The Castle of Wall Street

Imagine a casino and its roulette tables where a Mr. Castle has placed
some rather large bets on the roulette wheel and it's spinning. Most
everyone knows this game of chance. All the contestants have put their
money on a number or a red or black and how the ball is spun around the
wheel will determine (more-or-less randomly) who wins and who loses. The
slight changes I will suggest should make the bettors a little mad since
a lot of the randomness is removed.

As the wheel spins Mr. Castle gets a small preview of where it will stop
before any of the other contestants. The vast majority of them get no
preview at all. The difference is huge when you combine another key
factor. If Mr. Castle doesn't like what he sees in the preview, he can
pay the casino to keep the wheel spinning. What? How can they do that?
Mr. Castle says he just isn't ready for the game to end because he can't
afford to lose. If the wheel spins a while longer, maybe the outcome
will change to favorable and then he will let the casino stop the wheel.
He offers the casino money to keep the wheel spinning, The casino
doesn't care who wins, they just want bigger bets and a bigger profit.

How much does Mr. Castle have to pay the casino to keep the wheel
spinning and the outcome uncertain? It varies according to his bet size
and the interest cost of loans he has to get from the local bank. That
loan rate may increase, so this is all very uncertain.

When other contestants discover Mr. Castle has a preview they cringe,
but continue to play. When they learn he can pay the casino to delay the
end result they continue to play, but they feel the system is bad. When
they see Mr. Castle has to pay money to keep the wheel spinning, they
want to know how much money he has and how long he can delay. They would
be very pleased to see this "bad actor" go bust, so they can win big. In
fact, some of the other gamblers in the casino have joined the game
belatedly to bet against Mr. Castle. This raises the stakes. How can
they bet late? Well, when the wheel is spinning nobody knows the
outcome, so bet all you like. It's a strange casino. Mr. Castle doesn't
like this feature since the amount being bet raises his cost to borrow
money and the amount he has to pay the casino. The casino still likes
this arrangement because there are many more bets and it's an exciting
profit-making situation.

Originally there may have been 30 or so ways to bet and the gamblers had
taken positions on all of them. But now, strangely, there appear to be
more places on the table to bet (ghost numbers), maybe 200. How is that
possible? As I said, it's a strange casino. But, the casino likes
attracting more gamblers and will take their money if they bet.

After a while there appears to be some secret betting or settling of
bets directly between gamblers instead of through the casino. Everything
seems to be out of control. A few of the gamblers have access to
computers which have tremendous computing power and some AI
capabilities. They're trying to determine how to bet and since there's a
lot of money at risk, they're willing to use a lot of money to increase
their chances of winning. Some gamblers like Mr. Castle may even go to
foreign places to see if anyone wants to lend them some money cheaply.

One other important facet of this is that if Mr. Castle knows he's going
to lose and that he won't be able to delay the game any longer, he may
throw any extra money he has into other random bets around the casino
and create chaos. He could win big and blow up the casino or he could
lose big and destroy all the people who have lent him money to gamble on
their behalf.

Is this any way for a casino to work? This is a snapshot of today's Wall
St. and its crazy rules.

Oh, did I mention that the casino can step in and change the rules if
enough gamblers complain about how unfair it is? Imagine all this and
much much more. This is today's Wall Street. The events I've described
ARE happening now and nobody knows the outcome.