A gambling arcade in Racine that blurs the line between gaming and betting so thoroughly that nobody — including, apparently, the local enforcement — can determine which regulations apply. Every machine in Lucky Thirteen is technically a game of skill, but every game of skill has a payout mechanism, and the payouts are in Quanta. The machines are custom-built by a collective of Shelf engineers and range from modified pinball tables with cash prizes to elaborate mechanical contraptions that look like Rube Goldberg machines and function like slot machines with extra steps. The legal theory is that if you have to do something — pull a lever, aim a ball, make a choice — it's skill, not chance. This theory has not been tested in court because nobody wants to claim jurisdiction.

The arcade is dimly lit, perpetually crowded, and filled with the sounds of mechanical machines doing mechanical things: bells, clicks, whirs, and the occasional triumphant clang that means someone hit a payout. The owner, a mathematician named Fatou Nilsson-Okonkwo, designed the probability curves for every machine personally and swears the house edge is "fair." The average player disagrees but keeps playing, which is, of course, the point.