When will this ever stop...

Despite being occupied at work today, I still managed to spare an hour to walk to the casino and back.

I pulled out $2000 from the ATM and walked rather peacefully towards what could've been a wrecking ball on my day. I kept telling myself that a win of $100 was good enough, and that anything more was a bonus.

When I got there, they only had one $10 table open which was jam packed with people. The other tables were still in the process of opening. Then one of the security guards came over to swap chips. I was about to complain to a random person about how stupid it was that they chose to do this on the only $10 table open, but then thought the better of it.

I found a table that had just opened and played there. It's always dangerous like this because you have no idea how the ball will spin and what sectors have been hitting (if they actually even matter in reality). There was one record on the history board of '28' and I thought the dealer must've spun once before I approached, so I asked if he had just spun. He said no, and that it was roulette tradition that when they open a table, to start it from the date.

Hmmm. Interesting.

I bought in $800 worth of chips and played. I was up then down and had a $20 gain. I gave serious thought to leaving, and then looked at my watch and figured I could stay a bit. The guy hit one 0-3 sector and the rest were 1-2 sectors. During this 1-2 sector streak of about four, I tried betting against it and lost. I almost lost $800 and was prepared to pull out some cash from my wallet.

I bet the 0-3 sector again, and luckily this time it hit. It landed on 7, where I had three splits and a straight up - 86 chips, meaning $860. It could've landed on 28 or 29 next door, where I had more chips, but I was happy enough.

I cashed in immediately. I counted my profit of $500. Not bad, especially when I was only hoping for $100.

I deposited the cash into the bank and then bought a Big Issue from a homeless guy on the street as I was feeling charitable. When I got back to the office, I logged onto net bank and applied the profits to my debt. I had reduced my personal loan balance from $15990 to $15490.

For the remainder of the day, I worked away busily, but at times wondered when this streak would end. I realised what was different between now and back then was I was leaving pretty much as soon as I made a gain. I realised that I can't control where the ball lands (despite my system theory) but I can control when I bet and when I leave. The important thing is to leave to survive another day.

I know I told myself to only do this until my debt is paid off, but if I can win back $15,000, then why stop there? Would I really stop there? If I could win more, would the casino eventually stop me? If they don't, when do I stop? When I have enough to buy a car? Or a house? Can I really gamble to win enough for a house?

I know it's way too early to tell, but I'm already picturing myself being billed as some sort of professional roulette player. It could all come crashing down with a loss next time, so I know I'm thinking way ahead of myself.