He played in casinos around the world with a plan to make himself richer than anyone could possibly imagine -- but it would nearly cost him his life.

Semyon Dukach was known as the Darling of Las Vegas. A legend at age twenty-one, this cocky hotshot was the biggest high roller to appear in Sin City in decades, a mathematical genius with a system the casinos had never seen before and couldn't stop -- a system that has never been revealed until now; that has nothing to do with card counting, wasn't illegal, and was more powerful than anything that had been tried...

Is this a great country or what?

You can bet on the turn of the card or a roll of the dice, but also on the NFL, the NCAA, and which Olsen twin marries first. We bet $80 billion 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 and convenient as our neighborhood cineplex. If there's not a casino around the corner, there's one on your laptop computer.

In Jackpot Nation, Richard Hoffer takes us on a headlong tour, alternately horrifying and...

A history and analysis of gambling in the United States from bingo to state lotteries to Indian gaming and the rise of Las Vegas, this book reveals how we have become a nation of gamblers and what the future holds for the gambling industry. From the colonial era to the present, Americans have enjoyed a love-hate relationship with gambling. It is a pastime that has gone from sin to recreational activity, and an industry that has moved from control by organized crime to management by executives with MBAs. While gaming is one of the nation's fastest-growing industries, Barker and Britz...

Although most people believe that winning in casinos is a matter of luck, video poker actually gives you an opportunity to make decisions. The problem is that most people simply don't know how to make smart playing moves--or they didn't until now. In this book, author and gambling expert Linda Boyd offers a user-friendly guide that helps you gain the winning edge over video poker machines.

The Video Poker Edge first explains the basics of video poker, and introduces you to eight common video poker games that pay well and are easy to play. For each...

Using a rich variety of historical sources, Suzanne Morton traces the history of gambling regulation in five Canadian provinces - Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and B.C. - from the First World War to the federal legalization in 1969. This regulatory legislation, designed to control gambling, ended a long period of paradox and pretence during which gambling was common, but still illegal.

Morton skilfully shows the relationship between gambling and the wider social mores of the time, as evinced by labour, governance, and the regulation of 'vice.' Her focus on the ways in...

In 1956 two Bell Labs scientists discovered the scientific formula for getting rich. One was mathematician Claude Shannon, neurotic father of our digital age, whose genius is ranked with Einstein's. The other was John L. Kelly Jr., a Texas-born, gun-toting physicist. Together they applied the science of information theory--the basis of computers and the Internet--to the problem of making as much money as possible, as fast as possible.

Shannon and MIT mathematician Edward O. Thorp took the "Kelly formula" to Las Vegas. It worked. They realized that there was even more money to be made...

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...

How To Gamble At The Casinos Without Getting Plucked Like A Chicken, gives expert advice on Casino Gambling in a light-hearted manner. It advises readers on which games give them the best possibilities and how to play them correctly.

It covers all major casino games: Blackjack, Video Poker, Craps, Baccarat, Pai Gow Poker, Slot Machines, Keno, Big Six Wheel, Roulette, Sports Book, Caribbean Stud Poker, Three Card Poker, Let it Ride, War and miscellaneous promotional games. It contains explanations of mathematical percentages, Gambler's Ruin, Money Management and Gambling Systems....