They say the house always wins. But what if it doesn't? What if there are people who live not just to beat the odds, but to make them completely non-existent? High Stakes and Broken Dreams is based on true stories of actual events that happened in real life. Above all, it is a trapdoor to a hidden world, a collection of quietly whispered stories in the backroom of a casino, confessions made over whiskey and regret. These are the lives of people who stared down fate-and didn't blink. You'll find no moral compass here. No guiding light. Just the thrill. The chaos. The raw, almost feral hunger that comes with the turn of a card, the glow of a slot machine, the click of a roulette wheel. The gamblers in this book are not looking for escape. They're chasing immortality. And sometimes, they find it, if only for a moment. This is a book for the kind of reader who's always wondered what really happens behind velvet ropes and glassy poker faces. What lies on the other side of obsession? What becomes of a waitress who walks into a casino and walks out a millionaire? Or a quiet math student who learns how to count cards so well he becomes invisible to the very system he beats? These are not archetypes. These are real people, breathing, flawed, brilliant, and dangerous. People who never left the table, no matter the stakes. This story collection pulls you into the shadows of affluence, calculation, and self-destruction. It reflects your deepest fears, your ugliest desires, and sometimes... the monster that you're pretending not to be. Because for the true gambler, money is never the point. It's about the edge-that razor-thin line where you're half in control, half in chaos. There's something seductive about a person who can't walk away. It awakens a piece of us we're told to keep buried. The part that whispers: just one more spin. The part that craves the fall. You won't just read this book. You'll feel it-slowly at first, like the hum of a slot machine starting up. And then all at once, as the world you thought you knew collapses under the weight of what people will do for power, freedom, validation... and luck. These are the untold chronicles of men and women who stepped into the underworld, not exactly to play by the rules. So don't read this book unless you're ready to peer into that mirror. Because once you start... You may not want to stop.