Alan Jay Zaremba

Every spring, the first four days of the NCAA mens basketball tournament attracts a horde of basketball bettors to Las Vegas. From the tip-off of the tournaments first game on Thursday morning to the final whistle on Sunday, throngs of bettors overwhelmingly male sit in smoky casinos obsessively watching as many as forty-eight college basketball games. This book immerses readers in that action. In The Madness of March: Bonding and Betting with the Boys in Las Vegas, Alan Jay Zaremba travels to The Strip and gives us a front-row view of the betting culture that surrounds the frenzied first weekend of the tournament. Alternating between humorous accounts of gamblersÃââ exploits and cultural theories on sports in society, Zaremba provides an engaging analysis of the sporting ritual that such gambling has become. With forays into the history of the tournament, the background of sports betting, and a little betting of his own, Zaremba raises the question of whether this subculture of March Madness is a blessing or a curse and what, finally, it all means.

Greg Gift, originally from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a former poker player who found joy and profit in sports handicapping, primarily in football betting, particularly the pros, specializes in betting and the teaching of how to bet the underdog. His book, Winning NFL Totals Strategy was extremely popular in the 1980s.

Jack has penned an autobiography titled Gentleman Jack NewtonâConfessions of a Crossroad Gambler (180 pages, paper bound, $14.95). Itâs a great book about the âgood old days" of gambling. The man whoâs seen it and done it all in more than 60 years at the tables joins his publisher in telling some amazing stories that didn't make it into the book.

In this broadcast Howard interviews Bill Zender, a leading authority
on of casino management and game protection and a gaming operations
consultant. Zender is the author of several books, including two on
blackjack and two on pai gow, both tiles and poker. A former member of
the Nevada Gaming Control Board in the Division of Enforcement; He
also headed the Aladdin Hotel/casino in Las Vegas, worked as Asian
games manager at the now defunct Desert Inn in Las Vegas, and is a
professional card counter. He's rather passionate about how the
casinos treat players, particularly with regard to blackjack. As the
owner of Last Resort Consulting, he now travels extensively to
provide his insight and assistance to gaming venues throughout the
world.

Jeff Hwang is a semi-professional poker player and an investment analyst who regularly writes about the gaming industry for the Motley Fool, a well known website about stocks and investing. A graduate of Washington University in St. Louis with a B.S./B.A. in both finance and management, Jeff has been an advantage player since 1999, when he took an interest in blackjack. After he graduated college, Jeff picked up poker, and he has been playing semi-professionally ever since. His regular lineup includes Pot-Limit Omaha and Omaha Hi/Lo, with the occasional No-Limit Hold'em game. The material in this book is the result of playing various Omaha games nearly exclusively for over eighteen months, both live and online. Jeff lived in St. Louis and spends time in Fort Lauderdale, Washington, D.C., and on the road the rest. He is currently pursuing a MBA at UNLV in Las Vegas, NV and can be seen playing at the Wynn frequently

If you've never tried Pot-Limit Omaha, you're missing out on the most exciting, most lucrative cash game around. Omaha has long been the most popular form of poker in Europe, and now it's spreading like wildfire throughout North America. The reason is simpleâ Omaha offers more action and bigger pots than Texas Hold'em. Isn't it time you got in on it?

Whether you're a cash-game professional or poker hobbyist-and whether you play live or online-this book will arm you with a winning big-play strategy that's easy to master even if you've never played Omaha before. You'll discover the subtle distinctions that set Omaha above other games.

Key topics includeâ
â The Big Play Objectives
â The Power of the Big Draw
â Straight Draws and Starting Hand Construction
â Playing the Position Game
â Limit Omaha Hi/Lo and Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo

Complete with practice situations and hand quizzes, this is the most comprehensive Omaha book available-and the only one you'll ever need.

Looy Simonoff is a well known magical inventor who makes Las Vegas his home. Looy's popular effect, "Earth Shoes,"  was performed twice daily on the Las Vegas Strip by Mack King. Looy taught a magic class at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, his works have been widely published in the books of Harry Lorayne, Allan Ackerman and Paul Harris, and he is a Professor Emeritus in the math department.
If you ever ask him how he is doing, he will give you his signature "Terrible,Terrible"

Ron Humble

Frank Nitti has been one of the most elusive figures in American criminal history, but Ron Humble has captured him within the pages of this impressive book.. A in-depth study of a major gangland figure--from the real man to the pulp-fiction persona, it's all here in this compelling biography...a staggering piece of research.

Frank The Enforcer Nitti is arguably the most glamorized gangster in history. He was an infamous Chicago wiseguy who eventually rose to command the city's premier underworld organization--The Outfit. Though he has been widely mentioned in fictional works, this is the first book to document Nitti's real-life criminal career alongside his pop culture persona, with special chapters devoted to the many television shows, movies, and songs featuring Nitti. Author Ronald Humble chronicles The Enforcer's beginnings in New York's Navy Street Boys to his position as Al Capone's second-in-command and eventual leadership of the outfit, with bodies piling up along the way.

Prizefighting: An American History by Arne K. Lang

This work brings a fresh perspective to the study of modern prizefighting, a sport which has evolved over several centuries to become one of mankindâs most lasting and valued sporting attractions. With his primary focus outside the ropes, the author shows how organizers, publicity agents, and political allies overcame both legal and moral roadblocks to make fisticuffing a lively commercial enterprise.

      In this episode, two notable gambling authors sit in an talk about sports betting & poker: Reed Hogben MD, author of THE BETTING DOCTOR, and the newly-released e-book, THE BETTING DOCTOR: THE ESSENTIALS.

Nick Christenson, co-author WINNING STRATEGIES FOR NO-LIMIT HOLD'EM

Related: Craps 101 by Michael Skaff PhD

Joe Walsh, who wrote the legendary gambling movie California Split. He also is the author of a new book, Gambler on the Loose.

Alan Schoonmaker PhD, whose books on the use of psychology at the poker table always reach bestseller status at our store. His latest work is Your Best Poker Friend.

Lou Krieger, a local poker expert and author of several valuable books on poker including Hold'em Excellence, More Hold'em Excellence, and Poker For Dummies. Krieger's writings can be found at loukrieger.blogspot.com.

Rolf Slotboom visited our booth at the WSOP as well. It was interesting to learn more about this popular Dutch poker pro & author.

John Blowers has created an true-to-life universe for the subject of his novel, Life on Tilt. Listen to learn about the concept behind his book.

Author of the classic baccarat text, Baccarat Made Simple, David Vernon talks with Howard about the game and his book.

 Tony Salinas, a native of Texas, moved to Las Vegas to enjoy his work--handicapping sports and picking winners. He won the $85,000 Castaways Challenge, the original football handicapping contest, and followed that with numerous other wins, including the $135,000 Hilton Superbook Handicapping Championship

"KING CON The Story Of Soapy Smith" is the first full biography in more than forty years, in it Haigh chronicles the rise to power of a man without a conscience. Starting as a street corner shell game artist, Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith rose to power as a gang leader in Denver, then chose raw, lawless Skagway as his headquarters to fleece the thousands heading for the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897. Less than a year later he was dead, killed in a vigilante shootout on the Skagway wharf.  I am busy working on my Dissertation, based on the material I stumbled into while researching Soapy Smith:  "Political Power, Patronage, and Protection Rackets: Municipal Politics and Corruption in Denver 1889-1904". www.janehaigh.com

During the 1997 and 1998 season, Grossman hosted a nationally televised show that featured many of the nations' top handicappers.

Larry Grossman is the author of two books, "You Can Bet On it" Volume 1 - Casino Games and Volume 2 - Sports Betting. He is a regular columnist for many gaming publications. Larry has hosted and produced handicapping seminars in Las Vegas.

As the year comes to a close, Howard talks about a half dozen of the most popular gaming books at Gamblerâs Book Shop, including one title Mafia that reads like a thick rap sheet on top mobsters of the past. Also, he interviews a long-time Gamblerâs Book Shop customer from Chicago, Big Sid, a horseplayer, who talks about what the tracks are doing right and wrong, the demographics of the wagering public, and about the writer who influenced him the most.

The gamblerâs high is like a rush; he feels invulnerable.  That high lasts, though, only until the next big loss. Such is the story of Steve Budin, who created the first online sports betting company. Under the tutelage of his father, a legendary, old-school Miami bookmaker, and with the help of a cocaine-addicted polygamist, Budin revolutionized the shadowy business of spreads by taking them global. But he also stuck to some tried and true methods, like plying clients with trips to Vegas, hookers, and hardcore drugs. In the end, Budin raked in hundreds of millions of dollars and stood on the verge of a deal worth billions more. He took bookmaking into an automated, virtual worldwide casino that anyone could access, anywhere and at any time.  For anyone fascinated by the "wild West" that is internet gambling, here is a rare peek into that exciting, dangerous world.

DAVID G. SCHWARTZ, (no relation to your host, Howard Schwartz) is the head of the Gaming Studies Department at UNLV. He is the author of
"Suburban Xanadu: The Casino Resort on the Las Vegas Strip", a book-length, essay on the history and evolution of the Las Vegas experience from its earliest days to the the advent of the mega resort. His second book, "Cutting the Wire", examines the political, social, and cultural ideas that moved Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to suggest the Wire Act (a law banning interstate transmission of gambling information), Congress to approve it, and President Kennedy to sign it into law, as well as the consequences of the law. He covers it all -- how this law first developed, how it helped fight a war against organized crime, and how it is being used today to restrict Americans from internet gambling. His latest work is titled "Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling ", which explains how the need to gamble shaped human history from the Ice Age to the Information Age when people spend nearly one trillion dollars worldwide on gambling a year.

BRAD LEWIS is the author of the Hollywood Celebrity Gangster: Mickey Cohen. All the whispered anecdotes, the news items and the underside of the crime rackets where Mickey operated are in his book, open to scrutiny. From Bugsy Siegel to Lucky Luciano and Albert Anastasia to Meyer Lansky and Carlos Marcello, Mickey knew them well and worked closely with them for many years.