I took my time reading this book, in fact I started reading it over a year ago. It is interesting with lots of stats and figures but it isn’t exactly light reading. It was published in 2003 so a lot of the facts need updating, such as croupiers not being able to take tips in the UK which is no longer the case, but it is still interesting nonetheless. The author makes a lot of good points such as on page 132, with 57 percent of adults having purchased a scratch card for 11-15 years old, and it rising to 71 percent when it comes to lottery tickets, it means that more than half of adults in the UK have broken the law.
The book is broken down into five chapters – Culture, World, History, Health and Money. As the title of the chapters suggest, it does cover a wide range of gambling related topics including famous gamblers, how gambling has changed through the ages, the way it affects society, addiction, and how to cheat at gambling.
As someone who works in the gambling industry and having always been a gambler I found a lot of it familiar territory but it would be equally enlightening for anyone who is interested in finding out more about any aspect of gambling.
Favourite quotes from the book:
“[Gambling is] the apparent desire to accept the certainty of losing money in the long run in return for the remote possibility of winning it in the short.” – Bernard Levin
“The reason he is called Sky is because he goes so high when it comes to betting on any proposition whatever. He will bet all that he has, and nobody can bet any more than that.” – Damon Runyon, page 185, quote at the start of the additional info chapter.
“For now, if you’re going to gamble, the advice remains the same. Be solvent. Be informed. Be careful. If all else fails, be lucky.” – Nick Constable, page 187, last lines of the book.
Overall: 82%