I don’t expect to make a living from the casino – my ambition is not to lose, or to lose as little as possible, and to stay in the game for as long as possible. My ultimate ambition is to break the bank one day. In the meantime, I make a living thanks to a permanent contract with the Athenian afternoon newspaper ‘O Asyrmatos’. Some other day I will explain how I have dealt the cards so that I get paid by the newspaper’s accounting department, but spend more time at the casino cashier’s desk. The basic idea is that the newspaper pays on the first of every month, while the casino pays every day.

Vladimir Dimitriadis, a slow-paying journalist, activist gambler, old communist and occasional womaniser, has found his own trick to play instead of working. But his obsessions will lead him to a borderline game where he will risk everything he has left. The winnings, if any, will be collected on another level, one he never imagined.

Kastaniotis, 2009, 269 p.