Rating: 
Summary: great book
Review: a rip-roaring read, very funny, with a lot to say about "old" and "new" Vegas and the vanishing wiseguys
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good
Review: A very good look at its subject. Entertaining and insightful and understands the bettor's mentality (who among us hasn't said a little prayer to the effect of 'just let me win this one bet and then I'll slow down?'). I especially liked the insights into how the daily lines were set.My only small criticism of the book is the narrative never really 'gets off the ground'. It kind of circles like a journal. If I didn't find the topic so fascinating this may have bothered me more than it did. Otherwise, I strongy recommended to anyone with even a passing interest in sports gambling.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good but....
Review: An excellent well-read and researched book that shows that Millman has done his homework. Everything from the profile of the Stardust and their sports book manager, to quotes from the Mirage's first sports book operator Vaccaro, to the origination of the Don Best line service. The only problem with the book is the attention that is given to some of his "Gamblers" in the book. He wasted a good portion of his book on a kid handicapper who fires parlays and actually thinks he can win in the long run and was woefully unprepared about how Vegas books operate. But he is an interesting character, as is the professional who is skilled and makes a ton of money, but has traded off lonliness for greed.....Millman has shown that the majority of the degenerates lose their money because they have no idea how to seperate greed from handicapping, and how not to get to high on wins and too low on losses. Millman's perspective on Vegas history of the handicappers and the ones who try to set the line to beat them is top notch. Also is his astute observation that the end of Vegas being the center of the betting universe for sports is now, thanks to weak hypocritical internet gaming laws in Nevada and the US (Carribean-mostly Costa Rica). Readers will like Bob Stupo, who runs the Stardust, as he battles the public and takes loses personally. Sadly, Millman;s book is named correctly, as the more Casinos have become corporate, the more they have not allowed gamblers to actually gamble, limiting single game bets to 5 and 10k limits (except Super Bowl) which were considered small time wagers not that long ago. Also a good book to get is Art MAnteris's Super Bookie from 1991.
Rating: 
Summary: Yuck
Review: As someone who loves to go to Vegas once or twice a year, primarily to bet on sports, I thought I'd like this book, but, in my view, it was awful. The characters the author picked to study were not at all interesting, they were just scum -- including the sports book managers. In fact, scum like this is why i avoid the Stardust like the plague. Scum like this is also why the NCAA wants Congress to ban betting on college sports, which will be a shame for those of us who aren't scum and who just want to enjoy betting on college hoops or pigskins every now and then. This book is a downer and time-waster -- avoid it like you'd avoid the Stardust sports book.
Rating:
Summary: A masterful documentary of the sports gambling culture
Review: Chad Millman has written the book I had always dreamed of writing since my days in the Stardust sports book sharing nachos and hotdogs with the homeless, deadbroke souls who made it their home. I could not put this book down and read it in one night. It hit home with enormous impact since I knew in person or by reputation most of the main characters in book. I grieve for Joe Lupo and Alan Boston for their soon to be lost way of life. I have witnessed first hand the death of the Las Vegas Millman so touchingly pays tribute to and am grateful that Millman captured the last battle in the war in Vegas between Wiseguys and Bookmakers across the counter. Even if one is not familiar with the subject matter, the book is still a must read. It is a roadmap of what pumps blood in the veins of young college educated affluent Americans in their spare time. An entire generation has become obssessed with gambling on the stock market and on sports and Millman interweaves the book with psychological insights on why people gamble and why risk takers who win are so revered in American pop culture. Lastly, Millman takes a shot at the hypocrisy of Congress and the NCAA. Reading about their attempts at stemming the tide of young sports bettors with legislation outlawing college gambling in Las Vegas (which accounts for less than 1% of the total wagering handle on sports betting) leaves one with the distinct impression that lawmakers are bumbling into a "New Prohibition" where government should be regulating and making taxes from sports gambling, instead of only protecting lotteries and casino gambling which gives gamblers no mathematical chance at ever beating the house.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and Scary
Review: Good book. Shows Vegas from many different angles. I read the whole thing in one weekend. If you like gambling or are curious about Vegas in general, you'll enjoy The Odds. My ONLY complaint is I wanted more insight on how the bookies set the odds for the games. I'm sure that information is not made public, however.
Rating:
Summary: Was ok
Review: i lived in vegas during this time and as a 23 year old sports gambler i can say the author could have done a better job describing the atmosphere and lifestlyes a little better than he did because he makes it sound too dreary, it is a lot better than that. other than that it was ok if u know nothing about betting in vegas.
Rating:
Summary: Odds on Favorite
Review: I read the book in two sittings and enjoyed it throughly. The characters were fleshed out nicely and you could actually feel yourself rooting for them in some instances knowing all the while that a "normal" person would never have the guts to lay down the bets that they have made. Contempt and jealously were common emotions I felt as I read them, and as I am planning a trip to Las Vegas in the next few weeks I will be toting the book looking for autographs. This is truly a very good read and if you have interest in sports betting and Las Vegas I can't see how you could go wrong in purchasing this.
Rating:
Summary: Great Read! Felt like I was there!
Review: I thought this was a very good book that not only gives you a feeling of being in Las Vegas sweating out the games or more precisely the bets, but it also educates the reader to the many changes in sports wagering with a little history lesson. I read it in only two readings because I could not put it down. My biggest letdown from the book is when it ended. I wanted to read more! I wanted more true stories to feel the exitement of winning as well as the sickening feeling of losing a bet in the last few seconds of a game to a freak play. The book leaves the reader thnking maybe I do not know as much as I think I do about betting sports. The games fall squarely on the lines so often it is scary. If the wise guys can not beat the lines studying information and trends as a full time job, how can I possibly do it over the long run committed to a family and working a full time job. I only found a few editing mistakes where the team did not cover the spread but our guy was stated to have a winning ticket. Not enough to take away from the realism or to be too distracting. No gambler really tells the truth all the times. It would have been a little better if we knew how much the bettors really lost or won, the book was a little vague in that area. It only stated the our guys had had a very bad two months.
But to finish positively, It was a great read and one I will pass on to my best of friends.
Rating: 
Summary: Some good details, but kind of weak otherwise
Review: Indifferently written and poorly edited, this brief book about three sports gamblers in Las Vegas never really lives up to its potential. There are a few interesting details and insider tidbits here and there, but on the whole, the enterprise feels a bit rushed and incomplete. Millman tries to mix a broad overview of the history of sports gambling with the individual stories of three men over the course of the 1999-2000 football and basketball seasons, but ends up giving short shrift to both. We get a shallow history of how sports gambling's shady roots, gradual move into the light in Vegas, its meteoric rise over the last several decades, and in recent years its near total transition to internet operations based in the Caribbean. Millman continually implies that the increase availability of televised sports-especially via ESPN-was the direct cause of increased sports gambling. But then he also continually implies that increased viewership and ratings have been due to increased interest in sports from casual sports bettors. This is kind of a chicken and egg type argument, and since neither position is backed up by anything other than anecdotal data, its hard to lend either much credence. Still, even though his larger themes aren't particularly well thought out, Millman does better at explaining some of the details of sports wagering. The most important of these is "the line," which he explains as not how much better one team is than another, but rather as a number that will attract maximum betting on both sides. A "weak" line is one that "wiseguys" (professional sports gamblers) think is drastically wrong and worth putting a lot of money on, which then causes the line to "move". As in any industry or subculture, there's plenty of insider slang for Millman to spread around and keep things somewhat lively. Millman builds his investigation of Vegas sports betting around three men: a high-roller "wiseguy", a wannabe newcomer to the scene from Indiana, and a young bookmaker on the fast track at The Stardust. Unfortunately, none of them come across as all that interesting individuals. The high-roller is kind of manic and obsessive, the wannabe is a pothead loser, and the bookmaker gets lost in the shuffle as Millman concentrates on his higher profile bosses who have a lot more stories to tell. And while Millman tries hard to show the adversarial relationship between bettors and bookmakers as a cunning battle of wits between men who are both obsessive and honorable, it never really comes across as anything more than pathetic. Millman's tries hard to summon some reader sympathy for the "end of an era," as sports betting moves online, but since none of the old-timers seems particularly happy, we're left to wonder why we should be particularly bothered. All in all, a disappointing book.
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