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 Casino books in general are
awful, especially those that seek to tell everything about everything. Amongst
the respected writers are Peter Griffin, Stanford Wong, Ken Huston, Ian
Andersen and Richard Marcus. |
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![An Occupational Hazard [Paperback] James Wrethman](../images/amazon/bookcovers/2010/an_occupational_hazard_140.jpg) An Occupational Hazard
by James
Wrethman
Arh the 1970's, so often
in the shadow of the 60's, yet so much better. An Occupational Hazard is set in
the London casino world of the 1970s and proports to mix fact and fiction. Its
up to the reader to determine for themselves the likely factual elements but
its not unreasonable to assume that most of it is fact.
The story
centres on the Ventura Casino beginning in 1974. The name seems a bit odd but,
that aside, its there to draw the reader knowlingly into a world that really
existed but without giving the name of the casino, or casinos, on which this is
based.
This is an intriguing story that hinges on the fate of staff at
the Ventura Casino, the corruption and the wide spread avoidance of the law
that existed in the casino business in the 1970s. The main character
experiences the extremes that naivety leads her into trouble and the story is
resolved in the present with more unwinding of the tale. It paints a sordid
picture where lasciviousness and money meet institutional deviance. Oh what a
lovely place the casino world used to be.
The defining essence of the
piece is its straightforwardness in that you feel empathy with the main
characters and dislike for the obvious villains.
This work is from a
first time author and the prose reads easily and the story line is well
constructed. Its a bit too long and James Wrethman has shyed away from
comparison with the boring casinos we have today where few things of note
happen. However, it is an enjoyable read and if you spend much time in casinos
this will give you some indication of a different life in very recent
history.
Paperback - 418 pages (25 April 2009) 
£11.99  $21.32
 Killer Roulette: How to Beat the Unbeatable
by Carl Sampson
This book relates the
tales of daring and imaginative roulette players who have taken the casino
industry for vast sums of money down the years. Of course, if you are playing
on a perfect roulette table and the dealers are conducting the game faultlessly
then you cannot win. However, in the real world this is rarely the case.
In this book you get a sense that Carl Sampson has done some of the
things he suggests can be done with roulette. I felt a bit let down by the lack
of detail and when it comes to winning roulette the detail is all important.
This book looks like a sales technique, i.e. to get people to contact him
through his website. So you are not going to find the crucial answers here.
Some interesting reading.
Paperback - 224
pages (30 Sep 2008)
£9.09 $13.57
 Princes of
Darkness: The World of High Stakes Blackjack
by Carl Sampson
"Princes of Darkness"
delves into the murky and secretive world of the professional Blackjack player.
In a three-year period, Carl Sampson and his team took the casinos for a
seven-figure sum and now he reveals how they did it. Carl Sampson started out
working a croupier in the gaming industry but - frustrated at being overlooked
for promotion - he determined to take them on and beat them at their own game.
Princes of Darkness recounts the story of how he developed a system,
put a team together, found a wealthy backer and went to work. As well as giving
the reader a glimpse of this fascinating twilight world, Carl Sampson also
explains in detail his Blackjack systems, including: a definitive guide to card
counting; how to master the complex art of shuffle tracking; and how to
implement evasion techniques.
Paperback - 272
pages (23 Oct 2006)
£7.25 $13.57
 Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids
by David Kushner
From zero to hero. Jon
Finkel grew up heckled and hazed until he discovered the trading-card game
Magic: The Gathering. As Magic exploded from nerdy obsession into the
mainstream, the teenage Finkel emerged as its first world champion. The young
shark - now known to his friends and rivals as Jonny Magic - moved on to storm
poker rooms, from the underground clubs of New York City to high-stakes tables
online, until he landed on the largest card counting blackjack team in the
country. Taking Vegas for millions, Finkel's team of gamers became the biggest
players in town. Finally they took on the biggest game of all - the World
Series of Poker - and walked away with more than $3.5 million...Thrilling,
edgy, and riveting, the odyssey of these underdogs-turned-overlords is the
stuff of pop-culture legend.
Kushner does an impressive job of
providing condensed explanations of such wide-ranging gaming concepts as the
underlying premise of Magic, the mathematical foundation of card counting, and
sports betting theory, while keeping the reader engaged in Finkel's ongoing
tribulations and triumphs. Interwoven within the biography is also an
intriguing account of Dr. Richard Garfield, the inventor of Magic, who would be
a worthy subject for his own story.
Paperback - 240
pages (3 Aug 2006)
£10.99 $16.97
 American Roulette: How I Turned the Odds Upside Down
by
Richard Marcus
Marcus was recruited by
a well-to-do casino rip-off gang and rose to the top over the years. He tells
great stories about which casinos the gang hit, how they engineered the con,
the trouble they ran into, and how they were nearly caught several times. The
gang even made their way to casinos in London, the Continent, and Australia,
although their base was in Las Vegas. The opening of casinos in Atlantic City
and across the U.S. made for some easy pickings as well.
American
Roulette is not an instructional manual on how to scam the casinos. In fact, as
Marcus points out, even if you were to learn the mechanics and technicalities
of the scam, there is something more basic to the success of the con game and
that is being cool under pressure. These characters are glaciers. American
Roulette is a terrific read, and would make a fantastic movie.
Paperback - 370 pages (November 28, 2004)
£7.21 $11.16
 The Great Casino Heist by Richard Marcus
One of a select band of the
world's greatest professional cheats, Richard Marcus toured the gambling
cultures of Las Vegas, London and Monte Carlo, winning huge sums of money from
casinos by elaborate sleight-of-hand tricks with gaming chips. He and his gang
were great tacticians, backing up their moves with psychological set-ups to
convince pit bosses that they were watching legitimate high rollers getting
lucky, while in fact their casinos were being robbed blind. Here, for the first
time, Richard Marcus tells his outrageous tale of a lifetime spent cheating
casinos. Richard Marcus opens up the doors into the mysterious, exciting and
glamorous world of the high rollers with this absolute
page-turner.
Paperback - 384 pages
(March 13, 2005) expected price
£7.19 Buy
This Book
 Professional Blackjack by Stanford Wong
Generally considered to be
the definitive text for professional card counting. Wong first describes Basic
Generic Strategy which allows the reader to maximise his position without
actually counting cards, he then goes on to describe the Hi-Lo system of card
counting. The great thing about this book is that it provides betting
strategies for pretty much every variation of casino blackjack, along with
statistical analyses of average profit and variation per 100 hands
played
Paperback - 352 pages
(March 1994) expected price
£12.69 Buy
This Book
 Burning The Tables in Las Vegas--Keys to Success in Blackjack and in
Life by Ian Andersen
In the mid-1970s, Ian Andersen wrote Turning
the Tables on Las Vegas, the classic book on casino comportment. As the first
book to broach the all-important consideration of how to get away with getting
the money, Turning was the book that launched a thousand blackjack careers.
After its publication, however, Andersen disappeared from the scene. Where did
he go? The answer is spelled out in this long-awaited sequel, Burning the
Tables in Las Vegas--Keys to Success in Blackjack and in Life.
Hardcover - 305
pages (January 1999) expected price
£17.08 Buy
This Book
 Basic Blackjack by Stanford Wong
This book presents basic
strategy and expected value for almost every unusual rule variation ever
offered. Examples of rules covered: no hole card to dealer, doubling down on
three or more cards, splitting when there is a bet riding that will go on one
hand and not have to be matched with a like bet on the other hand, early
surrender, five-card hands can be turned in for a half win, over/under,
multiple action, double exposure. Basic Blackjack also contains interesting
tables, such as: probabilities of final dealer totals by upcard; probability of
untied naturals by number of decks; and which hands have a positive expected
value, by dealer upcard. Wong's writing stye is clear and easy to
read.
Publisher: - Pi Yee Press
Paperback -
256 pages (September 1992)
Buy the book UK Amazon £7.73 U$10.17 from Amazon USA
 The Theory of Blackjack : The Complete Card
Counter's Guide to the Casino Game of 21 by Peter Griffin
This classic work on the mathematics of
blackjack provides insight into the methods and numbers behind the development
of today's card-counting systems. It contains the most complete and accurate
basic strategy, covering any number of decks and the most commonly encountered
rules. This book is considered the bible for serious blackjack
players
Publisher: - Atlantic Books
Paperback -
270 pages (February 1999)
Buy the book UK Amazon £6.69 U$11.98 from Amazon USA
 Blackbelt in Blackjack : Playing 21 As a Martial Art
by
Arnold Snyder
This book offers
variety of insights to blackjack and provides information for all levels of
players. It is a great reference book and a good start off book for the
beginner. For the proficient player, it offers a great level 2 system. But,
then again, if you're good, you already have this book, don't ya?
Publisher: -
Cardoza Publishing,U.S.
Paperback - 328
pages (September 2005)
Buy the book UK Amazon £7.73 U$11.53 from Amazon USA
 Beating the Wheel by Russell T.
Barnhart
This book presents a clear
understanding of biased wheel play. There are real physical plans in this book
showing how to beat the game of roulette. Also included are some nice accounts
of famous roulette wins throughout history. This is a top class book on this
deceptive subject. (Most books on roulette are just nonsense)
Our only gripe
is there is no clear explanation of the necessary skills needed to extract
money from a suspicious casino .
Paperback - 216 pages (16 Jun 1994)
£13.99 $14.95
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 Super Casino :
Inside the 'New' Las Vegas
by Pete Earley
In the 1990s, Vegas overtook Walt Disney World as the
most popular tourist destination in the country; also in the 1990s, Las Vegas
became the fastest-growing city in the U.S. Pete Early takes readers on an
atmospheric trip here that should prove popular, even among those who have not
yet taken that magic stroll down the Las Vegas Strip. He charts the history of
the evolution from old Vegas to new Vegas by focusing on the history of two
"supercasino" companies, Circus Circus and Mirage Resorts.
Paperback - 512
pages (January 2001) expected price £4.64
Buy
This Book
 Guerrilla Gambling
by Frank
Scoblete
This book does focus on
American gambling but it has a nice 'them and us' tone with stories to add to
sensible advice on how not to lose as much as you otherwise would. Reviews from the U.S rave about it.
It is at least a good read.
Paperback - 339 pages
(December 1993) expected price
£8.40 Buy
This Book
 The Players : The Men Who Made Las Vegas
by Jack Sheehan (Editor)
Las Vegas has been largely shaped by a handful of colourful and
astute casino operators who turned a dusty desert town into the gaudy, booming
holiday mecca that it is today. The stories in this book introduce us to the
"players". We discover how early leaders like Cliff Jones, Moe Dalitz and Benny
Binion first grasped Las Vegas's potential as a centre for high-stakes
gambling, and we read of mobster "Bugsy" Siegel's effort to bring to reality
another man's dream of a glamorous resort-casino on a then-remote site at the
edge of town. Other visionaries turned casinos into islands of fantasy, with
lavish entertainment spectacles. The arrival of eccentric billionaire Howard
Hughes introduced a new style of corporate management - a style of management
since carried on by Kirk Kerkorian and Steve Wynn - to an industry previously
led by independent entrepreneurs and their families. Contributors consulted a
wide range of sources and conducted interviews with many of the surviving
players and their families and associates. The result is an informative account
of a city's growth through the vision, energy and decisions of some remarkable
gambler-businessmen
Paperback - 240 pages (October 1997) expected price £10.45 Buy
This Book
Beat
the Dealer
by Edward O. Thorp
This book was originally published in the mid-1960's. At the time, it
was revolutionary. Its of no immediate use in practical terms but if you
already know the basics of card-counting and want to learn some of the history,
this is the book that started it all. If you want to read some "war stories"
about casino cheating or winning thousands in a matter of hours, this is a good
choice. All budding pros will have to read this as basic course work.
Paperback - 220 pages (May 1966)
£5.69 $9.56
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.gif) .gif) Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
From the moment you start reading
this book, you know you're in for one hell of a ride. Thompson documents his
debauched exploits in typical manic fashion expressing the characters and
settings, however eloquently, according to his warped drug addled perceptions.
From start to finish the reader shares in Thompson's unparalleled journey
through the American psyche and as a result, one can not help but laugh
hysterically at what transpires. I whole heartedly recommend this book to
anyone who wants something a little different, yet at the same time, funny,
original and completely unputtdownable. Top
stuff.
Paperback - 224 pages (15 June, 1998) Johnny
Depp cover expected price
£5.59 Buy
This Book
Paperback - 224 pages (October 1972) Original
cover expected price £5.59 Buy
This Book
 Bringing
Down the House by Ben Mezrich 
For the first third of his
nonfiction debut, novelist Mezrich craps out. Ground lights viewed from an
airplane aren't just pinpricks, or even little pinpricks, but "tiny little
pinpricks." Las Vegas tourism facts are crammed onto the pages like seven decks
in a six-deck shoe. But Mezrich finally hits the jackpot on page 79, when
M.I.T. student Kevin Lewis steps onto the floor of the Mirage. The book stays
on a roll as it describes how the young gambler and his card-counting cohorts
employ simple math and complex disguises to win nearly $4 million at the
blackjack tables.
Hardcover
- 288 pages (September 2002)
expected price
£13.87 Buy
This Book £ [U$ Amazon.com]
 Thirteen Against the
Bank by Norman Leigh
A
classic!
This book is the romantic gamblers dream. Its a well written,
if ambitious story about a man who discovers the way to beat casinos at their
own game. Its not by luck but by hard work that the hero changes his life and
those of his co-workers. If you're not much of a roulette player this book will
have you researching the most famous systems in old books from the word go.
Gambling deserves more romance like this! Our one gripe about the story is the
authors attempt to individualise more than 13 characters. You'd have to be a
card counter to remember all of those!
Paperback - 198 pages (21 Sep 2006)
£6.39 $10.92
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