Big Lights, Big City: Three, Bad Karma

Neither Mark nor I were at all eager to gamble aside from a few slot machines. The lights and the people and occasionally very cheap drinks were enough. However, his dad gave us $50 to play roulette for him. Neither of us knew the rules so we stood to the side and watched for a bit, and an older fellow standing next to us gave us a few tips. Soon Mark jumped in at a table where a hefty guy with glasses was sitting with infinite chips, which we watched him lose almost entirely and then gain back. He knew his gambling. When Mark jumped in he began doing well. Then a big-white-t-shirt-gold chain-wearing fella came over with his hoochie girlfriend. Out of the corners of our eyes, each Mark and I saw the guy take Mark's two $25 chips which were sitting next to his. Mark called him on it, the guy apologized after at first denying, and then gave the chips back. Fine but nevertheless sketchy. A few more rounds go by. Mark had one $25 chip on the black, sitting to the right of two $25 chips, which belonged to the sketchy guy. Black won and I watched the dealer place one $25 chip in front of Mark's, and two in front of the sketchy guy's. Round over, Mark goes to take his chips--but they're gone. He looks at sketchy guy, says (in a friendly manner), "Did you take my chips again?" Sketchy guy says he didn't. Mark becomes more persistent, says "Are you sure? My chips were next to yours." Sketchy guy says no. Dealer notices a problem, and they begin to explain to no resolve. Here's where things get fishy. Dealer calls over Pit Boss. When Pit Boss comes over, Dealer explains that there was one stack of two $25 chips sitting on black, neglecting to mention Mark's one $25 to the right of that stack. Everyone at the table agreed there were two stacks, including the experienced guy with stacks of infinite chips. Dealer says again and again the scenario, neglecting to mention Mark's chips. (I wonder on this. He knew Mark came in not knowing how to play, because he said so after making a small error.) Meanwhile the four of us--Mark, Sketchy, Veteran, and I (even though I wasn't playing)--say otherwise. Pit Boss does some business with chips, which I don't remember because it was foreign to me and I was finishing up my third drink in the middle of the day. Mark gets the chips that are his, Sketchy gets half that were his. Then everyone leaves the table: bad karma. We saw Veteran cashing out when Mark did; Sketchy moved to another table; Dealer didn't have his story right. And that's the story of suspect fish.