Rating: 
Summary: entertaining autobiography of a casino cheater
Review: This book tells the author's story of how he lost everything he had gambling, took a crappy job as shill--promoted to baccarat dealer--at the Four Queens in Las Vegas, and then had the opportunity to join a group of gambling cheaters and thieves. The cheating moves described in the book are mostly "pastposting"--placing high bets after the outcome is known by swapping in a new stack of chips for the ones previously bet. The trick is that high-value chips are concealed underneath low-value chips, and the cheater often has to issue a "claim" by pointing out to the dealer that he's been underpaid for the bet. The book begins and ends with a move he calls the "Savannah" which is an opposite maneuver--a high bet is placed, with the high-value chips concealed by lower-value chips, and if the bet loses, the high-value chips are pulled off. With that move, the winning bets are legitimate and surveillance tapes show that the high-value chips were there all along.
The group also would occasionally make money with other scams, like "railing"--stealing directly out of the chip racks of their fellow players. They also narrowly avoid getting involved in a card-marking scheme, violating their own rules of not using any specialized equipment that could be incriminating.
The book is most interesting for the characters involved and how they dealt with "steam" from the casinos when they caught on to what was happening.
The author appears to have no guilt or remorse for his actions on the grounds that casinos are regularly "stealing" from people every day (though that certainly doesn't justify the thefts directly from other gamblers, and ignores that gamblers are willing participants who know the odds are stacked against them).
I read _Bringing Down the House_ about the MIT Blackjack Team about a year and a half ago, and the comparison between the teams is interesting--the MIT team's methodology was far more sophisticated (and wasn't technically cheating), but both had to use similar psychological techniques.
It's surprising that the casinos didn't come up with better countermeasures quickly (a rule that there are no payouts for high-value chips not announced in advance, for example), but I find Marcus' overall tale quite plausible, in part because of the factors he points out in the last few pages of the book--"practically all casino jobs are monotonous" (p. 369). The boredom results in lack of attention and the jobs' high turnover results in inexperienced people up against very experienced cheaters.
Rating: 
Summary: Gripping and fun
Review: This hugely entertaining book takes the reader through casinos across the world with a group of nervy and sophisticated roulette cheats. The brisk narrative follows the career of Richard Marcus from his adolescent wanderings, through his tutelage by an older casino cheat, and into his formation and leadership of an expert roulette crew. Close calls are many, mistakes are costly and rewards are great.
I have no opinion on the veracity of Mr. Marcus's story, but I know an entertaining book when I read one. This is an exhilarating read!
Rating:
Summary: A con man's fascinating tale of ripping off casinos
Review: Whenever a con man writes his memoirs, I always wonder if the reader is being conned too. What are the odds that Marcus has embellished his story to sell more books? In any case, this was a hard book to put down. Richard Marcus claims he earned a good living as a professional casino cheat, and although dealers and security staff frequently caught him and banned him from many casinos, he was never arrested. Marcus worked as part of a team using sleight-of-hand in which low value chips were replaced with high value chips while playing roulette and blackjack. Marcus portrays himself as a sort of honorable gentleman-thief. Even if he can rationalize stealing from casinos, how does he rationalize stealing from other players (another one of his tricks)? The author's low blow was when he framed an innocent player for cheating, leading to the innocent player being taken away in handcuffs. If the author wanted to gain my admiration, he failed miserably, but he has written an entertaining page-turner.
| 
