Jackpot Nation: Rambling and Gambling Across Our Landscape of Luck

Jackpot Nation: Rambling and Gambling Across Our Landscape of Luck
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Jackpot Nation: Rambling and Gambling Across Our Landscape of Luck
Richard Hoffer
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 006076144X
Release Date: 2007-03-13

Book Description

Is this a great country or what? You can bet on the turn of the card, a roll of the dice—but also the NFL, the NCAA, and which Olson twin marries first. We bet $80 million a year, the amount growing wildly as more and more people gain access to this huge American wheel of fortune. No longer quarantined in Las Vegas, gambling has become as local as our neighborhood cineplex. It's no wonder that we spend more money gambling than we do on movies, music, sports, video games, and theme parks combined! If there's not a casino around the corner, there's one on your laptop computer.

In Jackpot Nation, acclaimed Sports Illustrated writer Richard Hoffer takes us on a headlong tour, alternately horrifying and hilarious, across our landscape of luck, discovering just how ridiculously determined we are to gamble. Whether he's trying to win a side of bacon in a Minnesota bar, hustling a paper sack filled with $100,000 cash across Las Vegas parking lots, poring over expansion plans with a tribal chief in California, or visiting a retired bus salesman with a poor understanding of three-game parlays in his New York prison cell, Hoffer finds a national inclination—a cultural predisposition, even—to take a chance.

Hoffer shows us how Americans—adventurers at heart—have embraced this ability to take recreational risks with a surprising gusto. But as he pokes into this country's far corners, traveling coast to coast with odds as his copilot, he uncovers more than just the playful exercise of that age-old fantasy—something for nothing. He discovers that the very institutions that used to regulate this workout are now its biggest cheerleaders. Whereas government, religion, and business once restricted our ability to gamble, making it taboo even, they have now taken ownership of the pastime. Yesterday's numbers racket is today's state lottery; yesterday's mobbed-up casino is now part of a Fortune 500 company. It's one thing to recognize the house edge, but sometimes it's quite another to figure out who actually owns the house.

Still, Hoffer manages to find the fun in all this, as equally delighted with the delirium of a slot machine trade show as the religious risk of an underground poker game, almost right beneath the spires of the Mormon Tabernacle. He concludes that people are, mostly, having a good time. If he also uncovers a downside—the outlandish vigorish that comes with its growing acceptance—well, that's why they call it gambling.

A Collector's Guide to Nevada Gaming Checks and Chips

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A Collector's Guide to Nevada Gaming Checks and Chips
Howard W. Herz , and Kregg L. Herz
Manufacturer: Whitman Coin Products
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0307093646

The Official U.S. Casino Chip Price Guide (Schiffer Book for Collectors)

Average customer rating:

Descent but incomplete
Terrific Chip Guide
A Must for Casino Chip Collectors and Gaming History Buffs
Great Pricing Guide
great books at a great price

The Official U.S. Casino Chip Price Guide (Schiffer Book for Collectors)
James Campiglia , and Steve Wells
Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0764322214

Book Description

It's official! The only comprehensive casino chip price guide in the field, featuring chips from the major gaming cities and riverboats in the U.S, is now in its bigger, better second edition! This attractive guide features an easy-to-use system that identifies and grades over 15,000 chips for rarity, condition, and price, complemented by color photos of more than $1,000,000 in rare chips, and nostagic postcard snapshots of dozens of casinos. Also new to this edition are thorough listings of Commemorative Limited Edition chips for Las Vegas and elsewhere. Professional advice on collecting and interesting insider information make this book your best resource for this fascinating hobby. Its convenient size and durable binding are ideal for the heavy use it will receive.

Customer Reviews:

Descent but incomplete.......2007-07-17

This is the best casino chip price guide currently available. It is incomplete in that it does not include any of the Silver Strikes or metal slot token issues.

The price guide is a paperback, not a hardcover as listed in the title.

Terrific Chip Guide.......2007-05-29

Was shipped fast and the chip guide is finely detailed, many color photos and very inclusive. A MUST have for a serious chip collector.

A Must for Casino Chip Collectors and Gaming History Buffs.......2007-01-11

If you collect casino chips, or are just interested in the history of casinos and casino chips, then this book is a must. Every conceivable chip from just about every casino that ever existed is displayed. Chips are all listed with an estimated value which is very useful, especially for the casual collector like myself. There is a thorough discussion of chip characteristics and grading criteria. The research that went into this book is phenomenal. Mr. Campiglia has painstakingly documented sales, scarcity and the history of each and every chip. The book is well laid out with color photos of each chip and many photos of the casinos they came from. There are also many interesting factoids and anecdotes pertaining to the history of casinos in America. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and refer to it often as I build my collection. I give this book my highest recommendation.

Great Pricing Guide.......2007-01-04

This book was created with the chip collector in mind. It has great color pictures of many chips and explains the values very well.No chip is left behind in this complete softcover compact book. This 3rd edition is a must have for any chip collector.

great books at a great price.......2006-07-31

cant believe how much money i saved useing amazon will buy from them again thank you thank you thank you

Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion's World Series of Poker

Average customer rating:

Not what I expected
Good, but about 100 pages too long
2 Words .....Bor - Ring
Horrible
Well written trip through the 2000 WSOP and the Vegas trial of the century

Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion's World Series of Poker
James McManus
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0374236488

Amazon.com

In 2000, novelist and poet James McManus was sent to Las Vegas, innocently enough, by Harper's magazine to write a story about the World Series of Poker held annually at Binion's Horseshoe. But then, as so often happens on trips to Sin City, something kind of ... happened. Rather than becoming an objective report, McManus's article evolved into a memoir as he put his entire advance on the line, got lucky with his cards and won a spot in the competition, and came much closer than anyone expected to winning the darn thing. The result, Positively Fifth Street, is just as dazzling, exciting, and disturbing as Vegas itself.

McManus details his battles not only against his opponents but also against "Bad Jim," the portion of his own personality that needs to get in on a poker game in spite of both common and fiscal sense. Besides telling his own story, he relates the considerably more unpleasant tale of Ted Binion, whose grisly death was blamed on Binion's former stripper-girlfriend and her ex-linebacker beau. In the hands of a lesser author, the pursuit of these separate through lines of poker and the seedy personal lives of wealthy casino heirs may have lead readers to wish the author had picked just one subject. But under McManus's careful watch, they're really pretty similar: steeped in adrenaline, mystery, deception, and skating on thrillingly thin ice. Each story underscores the other, a neat little "narrative as metaphor" device, while also painting a vivid picture of Vegas casino life. Poker, as anyone who has lost at it will tell you, is an intricate game and it's nice to see a top-notch author and player relate its finer points in an entertaining style that will appeal even to non-players. The author's hilariously self-aware and at times self-loathing style make Positively Fifth Street a fun read. But beyond that, his account of nearly winning the biggest poker tournament in the world and subsequently watching as the verdicts are announced for Binion's accused murderers makes for a great story. Even if it wasn't the one he was sent there to write. --John Moe

Book Description

Rough sex, black magic, murder, and the science—and eros—of gambling meet in the ultimate book about Las Vegas

James McManus was sent to Las Vegas by Harper’s to cover the World Series of Poker in 2000, especially the mushrooming progress of women in the $23 million event, and the murder of Ted Binion, the tournament’s prodigal host, purportedly done in by a stripper and her boyfriend with a technique so outré it took a Manhattan pathologist to identify it. Whether a jury would convict the attractive young couple was another story altogether.

McManus risks his entire Harper’s advance in a long-shot attempt to play in the tournament himself. Only with actual table experience, he tells his skeptical wife, can he capture the hair-raising brand of poker that determines the world champion. The heart of the book is his deliciously suspenseful account of the tournament itself—the players, the hand-to-hand combat, and his own unlikely progress in it.

Written in the tradition of The Gambler and The Biggest Game in Town, Positively Fifth Street is a high-stakes adventure, a penetrating study of America’s card game, and a terrifying but often hilarious account of one man’s effort to understand what Edward O. Wilson has called “Pleistocene exigencies”—the eros and logistics of our primary competitive instincts.

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In the spring of 2000, Harper's Magazine sent James McManus to Las Vegas to cover the World Series of Poker--in particular, the mushrooming progress of women in the $23 million event, and the murder of Ted Binion, the tournament's prodigal host, purportedly done in by a stripper and her boyfriend with a techniques so outre it took a Manhattan pathologist to identify it. Whether a jury would convict the attractive young couple was another story altogether. But when McManus sets foot in town, the lure of the tables is too strong: he proceeds to risk his entire Harper's advance in a long-shot attempt to play in the tournament himself. Only with actual experience at the table (he tells his skeptical wife) can he capture the hair-raising subtleties of the kind of poker that determines the world champion. The heart of the book is his deliciously suspenseful account of the tournament itself--the players, the hands, and his own unlikely progress in it. Written in the tradition of The Gambler and The Biggest Game In town, Positively Fifth Street is a high-stakes adventure, and a terrifying but often hilarious account of one man's effort to understand what Edward O. Wilson has called "Pleistocene exigencies"--the eros and logistics of out primary competitive instincts.

Customer Reviews:

Not what I expected.......2007-10-03

If you look at the reviews for this book, you'll see a wide range of opinions. From 1-star all the way up to 5-stars. I believe the reason for the wide range is because the book cover and descriptions (including the back) fails to manage the reader's expectations. Similar to many other reviewers, I expected a book 100% about poker and related topics. However, it's really 60% about Ted Binion's murder, and 40% about poker. I did realize that Binion's murder was a topic in the book, but I though it was just a backdrop for the poker story. The murder almost dominates the book. If I had that 60/40 expectation I think I would've enjoyed the book more. So i penalize it 1 star because it didn't meet my expectations. I also subtract 1 more star because the author goes off-topic way too often. Other reviewers rant on how off-topic the book goes, so i don't need to again. 3 stars.

Good, but about 100 pages too long.......2007-07-27

This is a very unique book that tells many stories in one - the murder trial of accused killers of Ted Binion, Jim's own sensational poker run, and mixed in is lots of tidbits of poker history and player profiles. Overall, it is pretty good, but could have been better were it not for too many tedious pages of personal history, minutia of the tournament, and philosophical digressions that had me yawning. A good quarter of this 400 page book just wasn't all that interesting to me. On the other hand, in reading other sections, I found that I couldn't put it down.

Overall, getting through the tedious sections was made worthwhile by not only his great tournament story, but a real education on the history of the game, and where it is at present. BUT, if you bore easily, this may not be the book for you.

2 Words .....Bor - Ring.......2007-07-19

This book is so boring in the beginning that I haven't even been able to finish it to get to parts that other reviewers say are exciting. I thought it was about the World Series of Poker and the murder trial. Instead I have to read about McManus' childhood. Of course I've seen him on poker shows and he seems pretty boring in real life too.

If you're looking for a poker book, pass on this one.

Horrible.......2007-06-04

Don't waste your money. If you feel you have to have this book buy it 2nd or even 5th hand. It is boring and not well written. I find myself simply skimming through many pages that get completely off the topic. If I could return any of the books I have purchased from amazon or anyplace else, this would be the one.

Well written trip through the 2000 WSOP and the Vegas trial of the century.......2007-05-23

James McManus (fiction author, sports journalist and sometime poker player) went to Vegas to cover the trial of the murder of Ted Binion (whose father started the World Series of Poker (WSOP)) and to cover the rise of women at the WSOP. He ends up taking part of the advance money, winning a play-in satellite tourney, and getting a seat at the 2000 WSOP.

He made it to the final table and fifth place.

He intertwines his own story (an amatuer amongst some of pokers greatest names) with stories of the trial (where Ted's girlfriend and best friend are accused of murdering him), Jim's own personal history, the history of poker and the WSOP and the parallels he sees between them all.

The insights into the game, the hands, the mannerisms, and particularly what Jim is thinking at the time (fold? call? raise? who's that beautiful dealer named Red?) dividing the voices in his head (see? not just me!) into Good Jim and Bad Jim, make the writing of the actual WSOP satellite and tournament the best part of the book. But the other stories are woven in intricately and smoothly (with only a few abstract jumps), mixing in Dante and Dostoyevsky to prove his point.

Since the book has been written, the number of players entered into the big Texas Hold-em WSOP tourney has climbed in from the $1.5 million Chris "Jesus" Ferguson won (and 512 entrants) in 2000 to 2006's $12million Jamie Gold won amongst the 8,773 entrants (and around 12,000 are expected this year).

Read it before the big one this July 6, and it will help you imagine the action.

Poker Nation: A High-Stakes, Low-Life Adventure into the Heart of a Gambling Country

Average customer rating:

fun & informative
great book
A good read for traders aka gamblers
Great intro to the world of poker
Fun, interesting and informative

Poker Nation: A High-Stakes, Low-Life Adventure into the Heart of a Gambling Country
Andy Bellin
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060958472
Release Date: 2003-02-04

Amazon.com

Readers who enjoy poker will love Poker Nation, an energetic and obsessive account of America's favorite card game, told with intelligence and panache. Andy Bellin writes in the first person and from the gut, recounting stories about poker fanatics (himself among them) and dispensing advice on how to play the game: "You have to maximize profits through guile and savvy, eke out every last dollar that your competition is willing to lose to you--and, when you don't have the winning cards, flee as fast as possible." Aphorisms leap off the pages: "The worst hand in poker is the second-best one at the table" and "People say the mark of a con is in the details." Whether readers prefer the anecdotes about double-bluffing and illegal poker clubs or the tips on when to hold and when to fold (there's even a table showing the "Chances of Drawing Helpful Cards from a Deck of Forty-Seven Unknown Cards"), anybody interested in its subject matter will find Poker Nation engrossing. --John Miller

Book Description

Journalist and poker fanatic Andy Bellin takes readers on a raucous journey into the shut-up-and-deal world of professional poker. From basement games to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, you'll look over his shoulder as he learns to count cards, read a legendary player's body language, hang in there when the chips are down, and take his beatings like a man. Even if you don't know the difference between a flop and a river card, Bellin keeps you in the game with his portraits of the colorful players, dreamers, hustlers, and eccentrics who populate this strange subculture. Along with learning what goes on behind the scenes in illegal poker clubs, you'll get great advice on how to play Texas Hold'em, today's game of choice for big-money players.

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Customer Reviews:

fun & informative.......2006-09-06

This book reminds me of another good poker book, All In by Jonathan Grotenstein & Storms Reback. It a little bit of many different things. There's poker advice, poker history, biographies, poker stories, and humor. It's a great book for someone who wants to learn a thing or two about poker but doesn't just want to read strategy books like Super System.

great book.......2006-07-28

If you ever wondered if the world of poker is for you, read this book! most poker players will never set at the million dollar game(or table) - most poker players have to grind it out hour after hour - this book tells you all about that world!

A good read for traders aka gamblers .......2006-03-24

I dont play poker at all. I picked this book up with the intent of improving my stock, currency and commodities trading under the premise that professional poker players and traders are two of a kind. Despite my ignorance of poker, I find this book a real page turner covering not only poker skills and tactics, but its addictive and even devastating effect on life of many poker players. It's very interesting and informative. The author's writing skill is excellent. No matter whether you like poker or not, if you are interested in reading fascinating stories, you will be very satisfied.

p.s. As per whether it will help my trading, a little bit, I must say.

Great intro to the world of poker.......2005-09-09

"Poker Nation" is the perfect introductory book for those new to the game, especially if you've just started getting into the 2005 World Series of Poker coverage. It's more of a series of anecdotes, musings, and observations than it is an Xs and Os how-to guide, so you won't get overwhelmed by the technical aspects of the game. Bellin's personal style of writing conveys all the highs and lows that poker can entail, and does so in a humorous, self-deprecating manner. If you're like me and rarely read books from cover-to-cover, you might be surprised how much of an easy read this can be.

Fun, interesting and informative .......2005-04-19

This book is a little difficult to categorise. It is not really an autobiography, it is not a poker 'how-to' manual although it does provide some interesting insights. So what is it? It seems to be a book about deciding to write a book.

Andy Bellin has a simple, easy to read prose style. The book proceeds at great pace mixing personal experiences and anecdotes very effectively, providing an interesting and illuminating insight into the world of poker and addiction. I was gripped from the first chapter and read the book very quickly. It is often funny, sometimes chilling and slightly scary but it always holds your interest. It is also thought provoking as it prompts readers to consider their own attitude to gambling and addiction in general.

Recommended.

Super Casino: Inside the "New" Las Vegas

Average customer rating:

Some good insights
Viva Las Casinos
The Best book on the History of Vegas
How come noone recommended me this book !!??
Best book I have ever read

Super Casino: Inside the "New" Las Vegas
Pete Earley
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0553573497
Release Date: 2001-01-02

Amazon.com

Former Washington Post reporter Pete Earley, whose several books include a study of Leavenworth Prison, turns his meticulous journalistic eye on yet another notorious venue: Las Vegas. Don't expect him to unearth a spate of scandalous doings, though: Sin City isn't quite what it used to be. "Howard Hughes is now only a historical footnote," Earley writes. "Liberace's trademark candelabra sits in a museum. Elvis has been gone so long that tourists often think his impersonators look more like the King than he did. The old Las Vegas is dead."

The new Vegas, however, is very much alive. In two years of visits, with particular access to the Egyptian-themed Luxor Hotel, Earley gathers a comprehensive history of the city's "gaming" industry, including the biographies of such important figures as the Bellagio's Steve Wynn. He also takes a firsthand look into the lives of several Vegas residents and regulars. The book's chapters, often dense with historical fact, are neatly interrupted by fascinating first-person accounts: an old-time dealer talks about being threatened by Frank Sinatra, a hotel manager at a casino gets chewed out by her boss for renting out a $5,000 room to movie stars, and a cab driver talks about falling out of love with this high-rolling town, though he still tries to get his cut of the money. "The money," he says. "There is so much of it in this town that you learn to close your eyes. I hate it but I can't walk away. Who can?" Perhaps the readers of Super Casino will be able to restrain themselves after they read Earley's explanation of how clearly casino odds are stacked against them. --Maria Dolan

Book Description

In this lively and probing book, award-winning author Pete Earley traces the extraordinary evolution of Las Vegas -- from the gaudy Mecca of the Rat Pack era to one of the country's top family vacation spots. He revisits the city's checkered history of moguls, mobsters, and entertainers, reveals the real stories of well-known power brokers like Steve Wynn and legends like Howard Hughes and Bugsy Siegel, and offers a fascinating portrait of the life, death, and fantastic rebirth of the Las Vegas Strip.

Earley also documents the gripping tale of the entrepreneurs behind the rise and fall and rise again of one of the largest gaming corporations in the nation, Circus Circus -- to which he was given unique access. In his trademark you-are-there style, he takes us behind the scenes to meet the blackjack dealers and hookers, the heavy hitters and bit players, the security officers, cabbies, and showgirls who are caught up in the mercurial pace that pulses at the heart of this astounding city.

Customer Reviews:

Some good insights.......2006-08-05

Las Vegas and the gaming industry have caused more trees to be needlessly sacrificed than any topic in popular culture with the possible exception of professional wrestling. This is not to say that there is nothing of interest to say about either subject; on the contrary, both are thriving industries whose practices and appeal tell the sensitive observer a great deal about American culture. But most authors seem content to ply their readers with commonplace facts ("there are three shifts in the casino-day, swing and grave"), "inside" vocabulary ("a 'whale' is casino jargon for a heavy better"), and recycled publicity hype ("more Americans visit the Strip than Walt Disney World"). While all of these "facts" may be true, they don't really explain anything about why Las Vegas is so popular. Pete Earley's Super Casino: Inside the "New" Las Vegas is an "inside" history of Mandalay Resorts merged with a first-hand account of a "super casino," mostly gotten from the author's hanging out in Luxor. Earley would seem to be overly impressed with the "new" Strip megaresorts of the 1990s as he reports that these were the first casinos marketed as complete destination resorts. In fact, that is how Strip casinos have sold themselves since Thomas Hull's El Rancho Vegas opened in 1941. This "new" paradigm isn't so new; it just grafts huge hotel towers and shopping malls onto the tested casino resort concept: casino, entertainment, restaurants, and rooms. The more intense theming of the casinos of the 1990s actually has more to do with trends in American commercial culture than Vegas innovations, and the larger hotels are a result of Las Vegas's successful promotion as a vacation and convention destination. Earley implies these explanations, but does little more to explain why the "new" Las Vegas is new.

The book's structure is somewhat conflicted; a reasonably straight telling of the development of Circus Circus resorts from Jay Sarno to Mandalay Bay is followed by a seemingly random series of chapters detailing the jobs of selected casino personnel. Thrown into the mix are small vignettes from casino patrons and employees that are often complete non-sequiturs. For comparison, think of When Harry Met Sally. In the place of couples reminiscing about how they fell in love, substitute lurid tales of the pleasures of sunbathing topless in Las Vegas, interminable contrasts to the "good old days" of goodfella imperium, and random tales of personal bliss and woe at the hand of the cruel goddess Fortuna. Some of the stories are interesting, but they really have nothing to do with anything else. If they are meant to capture the pulse of the "real" Las Vegas, they seem a rather poor representative sample; much more interesting stories are in the air even on slow nights. If they are meant to flesh out the goings on in the Luxor, they simply don't.

Earley is on his strongest ground when describing the inner politics of the Circus Circus/Mandalay Resorts company. He translated his astute observations of the corporate boardroom into genuinely interesting prose. The story of how William Bennett and William Pennington rescued the Sarno's ailing Circus Circus by transforming it into the K Mart of the Strip contrasts nicely with Clyde Turner, Glenn Schaeffer, and others' baccaratization of Luxor, Circus's first foray into an upscale market. With the opening of Mandalay Bay and Circus Circus's rebirth as the Mandalay Resort Group, briefly covered at the book's end, the company had come full circle. As early relates, this was just as much a function of the clashing personalities of the men at the helm of Circus/Mandalay as it was the result of a deliberately studied marketing approach. In this regard, Earley provides a truly interesting look at how a large casino company actually runs.

But Earley fails to look past the hype. His consideration of actual casino operations is hopelessly uncritical. For example, he writes with admiration about the Luxor's "sophisticated" security systems without really looking at them; because the Director and a few chosen shift managers told Earley the Luxor was the state of the art in surveillance and security, the author dutifully accepted this as fact. The illusion of omnipresent, devouring surveillance and ubiquitous control is precisely that, an illusion. Earley doesn't question the logistics of how a security "force" of fifteen men and women, five of whom have assigned sitting posts, can maintain order in a crowded casino and hotel (p.236). He catches echoes of line employee's despair at Luxor boss Tony Alamo's insistence on improved service in the face of slashed costs, but doesn't really consider whether these are valid criticisms or sour grapes.

Earley disappoints most strenuously, though, in his glimpses of the "real" Las Vegas. There are the myriad high rollers, casual gamblers, and compulsive addicts, and of course the de rigueur look at the two most fetishized females in Las Vegas past and present, the showgirl and the prostitute. Even though Earley carefully apprises the reader of the hard work needed to become a successful showgirl, his parallel consideration of the two "career paths" tends to degrade the dancer's life. Besides a new security shift manager who is given a brief treatment, these are the two most consistently prominent women in the book. Is that a commentary on the glass ceiling in the casino industry or an author's lazy contentment to recycle stereotypical considerations of women in the casino? Given the success of women in rising to top management positions in several casino companies, the latter is the more obvious choice.

"Inside" books on Las Vegas by journalists (Earley is a former Washington Poster with several acclaimed books to his credit) generally follow the same pattern: the author is a Dante whose glimpse of the Inferno is only as good as his Virgil. For example, when a former law enforcement agent is the guide the author usually wanders onto avenues of speculation about who "really" rules Las Vegas and where all the bodies are buried. In this case, Earley apparently had Glenn Schaeffer and Tony Alamo as his primary handlers. The result is excellent material on the culture of Mandalay Resort Group's boardroom and the Luxor's management team. But the specious quality of Earley's less structured research, e.g., his discussions of the lowlifes and high rollers that call Las Vegas home or haven unfortunately slides this book precipitously close to the pile of bad books about Las Vegas. In addition, there are a few factual errors, such as the inexplicable statement that "Bally's no longer exists," at the corner of Flamingo and the Strip (p.126) or the reportage of Asian high rollers' predilection for a novel dice game called "pia gow," that might have been caught by a seasoned industry observer, or at least someone who has spent a day on the Strip and leafed through a promotional guide to playing pai gow tiles and other games.

Viva Las Casinos.......2006-07-13

If you don't love the sound of solt machines and the rush you get from doubling-down, than you may want to skip this read. Super Casino is an account of how the sleepy, small town of Las Vegas, NV transformed into one of the most powerful cities in the world. There were a lot of an interesting facts and some great history that you might already know if you watch any of those Vegas specials on The Travel Channel. But the writer does a good job of making it fun to read, including an account of a closed-door meeting of one of the biggest casino corporations on the planet. Fun read for anyone who likes to gamble at a casino.

[...]

The Best book on the History of Vegas.......2006-06-22

This is the best book written about Las Vegas. it includes the early history, all the major players in the development of the city and a real inside look into the mystery and wonderment of the casino business. You will never see Las Vegas the same after reading this book

How come noone recommended me this book !!??.......2005-10-09

....surprise ! I could only find the paperback edition (while stealing a deal !). It is the best book (of too many written) about what's really happening behind-the-scenes in the casino life -- L.V. style. Not only that I strongly recommend it to those who go and play, and waste, while "dreaming" of an instant win, but now I will read more from Pete Earley : his style is terrific. I think he can lead - successfully - a cultural, social or psychological revolution. In case Americans would want one, naturally !

Best book I have ever read.......2004-05-19

I was not able to put this book down. It is broken into two parts. Part one is the history of Vegas, part two focuses on a handfull of its residents over a year. While I was looking for a book on Vegas, I wanted to know more about personal experiences there, like what was in the second part of the book. I figured I wouldn't care for the history part, and would maybe skip it if it got boring. I was totally wrong. The history part was every bit as engaging. It's really a study in business more than history. It was thoroughly enjoyable, and part two was also. I like the way the author spends a year with these people (prostitiute, security guard, showgirl, etc.) and tells their story thoughout the book, instead of all in one chapter. Very well written. Also, very balanced in my opinion. At no point did I feel the author was judging anything, merely reporting it.

Book Description

Plato said God invented dice. This we learn from one of Ricky Jay's fascinating essays in a delightful small volume that takes us from the earliest forms (astragali—the heel bones of hoofed quadrupeds, four of whose six sides were used for gaming) to the myriad types of "loading" and other means of cheating with dice in the modern era. Along the way we discover that Augustus, Caligula, and Nero were all inveterate players, that Queen Elizabeth issued a search and seizure order against the manufacture of false dice in 1598, and that dice made from celluloid, invented in 1869, remained stable for decades, and then—in a flash—began to decompose. These are the dice of Rosamond Purcell's luminous and seductive photographs, images which transform entropy to an art form. Jay and Purcell give us a dual meditation on dice that will educate us and amuse us at the same time. 13 color photographs.

Customer Reviews:

Monograph of Dying Dice and Their Colorful History. .......2007-03-10

"Dice: Deception, Fate & Rotten Luck" is a collaboration between master slight-of-hand artist and scholar of peculiar human endeavor Ricky Jay and photographer Rosamond Purcell, whom Jay called upon to photograph his decaying dice collection. There are 21 photographs of dying dice, most full page, interspersed with Jay's spare text recounting the history of dice, from ancient civilization to the 20th century, through anecdotes about gamblers, the games they played, and, more often than not, how they cheated. From Jay's account, you might get the impression that historically more dice have been loaded than not. That is probably because the discussion is of the dice themselves, upon which cheating relies.

From the Persian woman who won the right to kill her enemy in a roll of the dice, to the 11th century King of Norway who won an island by a die that split in two mid-roll, through many an execution and suicide along the way, it's clear that dice have often been a matter of life and death. Now their own death is documented in Rosamond Purcell's strikingly beautiful photographs of misshapen, cracked, crystallized, and crumbling dice. As Jay explains in his final chapter "When a Die Dies", from the late 19th to mid-20th century, dice were typically made of cellulose nitrate, which decays rapidly after being stable for decades. These dice are more fascinating in their demise than in their prime. "Dice" is an intriguing little volume for fans of Ricky Jay, lovers of the game, and admirers of exquisite close-up photography.

Good Table Top Book.......2005-10-28

This is a fun and unusual Coffee Table Book, but I would really have like it to have a better (any) bibliography. My interest in history is such that I would have liked to know more then just the small amount of information this book provided.

[...]

A pleasant appetizer.......2003-05-13

This is a thin hardbound volume, a collection of photographs and short
discourses about various aspects of dice, gambling, and fraud. Each
chapter is very short (just a few pages) and the entire book can be
read in less than thirty minutes. Both the photographs and the text
are fascinating, and left this reader wanting more. I hope that Mr.
Jay will be writing more books to share his voluminous and interesting
knowledge of magic, gaming, and cons with the world. (Jay's other
books: Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women and Jay's
Journal of Anomalies are also highly recommended.)

Dying Dice.......2003-02-05

Though they may have passed the peak of their fad, fuzzy dice can still be seen hanging from the rear view mirrors of favored cars. They are an amusing bit of American folk surrealism, recalling the more official artworks of the fur-lined cup and saucer or the lobster telephone. The furry dice don't clack the way real dice do, and they are too huge and too rotund ever to be useful as mechanisms in games of chance. Yet they look strange enough that many people fancy them, and assembly lines somewhere are tuned up to produce them for enthusiasts. Conversely, there are real dice depicted in _Dice: Deception, Fate, & Rotten Luck_ (Quantuck Lane Press) by Ricky Jay, with photographs by Rosamond Purcell. But some of them are startlingly furry, and all of them are dying.

Ricky Jay is a magician, and a historian of magic, in addition to being a stage and movie actor. He has produced a couple of large books having to do with the history of magic and showmanship, but this is a small book, square like a face of a die, as are the color close-ups of the afflicted dice. "In the attempt to acquire empirical knowledge, I have accumulated thousands of dice over a period of decades," Jay explains. They are of all sorts of colors and patterns, but most of them are made of celluloid, the same celluloid whose decay has robbed us of countless early movies. Rosamond Purcell specializes in photographing the entropy that overcomes inanimate objects, like a book eaten by termites or rusting objects from the junkyard. Most of the large photographs here show the dice larger than life. The styles of their degeneration are diverse. The transparent ones show cracks through their mass, as if they have been dropped from a height. Some of the faces have crystallized, so that they look as if they have been sugared. Greenish mold seems to grow on some of them, while others seem to be bubbling from inside. Some of them have become as floppy as Dali's pocket watches, while others cleave crisply, leaving cubic fracture lines. Sometimes the spots are preserved, and sometimes it is the spots that have been attacked by time. They are certainly more interesting and more photogenic than they would have been when they were first manufactured.

It is to be expected that the text, in twelve small chapters numbered by pips on the dice, reflects Jay's wit and erudition. Here you can learn a lot of dice history, tales of loaded dice found in Pompeii, or of the conjuring dwarf who had no arms or legs, but manipulated dice in subtle ways. You can read about how God has struck down sacrilegious gamesters. Here is the legend of the Scandinavian kings throwing dice for territory, each throwing repeated boxcars until a surprising stroke (consistent with these pictures) gives a throw that beats a twelve. These are all good stories of the importance which many have felt for dice and their outcomes, and they are made poignant by the handsome photographs of just how chance and time have overtaken these humble cubes.

Another curious masterpiece from Ricky Jay.......2002-11-23

Ricky Jay, that connoisseur of all things shady, arcane, and marvelously odd, brings us yet another trip into the history of man's less than (ahem) socially respectable obsessions. With "Dice", he, in his ever unique style, tantalizes us with tales of one of the oldest gambling accessories known to man. And like the great magician and (very respectable) confidence artist that he is, he does it with smooth patter here, a bit of flashy historical anecdote there, while still never quite giving you all there is to know. Of course he keeps something hidden and to himself. It's in his blood and it makes you finish this slim volume wanting more, but in a good way. You'll go through this book in one sitting, but won't hesitate to reach back for it again and again -- or perhaps, to pick up a pair of dice and see what all this fuss over the centuries has been all about. Face it, pal, you've been sucked in, and you're in good (and bad) company.

Rosamund Wolff Purcell's beautiful color photographs of Jay's dice collection punctuate the text with amazing views and perspectives of the small and very much decaying bits of man's folly. They appear as ancient ruins, crumbling away with time, much in the manner of many a gentleman's fortune once he has found himself enticed by these small, six -sided devils. Marvelous art.

Book Description

The glitter and excitement that tourists associate with casinos is only a facade. To the gaming industry's front-line employees, its dealers, the casino is a far less glamorous environment, a workplace full of emotional tension, physical and mental demands, humor and pathos. Author H. Lee Barnes, who spent many years as a dealer in some of Las Vegas's best-known casinos, shows us this world from the point of view of the table-games dealer.

Told in the voices of dozens of dealers, male and female, young and old, Dummy Up and Deal takes us to the dealer's side of the table. We observe the "breaking in" that constitutes a dealer's training, where the hands learn the balletic motions of the game while the mind undergoes the requisite hardening to endure long hours of concentration and the demands of often unreasonable and sometimes abusive players. We discover how dealers are hired and assigned to shifts and tables, how they interact with each other and with their supervisors, and how they deal with players - the winners and the losers, the "Sweethearts" and the "Dragon Lady," the tourists looking for a few thrills and the mobsters showing off their "juice." We observe cheaters on both sides of the table and witness the exploits of such high-rollers as Frank Sinatra and Colonel Parker, Elvis's manager. And we learn about the dealers' lives after-hours, how some juggle casino work with family responsibilities while others embrace the bohemian lifestyle of the Strip and sometimes lose themselves to drugs, drink, or wild sex. It's a life that invites cynicism and bitterness, that can erode the soul and deaden the spirit. But the dealer's life can also offer moments of humor, encounters with generous and kindly players, moments of pride or humanity or professional solidarity.

Barnes writes with the candor of a keen observer of his profession, someone who has seen it all-many times-but has never lost his capacity to wonder, to sympathize, or to laugh. Dummy Up and Deal is a vivid and colorful insider's view of the casino industry, a fascinating glimpse behind the glitter into the real world of the casino worker.

Customer Reviews:

Brilliant writing and an insiders pov at gambling.......2002-11-04

This wonderful collection of non-fiction accounts on the other side of the table is a true and accurate look at what makes the casinos tick: not the people who come with the money, but the people who take it. Lee Barnes has a gift and it is to conjure so many voices into one cohesive book. It is funny, sad, and terrible. If you ever wanted to know who lives in Las Vegas, read this.

Talented author without heart.......2002-10-20

Though the writer is obviously gifted, and the stories are without a doubt amusing and accurately detailed, the author seems distant from his characters.

The author seems to stay un-involved and to coldly inspect his subjects as though they were fireflies in Mason jars, or butterflies on pins.

The writing is superb, but the lack of involvment in the characters inner workings and lives, leaves these stories sounding like a girlfriend repeating a soap opera in the office, to someone who missed an episode.

I'll lay off with these last words. The author should look into his own heart and write real, breathing characters, not try to bring to life cardboard cutouts. No matter how excellent it is, it must heart. This book does not have heart, though it does have plenty of good writing.

24/7: Living It Up and Doubling Down in the New Las Vegas
Average customer rating:

Worthwhile but it Could Have Been Better.

Love it!!

Very enjoyable.

Great Premise, great Writing, but story drags on.....

Engaging but dated material

24/7: Living It Up and Doubling Down in the New Las Vegas
Andres Martinez
Manufacturer: Villard Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: B0000AA9KF

Amazon.com

Perhaps the most fun of a bushel of books about the "new" Las Vegas, 24/7 is as surreal and addictive as a hot game of blackjack at 4 a.m. In this first-person chronicle of a month in Las Vegas, Andrés Martinez whirls through casinos and hotels with his $50,000 book advance, taking notes on characters, nightclubs, and hotel lobbies between wild betting sprees at the blackjack table or roulette wheel.

Part of what makes 24/7 enjoyable is the fact that Martinez is no down-and-out gambler, but a former lawyer with an Ivy League pedigree whose main vice seems to be an addiction to Diet Coke. He takes to his exploits with the intoxication of someone released from dull routine, without ever falling down on the job. As a result, he's never too delirious to note the weirdest details of this desert mirage. It's a city "where buildings themselves perform," lined with such features as a Jules Verne theme park, erupting volcanoes, and battling pirate ships. Early on, the author gets philosophical: "What type of city did we build in the middle of a desert, a metropolis with no reason, beyond our willpower and playful imagination, to exist?" Anyone who's ever asked themselves the same question will satisfy their curiosity with this entertaining, firsthand view of the fastest-growing city in America. --Maria Dolan

Book Description

In April 1998, Andrés Martinez withdrew fifty thousand dollars from the bank--most of the advance he was paid for this book--and boarded a plane to the fastest-growing metropolis in America: Las Vegas. Armed with a wad of traveler's checks, Martinez spent a month within the belly of the beast. 24/7 is the round-the-clock chronicle of his wild ride through America's neon Gomorrah.

Every chapter--each is named after one of the fabled hotels where Martinez holed up with his bankroll--is a fly-on-the-wall view of a different aspect of Las Vegas. From the sumptuous Bellagio to the off-Strip grind joints that cater to local addicts, 24/7 evokes a city that is both human and larger than life.

We are introduced to the people who work in, pass through, and thrive on Vegas: a minister who shines shoes at a topless joint, a school superintendent who must build a new facility every twenty-eight days, and a water czar who covets her neighbors' share of the Colorado River. Martinez hobnobs with conventioneers, befriends a professional sports gambler who raised six kids while losing eight million dollars, and dines with a retired Israeli "security officer" whose lifelong ambition was to move to Vegas and become a blackjack guru. Martinez wanders into the Liberace Museum, attends Easter Sunday mass in the Strip cathedral of the world's most rapidly expanding Catholic archdiocese, and ponders the meaning of it all with Vegas's leading historians.

Interwoven throughout are dispatches from the green-felt front. Martinez laces his blood with adrenaline in an exhilarating all-night session of baccarat with some well-heeled Chinese and idles over slots with an abandoned bride. Above all, he goes mano a mano at blackjack--learning the ropes from his dealer, gathering tricks of the trade from his breakfast companions, and experiencing the angst of Dostoevsky and the sheer ecstasy of the triumphal gambler.

Thought-provoking, hilarious, personal, and journalistically brilliant, 24/7 is a rush of a read, a head-on exploration of a unique American landscape.

Customer Reviews:

Worthwhile but it Could Have Been Better........2006-04-10

24/7 sounds like an adrenaline and hormone ride, but it actually isn't. Andres Martinez is a middle class, stable guy who is given $50,000 by a publisher and told to go to Las Vegas and gamble it up or down. What he makes in profit he gets to keep. I won't ruin the plot for you, but Martinez plays a great deal of baccarat and blackjack along with some slots and a single game of poker. As a narrator, he seems like a kind man whose decency, unfortunately, detracts from the story's value. Everything's pretty tame here, and for those of us who read books as a way to vicariously escape our own moderation, it's more bourgeois than ideal. Martinez is strongest when talking about his own childhood in Mexico or about The World Cup. He's weakest and annoying when talking politics. He appears to have all the usual biases of the mainstream press. Indeed, he views "libertarian" as a pejorative even though a careful study of his former country would prove to him the extent in which socialism impoverishes the masses.

One problem that I should mention is that the book is now dated. Oh, it wouldn't be if it were written about any other city, but 1999, in Vegas years, was four decades ago. Many of his observations, such as those about the former mayor, have little application to the present. Much has changed since 2000 and the changes will continue ad infinitum. I do have to say though that the sections on baccarat were educational and very entertaining. It's a game of which most of us small timers know absolutely nothing. Another reason for my mild recommendation is that the role of casino host, such as the one he had at the Luxor, is really fleshed out. We see their tremendous dedication their clients here. The hosts, like the high stakes gaming areas, are another side to Vegas which most of us rarely see.

Love it!!.......2006-01-23

I read this when I need a Vegas fix. If you like Vegas or casino gambling you will love this book. This is the reality show of books. Martinez go head to head with the casinos and experiences the up and downs of a real gambler. Enjoying the high of winning and the despair of losing.

Very enjoyable........2005-01-16

Its a cliche but the phrase "A great read" is applicable. Book is entertaining throughout, one that I reread a few years later and enjoyed equally the second time around. Mr Martinez is one of the few writers that captures the adrenaline of Las Vegas, the feeling of non-stop action.
You won't be disappointed.

Great Premise, great Writing, but story drags on............2005-01-13

I just read this book after it being recommended by a dealer. I play pretty high stakes baccarat and BJ and when in Vegas live those crazy hours. I was extremely excited when I first bought the book and read the plot outline and the first few pages. However it begins to drag on far too long when he spends time with people like conventioneers. It is pretty surprising that he had such wild swings in his bankroll, at times he'd be down 10-20 grand and come back with a couple thousand dollars left. There wasn't enough about a "wild time" in Vegas in my opinion, it seems his stay while nice because his free bankroll, was fairly dull in many ways.

Engaging but dated material.......2004-09-08

The obvious question is "Why didn't I think of this first?" I guess the answer to that question is my lack of hubris to ask a publisher for a $50,000 advance to go casino hopping for a month. However, one lucky author did ask and subsequently produce a very engaging work describing the people, the casinos, and the city of Las Vegas.

As I booked my next trip to Las Vegas (this time for New Year's Eve), my next moves were, in this order, purchasing the newest edition of Bob Sehlinger's indispensable Unofficial Guide to Las Vegas and picking up this book for a re-read. As with the first reading, this book is hard to put down. You truly become involved in the work, cheering on the author during his gambling escapades, feeling empathy for the characters he meets, and trying to conjure up mental pictures of the experience.

Unfortunately, due to the fast growth and pace of Las Vegas, the book is dated. In a way, Chapter 2 doesn't exist anymore, as it's setting, the Desert Inn, was imploded October 23, 2001. His trip was before some of the Strip's defining megaresorts (Bellagio, Venetian, Mandalay Bay) were opened. (He does include a postscript about attending the opening weekend of the Bellagio.) An updated version is out of the question, as the book depends so much on the twist that he is making is very first pilgrimage to the city.

Therefore, the years have moved my current rating of this book from five to four stars. The book was written in a speculative time in the city's history, immediately before the rush of the forementioned megaresorts onto the scene, and Martinez reflects this uncertainty through open-ended writing. However, we now know the answers to his questions, leaving this work on the brink of irrelevancy. Nonetheless as the years pass, this book will be an interesting description of a moment in the city's history, even as more chapters of the book are imploded.

Native Pathways: American Indian Culture And Economic Development In The Twentieth Century

Average customer rating:

Native Pathways: American Indian Culture And Economic Development In The Twentieth Century

Manufacturer: University Press of Colorado
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Economic History | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Modern Tribal Development: Paths to Self-Sufficiency and Cultural Integrity in Indian Country (Contemporary Native American Communities)
Planning for Balanced Development: A Guide for Native American and Rural Communities
The Invasion of Indian Country in the Twentieth Century: American Capitalism and Tribal Natural Resources
Forgotten Tribes: Unrecognized Indians and the Federal Acknowledgment Process
Cash, Color, And Colonialism: The Politics Of Tribal Acknowledgment

ASIN: 0870817752

Book Description

Contributors to Native Pathways ponder questions about American Indians' participation in the broader market U.S. market highlighting how indigenous peoples have simultaneously adopted capitalist strategies and altered them to suit their own distinct cultural beliefs and practices. Including contributions from historians, anthropologists, and sociologists, Native Pathways offers fresh viewpoints on economic change and cultural identity in twentieth-century Native American communities.

Contributors:
David Arnold
William J. Bauer
Tressa Berma
Jessica R. Cattelino
Duane Champagne
Clyde Ellis
Chris Paci
Lisa Krebs
David LaVere
Kathy M'Closkey
Nicolas G. Rosenthal
Paul C. Rosier
Jeffrey P. Shepherd

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