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

By Richard Marcus

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312291396
• ISBN13: 9780312291396
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Cool Under Pressure? These Guys Are Icebergs!

As a big fan of caper movies and con stories (Ocean's 11, The Thomas Crown Affair, Catch Me if You Can), I can enthusiastically recommend American Roulette. Richard Marcus (most likely not his real name, in fact, the name is the same as that of the actor in a TV series called The Pretender) tells of his successful career as a casino cheat. He started as a garden-variety gambler, lost all his money, found himself homeless...

Better than Mezrich or Abagnale

American Roulette is a fascinating read. As a fan of true crime/adventure stories like Ben Mezrich's recent bestseller Bringing Down The House and Frank Abagnale's Catch Me If You Can, I was eager to pick up American Roulette as soon as I heard about it. The true story of Richard Marcus' 25 year career as a casino cheater, American Roulette presents itself in a straightforward manner, similar to Frank Abagnale or Nicholas...

Gripping and fun

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...

Vicarious Thrills

After seeing the author featured on Entertainment Tonight, and reading Howard Schwartz's review on CasinoCityTimes.com, I picked up this fascinating memoir. I found it pleasingly reminiscent of Catch Me If You Can, another highly recommended title in which a con man through ingenuity and boldness exploits various cracks in a system for profit and excitement. While Richard Marcus's "moves" are certainly clever, especially...

The BEST Casino Cheating Book Ever!

I thought that I knew everything about casino cheating. Boy was I wrong.This book really informed and enlightened me. It's nice to see the casinos lose for a while. Next time I go to Las Vegas I'm not going to forget to pack this must read.