Hendley was frowning. "What I don't understand," he said, "is what you gamble for. What do you get out of it? You have everything you want or need provided for you. How can all those people go on gambling, and feel like that about it"--he nodded toward the first circle of feverishly intent players--"when it's all so meaningless? What do they have to win or lose?" Nik hesitated. "Maybe it's hard to understand, but ... do you see those white chips?" "Yes." "The casino issues only a limited number of them--each casino has its own chips. There are never quite enough to go around. And they're the only things you can use to gamble. Objectively they mean nothing--they have no value. But they've come to have a special value here. A compulsive gambler will do almost anything to get more chips, especially if he's a heavy loser. Without chips he can't gamble. That's why there are some things you can buy with chips that you can't get any other way." "What could you possibly buy that isn't already free?" "Oh, quite a few things." The young Freeman smiled tolerantly. "There's the weed, for instance." "The weed?" "A form of opiate. Habit-forming. Quite deadly in the long run, but some people get hooked on it and have to have it. No one knows how it's smuggled into the camp. Some say it's grown here, but no one has ever found out where. It can be bought--if you have white chips." "But why?" Hendley exclaimed. "I've heard of addicts outside--but here there are no pressures, no worries, no frustrations. Why would anyone be driven to using drugs? It's incredible!" "Well, there are other things you can get with chips that aren't so incredible." Nik was obviously amused by Hendley's naive astonishment. "For instance, do you see that blonde girl down there, the one standing beside the fat gambler at the wheel in the third section?" Hendley peered toward the inner circle indicated. He had no trouble identifying the statuesque blonde Nik was referring to. Like a number of the women in the casino she wore her white coverall zipped open to the waist--a custom not permissible in the outside Organization. Her smooth white skin, surprisingly untanned as if she took care to avoid the sun, and the remarkable ripeness of her exposed figure, enabled her to stand out easily in the crowd. The face that went with her more arresting features was like a robot doll's--flawlessly beautiful, sweetly vacuous. Hendley could not help staring at her. His face began to feel warm. "Beautiful, isn't she?" Nik said, laughing. "Very!" "She belongs to that gambler next to her. They're Contracted. He's a big gambler; what you call a compulsive." Nik's smile was worldly, amused at mankind's overfamiliar decadence. "You may already know that there's a lot of interchanging of partners in the camp, but not with her. She's available, but only at a price. She's one of the things you can buy with white chips."