five days and three nearly-identical tote bags full of chips before they brought her into the head office. Someone must have finally woken up to the fact that she owned more chips than the casino could afford to cash. The big challenge was keeping the smile off her face.

He was an overstuffed suit with conspicuous consumption in mind. Silk and diamonds and precious metals abounded. He wasn't manly enough to possess lace, but Lucky could bet odds even that his wife or wives had all the lace they could eat. Hand-tatted, naturally.

"How do you do it?" said the suit. "How the living hell are you cheating?"

Lucky purposely tapped her eyecam on. A gesture to let the man know that things were being streamed live for her protection. "Why do you think I'm cheating?" This immediately put him in a corner. He had to admit that they were cheating or show they'd willingly allowed a Lucker to enter a place where Luckers were not permitted to go.

"The odds are against you winning as often as you are," nice avoidance. "There has to be some kind of shenanigans going on. So how are you doing it?"

"I'm not really doing anything," said Lucky. "I'm just acting according to my nature. I was welcomed to stay here as long as I like. I might like to stay here even longer... as is my right under _your_ laws. I can afford it, after all."

"On our money," wailed Overstuffed Suit.

"My money," corrected Lucky. "I won it fair and square."

"That remains to be seen," snarled Suit. "We got all our instruments trained on you, and I have a coin. Call it, and we'll figure it out."

"I win, I keep what I've won?" said Lucky.

"Yeah. Sure," muttered Suit. He obviously had a loaded coin. "Call it."

"Edge."

He was laughing right up until his loaded coin landed _inore_, on its edge. Balancing perfectly without tipping at all.

Lucky smiled. "Your instruments won't find anything," she said as he scrambled between readouts. "They've never been able to figure out the mechanics behind a Lucker."

She could almost hear the orchestral sting as the realisation hit Suit like an apophis-class asteroid. Now it was _really_ hard to keep the smirk off her face. "Such a pity that the CRC isn't here to protect you from -say- unethical use of unmonitorable abilities? Just like the CRC isn't here to force you to treat all your employees like regular Alliance citizens."

"What are you saying?"

"Treat your employees fairly, according to the Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, or I stay here and break your bank. Maintain those rights and responsibilities... or I come back." Lucky checked her nails. "You're being watched by every Alliance citizen who comes here. The infonets are watching you."

_Hello, rock. Hello, hard place. This is where you live now, mister._

"It's... going to cost a fortune to retrofit."

"More than it's going to cost you to have yourself a Lucker haven?"

He stared, once more, at the inore coin, still impossibly balanced in ways it could not have been. Just to drive it home, Lucky plucked a coin from her own pocket and called, "Edge," as it went twirling through the air. It landed, inore, right next to the loaded one.

Lucky said, "I'm going to be spending my winnings here for as long as it takes to get to an acceptable level of accomplishment. Show any sign of waffling and delay tactics and I start playing again."

He was left without any alternative. "What's the acceptable level?"

"One hundred percent compliance. Permanently."

[Image <a href="https://www.canstockphoto.com">(c) Can Stock Photo / russw</a>]

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