One illustration in this otherwise innocent tale clearly depicts Gypsies as "wood people" who, the text says, will "take" children if they wander into the forest. It is unfortunate to see such blatant stereotyping--in an age when the Romany (Gypsy) population of Eastern Europe is the target of more hate crime than at any time since the Holocaust. It's too bad that so many children's authors remain completely insensitive to the slavery and poverty suffered by the Rom. Discerning readers can help by avoiding books that include any kind of sterotyping. Alyssa A. Lappen

I picked up the book in the library and began reading for the strange title... By the end I was just in tears at the wonderful story and reminded me of my grandma and my relationship with her. Great story that is entertaining for both adults and children, and hopefully will encourage children to cherish their time with their grandma.

This is a very sweet reminiscence of the author's immigrant grandma, who embraced life fully. She played poker with Dutch Schultz's gang while her plumber husband fixed their toilets. While she cared for the author as a child she passed along the wisdom she'd accumulated. Advice like "Never, ever go into the woods alone because the gypsies will get you or, should you escape that cruel fate, you'll fall down a hole." Or, "Just in case the Cossacks come to Queens, learn to say 'Da' and always keep plenty of borscht in the refrigerator." As a senior citizen she took the train from New York to California, where she could always find a poker game. When the author was old enough, she taught her to play poker as well. The author's illustrations of the way she imagined her grandmother's stories are a delight. Loving respect informs every page. The author was lucky to have such a grandma, and we are lucky to share her story.

The title of this book and the cover is very misleading. The book gives alot of information about casinos throughout the country but it does not go into any detail about casinos in atlantic city or las vegas. I purchased this book to find out about casinos in vegas and there wasn't any info other than names and addresses. I returned this book to amazon for a full refund. The cover should be changed.

This book gives nice historical information to the various cities housing casinos, but has little data concerning food and entertainment and virtually no listings of "comps". The book contains reviews of hundreds of casinos around the country, but not a single review for any Nevada or New Jersey casinos, instead there is a pair of appendixes with their casino's addresses and phone numbers.

Have you noticed that many horse racing books contain more pages of charts from the Daily Racing Form than pages of the author's comments? This is another horse racing book that fits this description. This book is selection-oriented and gives little or no insight as to how to construct exotic bet tickets. The level of analysis here is basically, "Bet exotics because they pay a lot of money when you hit one." I have read many better horse racing books. This book is strictly for horse racing maidens.

Bill Heller put lots of helpful information in this book. He even let the best pick six handicaper Steven Crist put in his useful tips. That is why this is a five star book

This work would be considered good if Malmuth and Sklansky had not written it. I think this is by far the most disappointing work that Sklansky and Malmuth have produced.

They are the standard by which gaming books are written and for them to produced this weak mathematical work is a travsitiy.

An excellent review of the games that are beatable and the math that supports these conclusions. They differentiate between a "gambler" and an "investor". For example, the skilled card counter in blackjack can have the same edge over the casino as the house has over the baccarat player. In spite of the subtitle, I'm not sure how realistic the possibility of consistently winning $100K a year is. Mastering one discipline is hard enough. The authors appear to have made a "killing" in many areas from horse racing to sports betting. For blackjack players, the articles on when to quit and toking are worth the price of the book.

This book is almost totally useless in teaching gin rummy to a relatively new player. It utilizes primarily an anecdotal approach using exclusively examples from games in which the author has played. While this may be interesting to the author's friends and competitors, it is of little or no interest to a member of the general public. Do not waste your time with this book unless you know the author.

NO MATTER HOW GREAT OR POOR A PLAYER YOU ARE YOU WILL LEARN FROM THIS WORK. YOU ARE BOUND TO RECOGNIZE MANY OF HIS CHARACTERS. BEST GIN RUMMY BOOK TO DATE. By: Doctorgin@AOL.com

Mr. Goodman and his coauthor have taken the ills of the gambling industry and provided a snapshot-like, journalistic and moralistic view of the problems. The authors never address the other side of the story about this industry; the job and business formation, the enjoyment the majority of the gaming public gets from gambling, and the considerable revenues that state and local governments receive from taxation and the distribution of employee's income. There are no researchers who rigorously study gambling and risk-taking who support the unbalanced approach that Mr. Goodman has taken in the book. To further clarify the situation, Mr. Goodman has never tried to published a study or paper in this area that would be reviewed by experts in the field. In short, the book is good journalism but unbalanced and shoddy research. This is great stuff for further inflaming the passion of the anti-gambling public and for sound bites, but it is not to be used for policy preparation/analysis or for a general understanding of the topic.

This book should be read by anyone who gambles, particularly those who may be attracted to gambling by the ever-increasing opportunities. Professor Goodman has amassed documentary and anecdotal evidence about the true cost to society of gambling activities. His conclusions are in step with those of several unbiased academic researchers as published in peer-reviewed journals , e.g. J. W. Kindt, "Follow the Money: Gambling, Ethics, and Subpoenas," The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, Vol. 556, March 1998. Readers are provided corroborating evidence through hundreds of notes encompassing 27 of the 273 pages of the book. Opportunities for additional reading are also presented in a 30-page bibliography. Some readers may be disappointed that Goodman emphasizes economic analysis without presenting many questions about the morality of gambling. However, moral issues are raised in the statistics about the number of addicted and problem gamblers and the portion of these gamblers who resort to crime to finance their addiction. Particularly revealing is the research that establishes that most of gambling-induced crime is committed by persons with no prior criminal record. The author also raises questions about the ethics of the activities of government in encouraging citizens to gamble. All in all, Professor Goodman finds flaws in the arguments that have been used to promote gambling and provides credible sources for his conclusions.

Wow, what i surprise that these books are still in print. And even more, other people have given other Karl Fulves books a rating of 5 stars. Here is why i don't like any of Fulves Self working books:

1. Way to expensive for tiny books with bad material. these cost 6 dollars for 128 pages while the superb book MOdern coin magic costs only 10 with 320 pages of priceless information.

2. Most importantly, the tricks aren't very good. My mom bought 5 of the self-working books so i understand very well what these books are like. I have spent days on some of Fulves card tricks reading through them and then performing them to many people. Either everyone figured them out or else the tricks were mathematical in which the audience wouldn't care. Magic tricks need to be impossible, magical which decieves the eyes. Mathematical tricks are NOT atall magical. It seems like all the tricks are really old out dated tricks just so that the author could say that this trick is in print for the first time. The best tricks are however classics, in which many books have these. I felt like Dover books were really awful after reading these books until i bought Modern coin magic, a fantastic book in which the tricks are both magical and fool people. All of my self working books where left in Madagscar when i moved. Before i didn't like card tricks because of this book until a friend showed me some sleight of hand. I never got one good trick out of 5 books by Karl Fulves, except for the cups and balls. 3. Self working tricks in general don't work. In self working, there aren't any sleights or gimmicks. Time has shown that the classic, or the best tricks that have proven the test of time, have either for the most part sleights or gimmichs and in the most part are not self working. By not including classics inorder to be origional, the book contains bad tricks. 4. Get the royal road in card magic, Mark wilson cyclopedia of magic, and bobo's modern coin magic for great classic tricks and card tricks that have stood the test of time which proffessionals use. Hope this helps.

This is a very good book for anyone who does not want to put in the hours it takes to become a sleight-of-hand card magician. Many of the effects in this book come from a magazine that was published by the author, which is considered one of the greatest sources for magical material ever!
Many of the effects in the book require no skill, just a careful management of your audience and attention to detail. Most will fool knowledgable magicians, especially those who depend on sleights and not mathematics.
An excellent book for a beginning magician, but not for those who are under 12, since most of the material requires strict adherence to directions.
Check out the last chapter for some excellent routines that duplicate sleight-of-hand magic, but don't use it.

I thought sexist comments and introductions such as the one in this book went out with the buggywhip. If you like books that are me. me followed by I, I. you'll enjoy this one.

This is an informative and interestingly written book about a little discussed problem. Castellani opens his book with a dialogue between two individuals, a friend of the author who is about to treat her first compulsive gambling patient and the author himself, who has experience and expertise in this area. It is within this dialogue that we are introduced to pathological gambling as a social problem, the therapeutic challenge it represents, and the theoretical and methodological approach taken by the author as he attempts to tackle this topic. The author then moves to a seminal court case (United States v. Toriero) and structures the rest of the book around this trial. As we are introduced to the major arguments put forth by the prosecution and defense, we encounter a wealth of information about how gambling is framed from a variety of vantagepoints (the government, the gambling industry, medicine, therapists, and special interest organizations). Each of these entities represents a "voice" (a "discourse") with each discourse having its own history, agents, and social dynamics. The various intersections of these discourses--how they compliment and conflict with one another--takes us to the heart of this study. Castellani ends his book with a series of policy implications and recommendations

The book itself is very well written. It is a quick and "clean" read. The three hours I spent with it (reasonably slim at 222 pages) was enjoyable and educative. I learned a lot about how pathological gambling came to be viewed as a disease rather than a failure of character and (God forbid) a little social theory along the way.

I read every book on poker I can find, and this one is as close to worthless as it can be.

This is an informative, smartly written book that is filled with details and tips on various games of poker. I enjoyed the wit and humor of the prose as well all the games packed into this book. The writers have a real flair and I learned alot from this book. Sometimes the writing reminded me of Sex in the City, very urbane and witty. Anyone (male or fremale) who is clueless about poker could benefit from reading this book. They even show you how to better your luck if you get stuck with a DUD hand.

All the women at my Saturday night game had better look out! Momma has an ace up her sleeve and I got it from this book!

Very disappointed. This book actually teaches me nothing on turf handicapping. Perhaps this is because the main stream of horse racing in the United States is dirt racing.

Turf Overlays are hard to find. This book helps bettors win much more money. Instead of leaving the track with eleven dollers. But Turf Overlays can help you leave with one hundred dollers