harleyscars Chapter 178 The Casino of Inflation
Chapter 178 The Casino of Inflation
Chapter 188 The Casino of Inflation
"Although you claim that the banknotes here are worth 16 billion yuan, they have not actually been counted, have they? It is impossible to determine whether there are counterfeit banknotes mixed in."
Bathed in a sea of ten-thousand-yuan bills, Vio spoke solemnly.
Judging from the scale of the banknotes on site, it should indeed be equivalent to tens of billions...
Vio was not a short-sighted person. One cubic meter of neatly stacked ordinary 100-yuan banknotes was worth about 8.4 million yuan, while the size of 10,000-yuan banknotes was slightly larger than the former, which could be offset by the change in the estimate.
In other words, 160 billion yuan worth of banknotes would require at least 20 cubic meters of volume. Considering the fluffiness caused by randomly scattering banknotes, it would indeed be enough to fill this transparent room to its current size.
But the old man's gaze remained fixed on the gambling table—
The torrential rain of banknotes earlier had filled the sky, but not much actually landed on the gambling tables. This was likely due to the Vietnamese side deliberately adjusting the direction of the blowers.
The few banknotes left on the card table were quickly cleared away by the dealer, without obscuring the unfolding game.
The black and white tablecloth and the amethyst ocean on it still shone brightly, but now, the chips had lost much of their impact. It was less of an ocean and more of a puddle on an island of gambling tables in the heart of this sea of money.
Human intuition is such a volatile thing, easily swayed by more spectacular and novel things. These purple chips should clearly be the most valuable item on site, worth a total of 200 billion Alliance Coins—if they were to instantly transform into the banknotes outside, this secret room would be completely filled with banknotes, and none of the three people present—Vio, the dealer, or anyone else—would escape; they would all drown in this money-scented pulp.
Amateur detectives and tabloid reporters would probably be very interested in such a bizarre death.
Vio lowered his eyes, his gaze still fixed on the cards placed on the table—the two cards he had covered with his own hands, the two bottom cards that Yueju had pressed down with her heels, and the community cards, one of which had been turned over and four remaining…
The points revealed by the revealed card were exactly as the old man had predicted. Of the nineteen possible convergences, seventeen included this card, which was exactly as expected, indicating that both the calculations and his theory were on the right track.
It's impossible for something to go wrong.
A voice rose from the depths of the old man's heart.
This is not only a gambling duel involving billions of dollars, but also a battle to test Vio's dignity as a mathematician.
“Once the chips are on the table, there’s no going back. Since Mr. Vio doesn’t recognize the value of these banknotes, then this round of betting will have to be voided.”
Lingju shrugged and said this in a nonchalant manner.
The shiny black leather shoes, perched on the gambling table, swung back and forth as if taunting the timid person in front of them.
Stay calm, stay calm.
Vio silently counted his breaths as he reminded himself of this.
He somewhat missed the time when he was frantically calculating halfway through a game, when the numbers he added, subtracted, multiplied, and divided occupied most of his mind, leaving no need to think about anything outside of the game.
Blueberry is indeed a respectable gambler. Although Vio was using an unfinished clock face algorithm to manipulate probabilities during the game, and although he had accumulated a chip advantage at the beginning of the game, the cunning man still kept a poker face and kept thinking of new strategies to try to turn the tide.
While Vio was using analytical methods to calculate the probability of the next card appearing, Lanju was also using inductive methods to observe Vio's actions.
He avoided several hands where Vio thought he had a sure win. Sometimes, even when he only bet two chips, Lingju would nervously flee the battlefield like a startled pigeon. In rounds of seemingly reckless large bets, he also cleverly seized moments when the hand was ambiguous, preventing Vio from betting an equal amount, thus allowing Lingju to steal the win and recover a lot of losses.
However, while inductive reasoning derived from observation can become increasingly accurate with repeated observations, it still has a significant shortcoming compared to precise conclusions derived from calculations—it cannot provide a perfect prediction of whether a particular round of gambling will result in a win or loss.
But Vio could, and he had already calculated this outcome.
Now that the final line of the equation has logically been determined, and the points and suits of the first community card are within the threshold, an unexpected event occurred where the oranges raised the bet.
Countless distracting thoughts flooded his mind, making it impossible for him to think about the problem from an absolutely rational perspective.
Why did Blueberry suddenly call? Did he have some kind of confidence? Or was this another bluff, an attempt to feign confidence and then renege on the bet?
Should Vio call? Should he follow the lead of the bettor and bring real money into the game? Or should he let this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity slip by and start a new round of lone-wolf card counting?
Let's test the waters first.
Vio stared intently at his opponent: "As far as I know, you've already staked this entire gambling ship on the table, and the 100 billion chips I originally held have almost drained most of the ship's cash. Now that you're introducing 160 billion in cash into the game, how do you plan to guarantee the proper redemption of the chips after the game begins?"
"Hehe, Mr. Vio, you talk as if you've already won. If you only consider the probability of winning, you'll suffer a great loss in the casino."
"Is there an element of bluff in that?" Yueju sneered.
"Please answer the question directly. This matter concerns the validity of the prize redemption for the competition, and there can be no ambiguity." The old man glared at Yueju and gestured to the dealer beside him.
The subordinate immediately understood and chimed in, "That's right, Mr. Yueju, you can't bring back the goods that were originally used as collateral to gamble!"
“No.” The casino owner calmly raised his index finger. “The only collateral is the Royal Union beneath our feet. There is no collateral relationship between the cash and chips in this room.”
Vio sighed silently. Having handled the Plasma Group's investment matters, he naturally understood the meaning behind Yueju's words—
Just as the Dark-type Elite Four member remarked when releasing the banknotes, the essence of the chips is no different from the currency issued by the Pokémon League—they are both materialized forms of credit.
There is no strict collateral relationship between casino chips and cash, or between currency and national gold reserves. Within an acceptable velocity of circulation, the government can even issue excess currency several times over without affecting the stable operation of the economy; this is the origin of inflation.
That was a brilliant plan. Yueju perfectly utilized her position as a casino owner, acting like a central bank controlling the alliance's finances, to create more than double the amount of chips for herself out of thin air during the game.
"But if we ask to exchange the chips now, you won't have any cash to pay the prize money, right?" The dealer, whose mind was clearly still a bit foggy, asked the question without thinking, making Vio frown.
“Now that your chips are on the table, or even in the prize pool as stakes, they can’t be used to claim prizes.”
The Dark-type Elite Four member said with a smile that was hard to decipher—
“If you give up this round of betting and choose to cash out your chips, then I naturally won’t need to continue betting with cash, and I can use this money to pay your chips.”
This is no gambler, he's practically a seasoned banker... Mathematician Vio, who is both a gambler and a financier, couldn't help but shake his head, marveling at the Pokémon Elite Four's versatility.
However, this is ultimately nothing more than bringing in external funding.
If blueberries can do it, so can Vio.
Although 16 billion is not a small amount, it is still within his authority to allocate funds.
When the betting ends and the tide of money recedes, the true clown, who has no underwear, will be revealed.
So we're back to the original question—
Should we go for it?
Could the opponent use a gambling technique unknown to anyone to switch their hand? Is it possible that their calculations might fail at a crucial moment?
Old man Vio felt his eyes start to ache. From the moment the cards were dealt, whether he was communicating with his opponents or experiencing the downpour of banknotes, his gaze had never left the playing cards on the gambling table.
The cards have not changed at all—meaning there is no possibility of cheating.
However, Vio remained hesitant, caught in a cycle of suspicion akin to rock-paper-scissors.
This is a problem that every gambler should face in every game, but Vio only faced it for the first time this evening—before, a flawless mathematical algorithm had always done it for him, so there was no need for him to struggle with it.
Perhaps feeling bored, or perhaps to relieve the pressure on her blood vessels and nerves, Lanju switched her crossed legs, placing her left foot on top of her right.
At this very moment—
"I'll go with you."
Vio, the sage of the plasma cluster, the purple-robed financier, and the mathematics doctor, spoke the words aloud.
He blurted it out without thinking.
The moment the blueberry switched feet, the playing cards that had been pressed down trembled briefly due to the change in air pressure.
In that split second, he caught a glimpse of the suit of one of the hole cards through the reflective glass behind Lingju.
The number of probability events that match the calculation remains unchanged at seventeen. This is because each of the final selected card combinations contains one such playing card.
Vio's calculation hit the bullseye once again.
Isn't Lingju's move a bit too deliberate? Could there be a trap behind this?
The actions of the lychee were certainly deliberate, but they could also have been a trap.
But the arrogant old man could not betray this correctness.