Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition — page 23: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

TRADE SECRET 21 You don’t expect us to play Santa Claus, do you? How do you make the adjustments?” “Listen, I told you when we made the deal that these devices are straight. They operate strictly at random. A dozen balls in the pit gives you odds of eleven to one on each bet. What more do you want? The minute you tinker with the machines they'll quit working. Now do you want to buy, or not?” The gambler guessed he did, and hung up. © “Can you imagine these guys?” said Mart. ‘They talk about the one- armed bandits—how about the two- armed ones?”’ There was a similar problem with every one of the clubs in which a machine was installed, but when it was finally straightened out, and the gamblers were resigned to operating an honest game, their relationships became one of distant respect based on mutual expediency. Mart and Berk needed the club installations to expose the machines to public view, and the gamblers found it somewhat like discovering a vein of high-grade gold ore under the floor of the roulette room. : Neither Mart nor Berk had any desire to prolong their stay in the gambling paradise. There was still no response, however, from the one source they hoped to disturb with _ the machine. ““We’ve proven the machines are effective as gambling devices,’’ said Berk. “But we’re wasting time. We ought to give Sam the go-ahead on the bar and drugstore models. We’re not going to get the roulette wheel’s successor into the Bureau of Standards and the University of Chicago by sitting here in Las Vegas.”’ “You don’t think physicists are likely to come here to gamble?’’ said Mart. “Physicists aren’t likely to gamble. And after buying the week’s groceries, how could they?’ ““Yes,”’ said Mart, “I guess that’s one of the points we started out to make. Anyway, I’ll bet we get a bite before the end of the week. Whether we do or not, we'll close up by then. Pll send Sam a wire this afternoon to get in production. By next Christmas: two Volcanoes where only one pinball | stood before!”’ During the same afternoon Mart’s attention was attracted to a patron of the club, who was what Mart had come to label an ungambler. There were gamblers and non-gamblers, and some- times it was hard to tell them apart. But a pure ungambler could be spotted at a glance. This particular specimen sat in the front row of the amphitheater staring at the Volcano almost as if in a trance. He moved only occasionally to polish the glass of his spectacles with the large white handkerchief which he withdrew with a flourish. He made bets. A considerable number of them. He did not win a single time. Mart felt like telling him to give it up. You have to have just a trace, at least, of ESP or you haven’t got a chance. Successful gamblers were loaded with it. The ungamblers were apparently born with a total lack of it. Mart finally resisted the impulse to protect the fellow from his own deficiencies, and turned away from the amphitheater. He saw that Berk was also watching from a post near the cashier’s cage. “FRI, I'd say,” said Berk. “Him? Not a chance. Probably a fresh MA in English Literature. I hate to see the poor guy throwing away his money, but what can I do?” It was almost closing time that night before this particular patron gave up his seat and left the building. Comichooksnco im