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 Cutting
the Wire: Gaming Prohibition and the Internet
by David G. Schwartz
The story of the Wire Act and how
Robert Kennedy's crusade against the Mob is creating a new generation of
Internet gaming outlaws. Gambling has been part of American life since long
before the existence of the nation, but Americans have always been ambivalent
about it. What David Schwartz calls the "pell-mell history of legal gaming in
the United States" is a testament to our paradoxical desire both to gamble and
to control gambling. It is in this context that Schwartz examines the history
of the Wire Act, passed in 1961 as part of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy's
crusade against organized crime and given new life in recent efforts to control
Internet gambling.
"Cutting the Wire" presents the story of how this law
first developed, how it helped fight a war against organized crime, and how it
is being used today. The Wire Act achieved new significance with the
development of the Internet in the early 1990s and the growing popularity of
online wagering through offshore facilities. The United States government has
invoked the Wire Act in a vain effort to control gambling within its borders,
at a time when online sports betting is soaring in popularity. By placing the
Wire Act into the larger context of Americans' continuing ambivalence about
gambling, Schwartz has produced a provocative, deeply informed analysis of a
national habit and the vexing predicaments that derive from it. In America
today, 48 of 50 states currently permit some kind of legal gambling. Schwartz's
historical unraveling of the Wire Act exposes the illogic of an outdated law
intended to stifle organized crime being used to set national policy on
Internet gaming. "Cutting the Wire" carefully dissects two centuries of
American attempts to balance public interest with the technology of
gambling.
Paperback - 296
pages (September, 2005)  £12.90  $16.47
 Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System
That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street
by William Poundstone
This is an excellent book about the
discovery of the Kelly formula that is unknown outside gambling. This story has
three protagonists. Two of them were scientists working at Bell Labs: Claude
Shannon, a genius polymath who developed information theory; and John Kelly, a
maverick genius, who is directly responsible for the development of Kelly's
formula. The third one is a brilliant MIT mathematician, Ed Thorp.
As
the author states, Ed Thorp's genius consists in "...his continuous ability to
discover new market inefficiencies ... as old ones played out." Ed Thorp closed
this second fund in 2002. He is now independently exploring inefficiencies in
gambling.
Claude Shannon amassed large wealth by recording one of the
best investment records. His performance had little to do with Kelly's formula.
Between 1966 and 1986, his record beat even Warren Buffet (28% to 27%
respectively). Shannon strategy was similar to Buffet. Both their stock
portfolios were concentrated, and held for the long term. Shannon achieved his
record by holding mainly three stocks (Teledyne, Motorola, and HP). The
difference between the two was that Shannon invested in technology because he
understood it well, while Buffet did not.
John Kelly was a chain
smoking, gun collecting brilliant physicist. He died young at 41 of an
aneurysm. He worked closely with Shannon at Bell Labs. Besides being a
charismatic character the author does not write much about his life compared to
the other two.
Hardcover -
400 pages (September 14, 2005) £13.96 $17.82
 Against
the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk
by Peter L. Bernstein
Bernstein has managed to take a subject
which at first sight seems intensely boring, and has made it fascinating.
Whether or not you have any interest in Risk, Statistics or Econimics, you owe
it to yourself to read this book. It is quite simply a "Ripping Yarn". Its
greatness lies in Bernstein's ability to tell the story in an accessible
manner, without dumbing down the essential facts. Let me say it again: Read
this book because it is a fascinating and well written story. The fact you will
know a lot more about Risk at the end of it is an incidental, but very welcome,
extra.
Paperback - 394
pages (9 October, 1998) £8.39 $13.57
 Easy Money: Inside the Gambler's Mind
by David
Spanier
David Spanier studies the
psychological motivation of gamblers, those who beat the system and those
beaten by it, portraying the personalities and legends of the gambling world of
the time. Spanier ranges widely over his subject, considering the motivations
of gamesters, stressing the physical sensations they experience, the
percentages and chances, heuristic principles, the differences in European and
American gambling, and the criminal element in U.S. gaming, but concentrates
primarily on the human side of gambling rather than the mathematical or
theoretical.
While he is comfortable discussing Freud's analysis of the
compulsive gambler, his real emphasis is on the individuals: the mathematician
who devised a way to beat the house advantage at blackjack; the London
man-about-town who ran games for the upper class; the cleric who founded the
British Gamblers Anonymous; the physician who established a "gamblers'
hospital" in Brecksville, Ohio. This is an insider's analysis of the thrills,
action, and intense emotional involvement that makes up the world of gambling.
Hardcover - 240 pages New
Ed edition (19 Jan 2006) £6.59 $11.66
 The Casino Handbook
by Belinda Levez
This text celebrates and explains the glorious,
glamorous and dangerous world of casinos. The book covers the lay out, the
games, the etiquette, the language, the odds and the personnel. It also
explains how to read faces and stay solvent.
This is a nice coffee table
book, not too serious about gambling but colourful, a present for those
interested.
Hardcover - 160
pages (1 September, 2001) £10.00 $2.87
 The Complete Idiot's Guide to Gambling Like a Pro
by
Standord Wong, Susan Spector
There
are no misleading win big promises here. From one of the most respected
writers, Wong. Some problems with US based games but most ideas transferable to
the UK and internet casinos. This guide explains the basics of the major games
of chance (such as slot machines and roulette), numbers games (lottery and
bingo), table games (poker and black jack), and picking a winner (sport betting
and horse racing).
Paperback - 311 pages 4th
edition (November 2005) £7.63 $7.00
 Bad Bet by
Timothy L. O'Brien
Subtitled -
The Inside Story of the Glamour, Glitz, and Danger of America's Gambling
Industry
There is tons of research here by a journalist clearly in
command of his craft. There is a clear anti-gambling view when looking at the
big corporations that run this business, but O'Brien truly appreciates the
legends and culture of the gambling world and gives them their due. After all,
big corporations have their own wallets in mind in all of this. Anyway, this is
a fun, breezy, informative book and anyone betting on sports or into casinos
should read it.
Hardcover -
352 pages (August 1998) £11.76 $2.70 |
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 The
Gambler's Guide to the World
by Jesse May
Subtitled - The Insider Scoop from a Professional
Player on Finding the Action, Beating the Odds, and Living It Up Around the
Globe.
Jesse May, an intrepid gambler, experienced poker analyst, and
critically acclaimed writer, has traveled across the country and around the
world in search of the hottest gambling action. From sports betting in Costa
Rica to high-stakes Vegas poker, from caviar and vodka in Moscow to funnel
cakes and submarine sandwiches in Atlantic City, May has tried his hand and his
luck at gambling and indulged in the good life across the globe. In The
Gambler's Guide to the World, he blends an insightful travel guide with a
lively travel narrative to create a totally unique guidebook to the choicest
sites in the world.
Paperback -
320 pages (November 2000)
 The Man With the $100,000 Breasts : And Other
Gambling Stories by Michael Konik
Michael Konik takes a topic that
is usually covered in a bland, how-to kind of way and delivers thoughtful,
entertaining stories that seem like they're right out of the movies. And
they're all true! My personal favourites are Chapter Nine, "Go Greyhound!"
which may be the funniest story ever written about gambling, and the book's
final chapter, "The Hand You're Dealt," which may be the single finest essay on
what it really means to "get lucky" in a casino and in
life.
Paperback - 256 pages
(January 2000) £6.69 $10.36
 Gambling
by Paul Lamford
A good all round look at Gambling from horse
racing to poker and bingo. Advice on how to calculate odds and increase your
skill. Full of background information and tips about the world of
gambling.
Hardback - 192
pages ( 3 April, 2000) £0.49
 The Quotable Gambler by Paul Lyons (Editor)
This book is a Compendium of quotes
"It is not as destructive as war or as boring as pornography. It is
not as immoral as business or as suicidal as watching television. And the
percentages are better than religion"--Mario Puzo
"Horse sense is a good
judgment that keeps horses from betting on people. "God not only plays dice. He
also sometimes throws the dice where they cannot be seen." -Stephen Hawking
Hardcover - 326 pages (October
1999) £2.69 $20.00
 The Big Con by David Maurer
"A term such as cackle-bladder or shut-out cannot be
properly described without giving a full account of its use, and such an
account cannot be illustrated by stick figures". Thus The Big Con is filled
with richly detailed anecdotes populated by characters with names like Devil's
Island Eddie, the Honey Grove Kid, the Hashhouse Kid, and Limehouse Chappie
("distinguished British con man working both sides of the Atlantic and the
steamship lines between, all with equal ease"). David Maurer spent years
talking to con men about their profession, learning about each and every step
of the three big cons (the wire, the rag, and the payoff). From putting the
mark up to putting in the fix, Maurer guides readers through the
fleecing--pretty soon you'll be forgetting the book's scientific value and
reading for sheer entertainment. (A cackle-bladder, by the way, is a fake
murder used to scare the victim off after his money's been taken. As for the
shut-out, well, that you'll have to learn on your own.).
Paperback - 291 pages ( 1 June, 2000)
£5.59 $10.36
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