This story first appeared in the Oct. 8, 2008, edition of WW under the headline “Unlucky Strike.”

It’s 11:30 am on a Friday at Asian Garden, a strip-mall karaoke joint next to a Beaverton Safeway.

Seated at the bar is Sally Runyon, a 50-year-old divorced mother of two, who is just off her early-morning bookkeeping shift at a trucking company.

She has a second income from an alterations business in outer Southeast Portland, and she’s well dressed, with a black Nordstrom sweater and a gold bracelet she found in a Beverly Hills pawn shop.

Her third income—when she’s lucky—is the pile of Keno tickets spread out on the bar next to her glass of Bombay Sapphire.

“My family told me that as a kid, I always had a deck of cards in my hand,” she says.

Runyon fires up a Benson & Hedges and watc

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