Hitting the Slots - '777'?

When you lose all hopes - be it your career, marriage or family - and start to wonder if this is the point where you have nowhere to go but down, have you ever tried to look for signs from above that would shed some light on your seemingly dim future? I guess we all do that at some point in our lives. The bible teaches us not to test God by any means in any form; we still hopelessly seek for affirmation and a sense of security (even for atheists like myself.) And hitting the slot machines is like a group of people simultaneously asking the same question to whichever metaphysical beings or mechanisms they believe in - Am I the lucky one?
Entering into the modern era, everything goes digital - including the slot machines. The good old non-digital slot machines might seem more hopeful than the ones with computer screens as programming a game on a computer is a more common idea or trick to the general public; however, many should have heard of a saying - that is,  'the house always win.' To be candid, little do I know how the reel and lever could be arranged and adjusted in a certain way for controlling the outcome. What the slot machines interest me is the people who pull the lever (or push the button) in the hope to prove that they are the lucky ones despite the odds that they already know.
Going to casinos is a must-do item on my itinerary when visiting Macau. The gambling industry in Macau, as you may have known, is one of the mainstays to the local economy and you could imagine how well-developed it is. I like casinos not because I like to gamble, but I appreciate the entertaining ambiance in the casinos, full of people feeling lucky and having a blast. Unlike traditional Chinese casinos swarmed with frowning gamblers placing bets, modern casinos are a hot spot for fine-dining, quality entertainment and, of course, the exciting and fun gambling games. Some of my best memories were me having a cocktail with others at the casinos, immersing myself into the ambiance. Despite the fact that the adult content/element of the show I did not particularly like, there are very few things that could compete with sipping my favorite cocktail at a bar right in front of the enormous stage with people having a great time on both sides in Grand Lisboa. But the best part still is the slot machines. Whenever I put in the coin and hit the 'spin' button, a hope of being the lucky one, or one of God's favorite ones, starts to blossom in my mind until the outcome is shown on screen. Granted, I've never been proven to be the 'lucky' one to this day; but I enjoyed these hopes offered to me at the cost of only 20 cents for each. Even when I lost, I just smiled and left without any real disappointment since it's just life - not every one of us is lucky, or at least lucky in the way we think we will or should be.
As for the slot machines, mainly I would go to the ones with the highest jackpot. Like any mathematicians would tell you, gambling is a game of probability - you might as well bet on the one with the highest jackpot since you know very little or nothing about the factors determining or influencing the outcome. For the first few times, I thought I saw some sort of pattern of the reel: the bonus combination, as expected, would not appear often. So when I 'sensed' that this spin would not win me any money, I'd bet on a lesser amount; when I 'thought' the bonus combination was about to come, I would raise my bet and wait for it. I won like $1500~2000 in mostly three or four hours consistently for the first three times I visited Macau. But then the 'trick' didn't seem to work at later times; I seemed to no longer be able to 'see' the pattern. I got the 'feeling' that the interval between each bonus combination became larger and the amount of bonus money was less than before. My boyfriend laughed and asked if I had 'lost my touch'.
(Don't get me wrong. I don't intend to encourage excessive gambling. Losing control of the amount one bets and the frequency of gambling at casinos undoubtedly is or will be a tragedy not only for oneself but also for his or her family. True, gambling can ruin your life; but I am also incredibly sick of those who takes casinos as if it were the most debauched place on earth and think that people who go in there are stupid, poor and/or messed up. Ironically, if you are not 'messed up' at all, you would be confident in employing your capabilities to resist the temptations, if any, to bet on more than you should.)