I've got a lot of gambling books. Not as many as some but quite a bit. The main focus of my collection is poker. For starters, let me say that most of the books on Amazon are way overrated. The Sklansky/Malmuth books along with a few others (Cooke, Caro, Brunson, Zee) excepted. So while this book gets a low ranking from me it is probably better than most. Most of the information is more or less correct as far as it goes. It does not go nearly far enough. It tries to cover too many different forms of poker and ends up not doing a good job on any of them. To make up for the lack of detailed exposition of concepts and the ways they interrelate there is too much emphasis on charts and starting hand guidelines.

The overall idea for this book is good -- a simple introduction to playing roulette accompanied by some short examples of winning systems, but some how that gets lost in the translation.

The description of how to play occupies a good 60% of the book, but numerous typographical errors, and worse yet, technical errors plague this description. For example, the five-number bet illustrated on page 21 isn't the correct five-number bet at all, but rather is a three-number bet on 0-2-00. This is real confusing for the first time roulette player, which is the only real target audience for this book.

In addition to technical errors and typographicals, there are many out-right contradictions. For example, on page 40 we read "What they don't know is that there is no law of averages.". On page 43, we read "... as we have shown, the game is one of pure chance governed by the law of averages...".

Only one common winning system is mentioned, the Martingale, and then the author turns around and says that it really isn't a good system because of losing streaks and suggests just "playing numbers". Why did the author not chose a "good system" and explain mathematically why it is a good system? Or is he trying to say that no such system exists and that the only way to win is not to play?

For those looking to learn to play roulette and then extend their knowledge to include a good description of some of the common winning systems, I'd have to suggest "All About Roulette" by John Gollehon and "Secrets of Winning Roulette" by Marten Jensen, rather than this book.

This book was interesting in it's look back. I found no information that would have been relevent to the modern day casino, or the games of the 90's. Readers would be better served to use the price of this book in a modern day quarter machine.

If you never have been to Vegas and want to know a bit about sports betting, this is not a bad book. However, there are some superior books out there.

This is the 1995 edition which, while useful in showing how Slot Clubs work, is hopelessly outdated in its particulars. I had understood that there would be a 1998 edition which would have been more useful. None of the newer casinos is listed here because of the book's age. I also know for fact that the club at MGM Grand has changed its modus operandi since this book was written. If you want an overview of how slot clubs work, this book could be for you. I cannot recommend it for current information.

I picked this book up thinking that it was about the psychology of gamblers and gaming, and was ultimately disappointed. This is a book about literature, authors, and fictional characters, and there is no real psychology or non-fictional content about gambling at all! Knapp devotes each of nine chapters to a different author and a specific character from that author's work. All of these characters happen to be gamblers, but even the use of "gambler" is loosely defined--some of the characters could be better classified as "people who make a decision with some risk." Most of the book's content thus focuses upon the nine authors, and how they created these characters in their works.

Perhaps if I had been a student of literature, I might have found this book interesting. However, as a reader who was looking for insight into the psychology of gambling, I was extremely disappointed, and, frankly, quite bored by this book.

This book provides the basic guidlines a golfer would use to gamble during the playing of one round of golf. The explaination of the gambling games and how they are played is most instructive. This instruction teaches the beginning golf gambler how to place bets and score specific games in a manner to allow the beginer to protect himslef from cheating or being decieved by a experienced charlatan. This book lacks coverage and discription of how golf gambling would be applied to a charity event sponsored by a golf course and jointly played by all golf club members.

I've only read three books on blackjack, so I am no expert on gambling books. HOWEVER......

If you want a book that reads like a transcript of a gambler telling stories over drinks in a bar, name dropping old Vegas stars, talking about the big scores and the big losses, spouting opinions on lotteries and horses, and bragging about nailing hookers, by all means this is your book.

But if you're looking for advice on winning blackjack, look elsewhere.

The subtitle is "how to beat blackjack as a way of life." This is very misleading. There is good advice, mind you, but it's obvious and not worth filling a book. The advice is "quit winners." In any gambling situation, a player will go up and down. Quit when you're up. This is good advice, and it's what I already practice. But I didn't need to buy this book to tell me this.

As this is marketed as a book on playing blackjack, I'd think that instead of giving us the stats on high roller slot machines, or recounting keno stories, or any of the other endless off topic rants, there might be more about money management at the actual table. Showing me a "scorecard" listings wins at various casinos doesn't tell me how those positive numbers got there.

Congrats to Mr Levy on a nice brag book, admittedly getting publishing justification after two really good streaks. But by that standard, I guess I could write my own, having two streaks in a row.

I found much more helpful material for a casual player in Jerry Patterson's Blackjack: A Winner's Handbook. If you're a frequent player, you won't even take Levy's book seriously.

Extremely basic text that relies largely on pictures to convey the content. Either an example of the dumbing down of both a complex industry and a complicated subject or the future of technical and professional education. Purchased it to consider using in a class I teach in Casino management at the junior college level--felt it was aimed at too junior an audience.

Do not buy this book if you are looking for a set of guaranteed strategies for winning roulette. The author tells the beginner how the game works and describes a series of well-known betting strategies. As the author himself points out, none of the strategies are expected to win after any significant length of playing time.