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 The Eudaemonic Pie
by
Thomas A Bass
What this team set out
to do was only possible to get away with during a very narrow window in
history. Sharp analytical and electronic skills at the dawn of the
microelectronic age made it possible, and at a time when casinos weren't paying
much attention to the threat posed by this emerging technology.
Bass has
done a great job of telling the story of how a couple of physics postgraduate
students and their friends develop tiny computers controlled by toe switches
enable them to achieve an edge over the casino at roulette.
"The
Eudaemonic Pie" literally changed history, in more ways than one. First: in
1985, the Nevada Legislature was reviewing the bill that would become N.R.S.
465.075 (a bill considerately provided to the legistature by the casinos
themselves). The law was meant to outlaw "Devices," and the bill actually
specified "card games." When the information published in "The Eudaemonic Pie"
came to light, someone had the forethought to change the law so it applied to
games other than those in which cards were involved.
The strength of
this book is weighted heavily toward the "story" side of the spectrum, and not
toward the "telling." There are definitely stylistic weaknesses, but it could
be argued that in this case, the story itself is so strong that style might
have gotten in the way of the telling.
It reads with the gravity of
good fiction, but is all the more satisfying for being true. -
Editor.
Paperback - 300 pages (Reprint 7th Feb 2017) £12.99
Kindle - 337
pages Open Road Distribution; Reprint edition (14 Mar. 2017)
£10.79
Audiobook - Listening
Length: 12 hours and 27 minutes (7 Sept. 2017)
£ Free trial
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 Scams Schemes
Scumbags
by Pat Silver-Lasky
Think politicians and bankers have just been
revealed as fraudsters. Think again! Ponzi schemes, bank schemes that didn't
exist, fraud, deception, tricksters and fakers all here in this well researched
book
Scams Schemes Scumbags is a book that uncovers stories about
shysters, schemers, grifters, scam artists, hoaxers, fraudsters, rogues, and
criminal operators from the past and from the present and present each person
they write about in a brief story that stands on its own.
It is both
entertaining and intelligent and most importantly there is a wide selections of
talents on show here and stories from both sides of the pond so that North
American, British and European readers will all find something that they have
heard of, as well as plenty of others they haven't. From John Zachary DeLorean
(wonderful cars) to Victor Lustig (the man who sold the Eiffel Tower for scrap)
to PT Barnum (believe-it-or-not freaks), they are all here.
This is one
of those books that you can browse through and pick chapters at random at the
same time gaining knowledge of how to avoid being taken by such hucksters and
laughing all the way. Even those who have been victims of people and companies
like these or burned in investment frauds etc will find a laugh on every page.
The cartoons also help keep the information light.
A definite must-read
for the gambling crowd and a great little stocking filler for those people who
really have everything else - they won't have this -
Editor.
Paperback - 262 pages (September 2, 2012) £8.32
Kindle - 264
pages OuroborusBooks.biz (September 2, 2012)
£3.78
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 The Smart Money: How the World's Best Sports
Bettors Beat the Bookies Out of Millions
by Michael Konik
This fascinating inside look at the gambling
biz reveals so much information that you would swear the author was breaking
some sort of Omerta-like code of silence. The author conceals the identities of
the principal players behind fake names, but his fictionalized stand-ins are so
compelling (especially the Brain Trust chieftain, Rick "Big Daddy" Matthews)
that the book feels like a mixture of true-life expose and high-stakes
fiction.
A definite must-read for the gambling crowd. -
Editor.
Hardcover -384 pages (14 Nov 2006) 
£1.47
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 The World's Greatest Gambling Scams
by
Richard Marcus
"The World's Greatest
Gambling Scams" details the best scams ever pulled off in the
adrenaline-fuelled gambling world. They range from those relying on basic
sleight-of-hand manoeuvres to those that utilise gadgets based on the very
latest high-tech wizardry. Scams examined include: the famous Ritz Roulette
Scam that used mini-computers and cell phones to determine on what number the
roulette ball would drop; big-action baccarat games in which the dealers merely
pretended to shuffle the cards; a dye solution for marking casino cards that
can only be seen with special contact lenses and disappears without trace an
hour after its application; and, a tiny weightless receiver embedded into a
roulette ball and controlled by a radio transmitter hidden in a pack of
Marlboro cigarettes.
As well as describing the scams from their
inception to implementation, Marcus introduces us to the vastly diverse
characters who carried them out and analyses what made them tick. This is a
well written book. albeit with typos and not a lot spent on proofing. The
stories flow really well and its well worth a read. -
Editor.
Paperback -360 pages (1 April 2007)
£7.69
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 Wheel of Fortune
by Archie Morrison
and Joe Pieri
Many talented Scots
found an exit route from the slums of Glasgow through football, boxing or show
business. Archie Morrison discovered another way-through his skills as a
croupier.
Starting in the Stakis casinos in Scotland, he was soon
headhunted for the Nassau Grand in the Bahamas, and was eventually lured to the
gambling mecca of Las Vegas. Here, in Caesar's Palace and the Sands, he dealt
the cards, rolled the dice and spun the wheel for Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra
and Lee Marvin, and struck up friendships with legendary professional gamblers
like Amarillo Slim and Fast Eddie Seremba.
Fortune also provides a
unique insider's account on the tricks of the croupier's trade, stories of some
of the most outlandish gambling scams ever attempted, and potted biographies of
notorious players from the past such as Nick 'the Greek' Dandalos, Sheriff Bat
Masterson and 'Calamity' Jane Burke.
Paperback -160
pages (May 2004)
£8.99
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 Ugly Americans
by Ben Mezrich
From the author of the bestseller Bringing
Down the House, another extraordinary real-life thriller, a true story of
money, risk and life lived close to the edge, set in the Wild East of 1990s
Japan. Ugly Americans tells Malcolm's story, and that of others like him, in a
cross between Mezrich's own best-selling Bringing Down the House and Michael
Lewis' Liar's Poker.
John Malcolm is barely 30, a high school football
hero and Princeton graduate, he controls a hedge fund worth USD50m. He made his
millions back in the early '90's, a time when dozens of elite young American
graduates made their fortunes in hedge funds in the Far East, beating the
Japanese at their own game, riding the crashing waves of the Asian markets and
winning. Failure meant not only bankruptcy and disgrace a la Nick Leeson, but
potentially even death - at the hands of the Japanese Yakuza.
Paperback - 352 pages (July
7, 2005)
£6.39
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 The Gamblers
by John Pearson
For over thirty years, John Pearson has provided
us with literary exposures of some of the most enigmatic people and underground
organisations of our modern world. The Gamblers follows the fortunes of five
men at the centre of the ultra-fashionable Clermont Set: the Clermont Club's
eccentric founder John Asplnall; Dominic Elwes, who was to betray the Set's
code of silence; the socialite owner of Annabel's, Mark Birley; the womanising,
multi millionaire James Goldsmith; and the infamous Lord 'Lucky' Lucan.
At the heart of the Set lay a belief that risk-takers are the people
who make civilisation tick. Cruel, heartless and snobbish, they gambled with
their fortunes and kept a stiff upper lip when they lost. This and a loyalty to
each other that transcended everything else enabled them to rise above crises
such as the long affair between Birley's wife and James Goldsmith, and the
facial mutilation of the Birley's son by one of Aspinall's tigers. Pearson
revels in the charisma, charm and wit of these dastardly but debonair
millionaires, and reveals how their code led to one of the great unsolved
mysteries of the twentieth century.
Hardcover - 240 pages (July 7, 2005)
£12.59
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 Double Down :
Reflections on Gambling and Loss
by Frederick Barthelme, Steven
Barthelme
This slim book by the
Barthelme Brothers, recounting their descent into gambling hell, is both
elegantly written and horrifying. After all, the Barthelmes are college
professors and literary stars, and if their lives could veer out of control so
suddenly and so badly, then so could yours and mine. The brothers end up
throwing away all their money, including a $300,000 inheritance, at a riverboat
casino during the year or so after their parents' deaths. Then -- as if the
story couldn't get any more gruesome -- they are indicted on charges of
cheating the casino!
Paperback - 208 pages Reprint (21 May, 2001)
expected price £8.03 Buy
This Book
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