"Well..." he has to pause as he takes another bite of pie, realizing halfway through beginning to speak that it's rude to talk with food in your mouth. The pie is hard to put down, though, and it's with reluctance that he pauses in his eating of it to address Ned's question. "The way I see it, everyone needs entertainment. So you get a game going, provide entertainment for them, get them to play a few hands of poker, get them to relax a little, maybe they end up becoming a regular customer. You can make some good money off of them, and all while they're enjoying themselves, too. It's a win win situation, for everyone involved -- you're not selling a product, necessarily, you're selling an experience."

That is to say, if you play it right, if you do it subtly, nobody knows they're being cheated. And there are always businesses on the side; the alcohol, the drugs, selling stolen goods. The card game may not be his dream job, but it's a means to an end: money. Someday, maybe someday soon, he and Charlie won't have to be under anybody's thumb. It looks like Ned can work for himself, not take orders from anybody, and that, as far as Meyer's concerned, means that Ned is living the American dream, more or less.

He takes another bite of pie before continuing. "Besides, I'm good with numbers. Always have been. There're statistical intricacies to card games that most people don't even begin to recognize. I like to work that kind of thing out." And, needless to say, he doesn't like things that aren't intricate. If something isn't a puzzle, it's not worth spending his precious time on.