The Strip was still lit by a million neon lights, though the crowds on the sidewalk had greatly decreased by this hour. Still, Bosch was awed by the spectacle of light. In every imaginable color and configuration, it was a megawatt funnel of enticement to greed that burned twenty-four hours a day. Bosch felt the same attraction that all the other grinders felt tug at them. Las Vegas was like one of the hookers on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Even happily married men at least glanced their way, if only for a second, just to get an idea what was out there, maybe give them something to think about. Las Vegas was like that. There was a visceral attraction here. The bold promise of money and sex. But the first was a broken promise, a mirage, and the second was fraught with danger, expense, physical and mental risk. It was where the real gambling took place in this town.

Maybe the difference between first marriage and second marriage is that the second time at least you know you are gambling.

A pack of cards is the devil's prayer book.

The best throw with the dice is to throw them away.

He who gambles picks his own pocket.

My wife made me join a bridge club. I jump off next Tuesday.

When a man tells me he's going to put all his cards on the table, I always look up his sleeve.

If you mind losing more than you enjoy winning, don't bet.

Buying stock is exactly the same thing as going to a casino, only with no cocktail service.

Time spent in a casino is time given to death, a foretaste of the hour when one's flesh will be diverted to the purposes of the worm and not of the will.

The roulette table pays nobody except him who keeps it. Nevertheless, a passion for gaming is common, though a passion for keeping roulette wheels is unknown.

When we put in fifty more machines, I consider them fifty more mousetraps. You have to have a mousetrap to catch a mouse.

Adventure upon all the tickets in the lottery, and you lose for certain; and the greater the number of your tickets the nearer you approach to this certainty.

Cards are war, in disguise of a sport.

I am sorry I have not learnt to play at cards. It is very useful in life: it generates kindness and consolidates society.

True luck consists not in holding the best of the cards at the table: Luckiest he who knows just when to rise and go home.

Gambling is the great leveller. All men are equal- at cards.

Whoever plays deep must necessarily lose his money or his character.

Keep flax from fire, and youth from gaming.

Betting and gambling would lose half their attractiveness, did they not deceive us with the fancy that there may be an element of personal merit in our winnings. Our reason may protest, but our self-love is credulous.