Phule’s Paradise by Robert Asprin

“I don’t think it was a hearing aid,” he said. “More likely some kind of paging radio or a hookup with the phones. I haven’t been keeping up with all the electronic gizmos they’ve developed lately.”

“I suppose you’re right,” the woman said, then returned his hug as if he had just given it. “It is hard to believe we’re here, isn’t it? After all these years?”

Though the implication was that the couple had been working and saving for years planning for a once-in-a-lifetime vacation, the real truth was hidden in this statement.

In actuality, they had been banned from nearly all casinos for close to five years now. Their guise of retired, unsophisticated grandparents was as complete as it was disarming, allowing them to pull off numerous forms of cheating requiring anything from sleight of hand to complex systems which, to the casual eye, would be assumed to be well beyond their abilities. They had, in fact, relieved most of the major gambling centers of sizable amounts of money before the casinos managed to compare notes and realized that they were not the harmless tourists they seemed to be.

They had been lured from “retirement” by a promise that they would not be recognized at this particular casino, as well as by a hefty bankroll to fund their charade. Though they were excited at the possibility of once more being able to dust off their long-practiced performance, they still had to fight off the nervousness that at any moment they might be recognized.

“This place really is something, isn’t it?” Henry said, making a show of rubbernecking around as they were escorted into one of the elevators.