STYLE: Disciplined fluke. A low roller who has the willpower to leave before the house can recover its losses.

Part of the pleasure in gambling comes from seeing the casino management sweat, and one of the few players I saw achieve this was a little old lady called Anna. She was no more than a £20-a-night punter, buying in for £10 on roulette, losing it, buying in for a second tenner, losing that, too, and then going to the bingo house up the road.

She came in around 7pm so had usually left by the time I started work at 9pm. Except for one night, when she bought in for her usual £10 and built it up to £24,000! When it came to her usual time to go - 9pm - that's exactly what she did, cashing in the lot!

These lucky runs happen to most regular players on a weekly basis. Just occasionally, it continues for a couple of hours, which is when you can really clean up. However, the best bit about Anna's win came the following day, when she came back in (I was doing a double shift) and, once she'd bought in for her usual £20 total, then got up and left on cue as normal.

The managers were apoplectic and barred her - the cheapskates had figured it would take about five years to get 'their' money back and they weren't prepared to risk her winning again. This was even though they had probably taken thousands from her over the years. So if you do hit a hot streak and milk it, beware: you stand a good chance of being banned.