Sarah Koenig

Then in 2004, both her parents died, and Bachman inherited close to a million dollars.

She says the staff at Harrison Council Bluffs figured out she'd come into money after she stopped in there one day, and a host took notice of the amounts she was paying.

He invited her into the players' lounge, chatted her up.

What, did you win the lottery or something?

What's going on in your life?

Bachman says she more or less told him what had happened and kept betting with larger amounts than in the past.

After that, she says, vouchers and coupons and invitations started coming in the mail, with big offers.

She'd moved from Iowa to Tennessee by this point, so they offered her hotel rooms for as long as she wanted them, a week, two weeks, and gifts started coming, too.

But Bachman says her contact with Harrah's kicked into high gear after her biggest loss up to that point, which might sound counterintuitive.

You or I might think, well, after a pummeling, that's the end of that customer.

But in the casino industry, the more you lose, the lovelier a prospect you become.

So after Bachman lost a quarter of a million dollars in one night at the casino in Council Bluffs, the phone calls began.

Bachman played me a few of these messages from her answering machine.

These kinds of calls are standard, apparently.

Angie Bachman always gambled at Harrah's Casinos.

The company is now called Caesars Entertainment, since it bought out Caesars.

It's the largest gaming company in the world.

And Bachman happened to start gambling at the same time that Harrah's began to overhaul its marketing strategies.

Harris knew how to track each gambler's habits through total rewards cards that each gambler, including Bachman, would use throughout the casino.

And that told the company exactly how much money each player spent, on which games, and at what frequency.