10 Books about Casino Gambling Every Gambler Should Read

Gambling Books Everyone Should Read

In his excellent bestseller titled Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, economic historian Peter L. Bernstein traces the history of Western philosophy and mathematics and its curiosity with prediction - that is, whether it was possible for the future to contain predictability and whether any such predictable characteristic may be captured and measured mathematically.

Along the way, Bernstein recounts the role that games of chance or, more exactly, the analysis of games involving dice played in developing philosophical and mathematical theorems designed to predict the likelihood of a particular set of results. Thus, far from being a lowly pastime or vice, gaming and gambling has played a vital role in sparking the imagination of mathematicians for many generations, long before the recent popularity of Las Vegas and hold'em poker.

In the modern and more popular publishing forums, there are, as you might imagine, many books written on the skill and art of casino gambling. There is no way to include them all here. What I have attempted to do is provide somewhat of an overview of some of the classics that deal with the more popular games attracting casino visitors. An example is the inclusion on slot machine play. Slots are a random number game, indicating that fate, rather than strategy or skill, decides winners and losers. Yet, according to recent polls, slots are played by over 50% of casino gamblers. And there are books dedicated to analyzing and advising gamers on winning strategies. So, below you will also find one of gambling's most prolific and highly regarded authors book on slot machine strategies.

1. Scarne's Guide to Modern Poker

Author: John Scarne

Publication date: 1979

Available as ebook? No

Audience: beginner

Author bio: John Scarne was one of the pioneers of gambling writing in the 20th century. Originally a magician and expert card manipulator, Scarne's first publications - Scarne on Cards (1973) and Scarne's Encyclopedia of Games (1973) - quickly established his reputation among gaming enthusiasts as an expert in casino gambling.

Why read this book?

Scarne's Guide to Modern Poker provides the beginner to intermediate player with a good introduction to, and overview of, modern poker. Though the main focus is on draw poker, Scarne attempts to use the principles he establishes with draw poker into other games.

One aspect I liked about this book is Scarne's ability to bring the reader/player into the peripheral action going on around the table - that is, reading one's opponents. Scarne's brings excellent insights into how the player can win the bluff game - providing strategies and tips from mixing up play so as to confuse opponent's ability to "read" your intent, to reading body language and tips on how to recognize card cheats.

While Scarne's writing style may be considered by some to be a bit too bombastic, I highly recommend this book to the beginner player looking to get up to speed with the basics of draw poker.

2. Gambling 102: The Best Strategies for All Casino Games

Author: Michael Shackleford

Publication date: 2005

Available as ebook? yes

Audience: intermediate and up

Author bio: Nicknamed the "Wizard of Odds", Michael Shackleford is a premiere writer currently writing about beating the odds today. Educated as an actuary, Shackleford has expanded the mathematical approach to beating the odds, and has written extensively about his research at the tables.

Why read this book?

As Shackleford is quick to point out in the introduction to Gambling 102, this is not a book for beginners (hence, the book is the next step beyond gambling 101). You need to have a solid foundation of the rules of the games he tackles. What Gambling 102 provides is a summary of the best strategies for each of the games it highlights, which are many of the most popular and commonly offered games in casinos worldwide. The writing style is economical, allowing for short chapters and providing the reader with the most essential points for developing winning strategies.

3. Beat the Dealer: A Winning Strategy for the Game of Twenty-One

Author: Edward O. Thorpe

Publication date: 1966

Available as ebook? Yes

Audience: intermediate and up

Author bio: Edward Thorpe, known as the father of card counting, received his Ph.D. in Mathematics in 1958 and taught at some of the best schools in the country. However, Thorpe gained attention in the gaming community when, using the card counting system he invented, won $11,000 in one weekend, and could have won much more had he not been expelled by casino security under suspicion of cheating. While there are many experts, Thorpe is one of the few, true revolutionizing figures in the history of gaming. Thorpe was an inaugural inductee into the Blackjack Hall of Fame, San Diego, which opened in 2002.

Why read this book?

Edward Thorpe revealed to the world how he revolutionized casino gambling with Beat the Dealer, detailing the concepts behind card counting. These concepts revolutionized casino blackjack gaming. Definitely, the reader should have a solid foundation under him in blackjack before tackling these concepts.

4. Slots Conquest: How to Beat the Slot Machines

Author: Frank Scoblete

Publication date: 2010

Available as ebook? Yes

Audience: beginner and up

Author bio: Frank Scoblete discovered his love for gambling in the 1980s. He started writing columns in gaming magazines in the mid-80s, and in 1991 published his first book. Since then, Scoblete has established himself as one of the premiere and most prolific of current gaming writers, with over 30 books published. Since 2007, Scoblete has also maintained a column at Casino City Times and currently has a website dedicated to the controversial "art" of dice manipulation for craps players.

Why read this book?

Slots Conquest is an updated version of Scoblete's first publication to analyze slot machine odds in Break the One-Arm Bandits (1994). In Slots Conquest, the analysis is updated to provide the reader with a mathematical edge, plus advice on which machines to play and how and which to avoid. It is a worthwhile read for those partakers of America's favorite casino game.

5. Professional Blackjack

Author: Stanford Wong

Publication date: 1975

Available as ebook? Yes

Audience: intermediate and up

Author bio: Stanford Wong is the pen name of John Ferguson, whose gaming career began when in 1964, as a Professor of Finance at San Francisco State University, he took up the hobby of blackjack. Since then, Ferguson/Wong went on to create the first commercially available software for blackjack analysis and has written over a dozen books on gaming odds. Wong was an inaugural inductee into the Blackjack Hall of Fame, San Diego, in 2002. Wong's website, bj21.com, established in 1997, is one of the oldest gaming websites still active today.

Why read this book?

Wong advanced the card counting system with Professional Blackjack, a system first by Thorpe a decade earlier. Such advances include accounting for, and strategizing against, certain gimmicks introduced by casinos around the world to interfere with card counting methods. True to this type of odds analysis, Professional Blackjack is complete with a full series of over 150 tables analysing the odds of many variations of scenarios. This is not for the beginner. However, even if you are not new to card counting methodologies and approaches, Wong still has tremendous value in his somewhat unique evaluations on how the card counter may remain anonymous - that is, not attract attention to himself nor his system - during his visit to a casino. This last part, I feel, can be just as valuable to the successful gambler as winning. A must-read for the card counter gamer of any level.

6. Winning Casino Blackjack for The Non-Counter

Author: Avery Cardoza

Publication date: 1981 (new edition, 2010)

Available as ebook? No

Audience: beginner to intermediate

Author bio: Avery Cardoza has established himself as a top publisher in the gaming world. Since publishing Winning Casino Blackjack for The Non-Counter in 1981, Cardoza has personally published over 21 books on gaming. Cardoza also established Cardoza Publishing, which has established itself as the premiere publisher of gaming books with over 10 million copies sold.

Why read this book?

After the 1960s and the publications by such authors as Thorpe and Wong, casino blackjack was swept up in the card counting revolution. Serious players everywhere were convinced that counting was the only real winning system. This perception was also backed up by the casinos that were changing certain aspects of game play to thwart the success of counting.

It was in this environment that Cardoza launched his first successful publication at how to win at blackjack without resorting to the complexities and risks inherent in counting methodologies. Such is the reason why I've included it in this list of must-reads. Cardoza continues to remind us that there are alternatives available for the serious blackjack player.

7. Forever Craps

Author: Frank Scoblete

Publication date: 2004

Available as ebook? No

Audience: beginner and up

Why read this book?

Frank Scoblete was perhaps the first person to take a serious, strategized to win approach to the casino game of craps. In 1991, Scoblete published Beat the Craps Out of the Casinos, selling over a quarter of a million copies, and introducing gamers to such famous methods as the Five-Count and the Supersystem. Forever Craps builds on that knowledge and introduces leading-edge concepts like dice control, rhythmic rolling and how to use Five-Count to fit your personal playing style. Currently billing himself as a leading expert on the controversial concept of dice control, Forever Craps is certainly more than a repeat of the original best-seller.

8. Winning Casino Craps

Author: Edwin Silberstang

Available as ebook? Yes

Publication date: original edition, 1979; new edition, 2010

Audience: beginner and up

Author bio: Edwin Silberstang established himself as a top-selling gaming author through such titles as Playboy's Book of Games, Winner's Guide to Casino Gambling, Winning Blackjack for the Serious Player and Winning Casino Craps. His How-to books on winning gaming strategies have been in print for four decades and have sold millions of copies.

Why read this book?

Like his other top-selling books on gaming (also see Winning at Blackjack for the Serious Player, below), Winning Casino Craps is a complete rundown on all things relating to casino craps. Chapter topics include the overall game and rules, types of bets and accompanying odds, strategies (including winning and aggressive strategies, and strategies not recommended), through to cheating with dice. Winning Casino Craps has been a classic since published in 1979 and is a must-read for the craps enthusiast.

9. Winning Blackjack for The Serious Player

Author: Edwin Silberstang

Available as ebook? yes

Publication date: original edition, 1993; new edition, 2002

Audience: beginner to intermediate

Why read this book?

Winning Blackjack for the Serious Player has gained a reputation for being "the bible" for casino blackjack players, from beginner through to advanced. It is an all-inclusive tome for all things related to casino blackjack play, with chapters on rules, strategies, charting and even how to play for comps. What was special for me were the chapters containing advice and insights into how the player can manage himself successfully, whether it's how to manage his bankroll, practicing self-discipline, making friends with casino employees with practical, yet effective, typing strategies and how to develop a well-rounded approach to having a great time at the casino. Highly recommended for all gamers.

10. Busting Vegas: The MIT Whiz Kid Who Brought the Casinos to their Knees

Author: Ben Mezrich

Publication date: 2005

Available as ebook? Yes

Other Related Book: The Blackjack Life: A Journey Through the Inner World of Card Counting, the Lessons of Teamwork, and the Clandestine Pursuit of Beating the Odds

Author: Nathaniel Tilton

Publication date: 2012

Available as ebook? Yes

Why read these books?

In the 1990s, a team of Ivy Leaguers developed counting skills and decided to form a team. Typically, up to this point, card counters at blackjack tables tended to act alone. Working in teams proved to be enormously successful, resulting in millions of dollars in winnings.

Busting Vegas recounts the journey from MIT to The Vegas Strip, Atlantic City and Monte Carlo. I found Busting Vegas also interesting for the liberties author Mezrich takes in relating the experiences of the students. At various points Busting Vegas reads like a typical Hollywood casino blockbuster, with menacing, gun-waving underworld figures, backroom beatings and meetings in brothels. Since its release, Semyon Dukach has stated in interviews that certain of these embellishments, including those mentioned above, never took place. Funny how certain memes just keep rolling along.

The Blackjack Life is written from the first-person perspective of the author, Nathaniel Tilton. Tilton first came into contact with the concepts utilized by Dukach and his MIT team as outlined in Busting Vegas, via an online seminar provided on a website operated by Dukach. In The Blackjack Life Tilton recounts his journey from a blackjack novice and hobbyist to someone who, along with a friend introduced to readers simply as "D.A.", took their knowledge and went on their own casino blackjack adventures, learning many lessons along the way. Tilton's objectives are more educational than sensational, and goes into chapters analyzing and conceptualizing the reasons for success and failure.

Conclusion

There you have it. Ten of the top books, many of them classics, on various aspects of casino gambling. If you are a novice to casino gambling, developing a beginner's library is an essential step to deepening your level of play and taking your enjoyment to a new level. As some of these authors demonstrated, sometimes you just don't know just how far your enthusiasm for the game will take you. Who knows. Perhaps one day you too will be a bestselling author on how to master the skills and art of casino gaming.