American Roulette: How I Turned the Odds Upside Down---My Wild Twenty-Five-Year Ride Ripping Off the World's Casinos

by Richard Marcus

In American Roulette , Richard Marcus tells his never-before-heard story, of ripping off casinos. The book follows Marcus, along with several of the world's great professional casino cheaters, as he travels from Las Vegas to London and Monte Carlo, pilfering large sums of money from casinos by performing sleight of hand magic tricks with gaming chips. As skilled cheaters, they back up their moves with psychological setups to convince pit bosses that they're watching legitimate high rollers getting lucky, while in fact they're being ripped off blind.

With the exploding growth of casino gambling, heightened by Indian reservation and riverboat expansion, more and more elaborate casino cheaters are illegally assaulting the green-felt, getting rich off of novice casino personnel. Richard Marcus's insider story is a window into the hidden world of intriguing personalities and tense situations he encounters as a member of expert casino-cheating teams who use their wits to turn the odds upside down and "earn" millions. American Roulette is a fascinating story not only for those who occasionally casino-gamble, but for everyone with a little larceny in their heart.

Genres: Nonfiction, Crime

384 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2003

Reviews

[RiskingTime · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wonder how much the gambling layperson will enjoy reading American Roulette? The book recounts the casino cheating career of "Richard Marcus", who was a past posting casino cheat. Marcus masters the art of past posting roulette and sometimes blackjack. Along with his team, he sets up pit bosses and dealers, by switching higher denomination chips under winning bets. Eventually the team uses a reverse past post, where the big bet is taken away instead of being added. The reverse past post greatly reduced security heat and increased the team’s win rate.

For gamblers, the book provides a fairly detailed explanation of various casino cheating techniques. Although, I would have enjoyed learning more about how the team laundered their winnings, and more about their money management strategies.

The book is divided into chronological chapters where different eras of Marcus' cheating are recounted. The most interesting part of the book for the student of casino history is the chapters that outline the development of the Classon gang. This chapter tells the story of a grizzly old gambler from New York named Mumbles who begins past posting craps in San Juan, and who eventually moves to Las Vegas to perfect his "lay and claim" technique.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. It’s well written (I assume “Richard Marcus” is a pseudonym, and the book is ghost written) and the stories are suspenseful and generally exciting. In order to win a living as a casino cheat, one must have nothing to lose. Although little is said about the author’s childhood, I assume it was pretty rough, and his family relationships are pretty bad. If you have anything to lose, read this book after work, but show up the next day to your job on time :)

[Samantha Shain · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I will ALWAYS remember this book. The characters were captivating, the writing "propulsive" (lol so cliche) and the stories were larger than life. I think anyone who is not deeply interested in scams might find some parts of it repetitive, but I did not because the chapters built on each other and continually pushed the envelope. The writing was fun, too, introducing me to new vocab.

[Lee Crane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story telling by the writer. Loads of details about his adventures beating casinos all over. Not too much unnecessary detail which can bog a book down. This one flowed nicely and turned into a real page turner.

[Calum · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read. The author's attempts to glorify and justify their cheating is sort of grating, and some of his references to women are cringe-inducing, but overall I enjoyed the book.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never thought I'd be interested in reading about a man and his friends cheating casinos the world wide. A well told story that held my interest.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

American Roulette by Richard Marcus is not what I would call a good book, but it is a good story.
Let's face it, the guy is a casino pastposter (one who swaps a larger bet in after it wins), not an author. The book is entertaining, but frankly gets a little old after a while. There's only so much "Then we went to this other casino, put in a few moves, they didn't have a clue, ha, ha, and then we went to another one..." you can take before it gets repetitive. His brushes with "the steam" in the back rooms of casino are probably the most interesting parts. He also tells some good stories about pastposting history as he knows it. If you can pick it up at a library, it's worth a read just to get a glimpse of life on the dark side. But I wouldn't pay money for it (unless I was a casino owner!).

[Aaron · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is why ghostwriters exist. In the right hands, this could have been a really interesting book, but if you can't write, just admit it and work with someone that can. Marcus gets too technical, so inside-baseball that you can no longer understand what he's talking about, and there's just way too much outright gloating and 'yeah, baby, who's awesome? This guy right here'. A good story ruined.

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

After working in a local casino for almost 2 years, I have always been interested in the mind of the player, and how some seem to make their own odds. This book is a great autobiography of the author and his partners life of cheating casinos world wide over 25 yrs. If you enjoy learning about a gamblers lifestyle, this book is a good read.

[Mex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely thrilling. AND I learned some practical (legal) roulette skills.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learn lots of ways to cheat the casino

[Jay Tate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. You have to wonder how much of the tale is true. It's like Catch Me if you Can, for gamblers. Really good gamblers.