In April, Steve, a 35-year-old filmmaker from Los Angeles, was at the Venetian in Las Vegas playing a Wheel of Fortune slot machine and feeling like a million bucks. He was taking $7 spins and after an hour of sinking $500 into the machine, Steve got a gold spin bonus and won $700. The next day, he was still feeling lucky and found what he thought was a “hot” machine. He fed it $200 and lost it all within minutes. He ran to the ATM to get another $200, lost again, and finally walked away after losing $1,400.

To professional sports bettor and veteran advantage game player who goes by the nom de casino Captain Jack Andrews, what happened to Steve is textbook. “They will all lose their money,” Andrews says, “it’s just about how quickly they will lose.”