Those of you who enjoy a good read and playing either computer-generated or live dealer online casino games, land-based casino games, or poker may want to check out one or more of these books when you next get a chance.
Here are three of the most interesting books ever written about gambling and a few honourable mentions that are also worth checking out.
Top 3 books about gambling that everyone should know about in 2024
There are literally hundreds of great reads out there, but instead of listing them all, here are the names of just three of the most interesting books ever written about gambling. They include the following titles:
- Name of book: Bringing Down the House. Year originally published: 2002. Author: Ben Mezrich
- Name of book: Scarne’s New Complete Guide to Gambling. Year originally published: 1963. Author: John Scarne
- Name of book: A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market. Year originally published: 2017. Author: Edward O. Thorp
Why did Ben Mezrich Bringing Down the House make it to our top spot?
Bringing Down the House has it all, and it’s loosely based on a true story that you may already be familiar with by now – a group of M.I.T. students who perfected a blackjack card-counting strategy and used it in Las Vegas to take the casinos for millions.
While at the casinos, they played a variety of games, not just blackjack, including slots and roulette, and various others, just like the computer-generated and live dealer games you can play on today’s top-rated Canadian online casinos accepting Instadebit and several other reliable online payment solutions, such as PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, Paysafecard, and Interac – although it’s not recommended to try any controversial strategies at the casino or online!
The best-selling book was eventually turned into the movie 21, which you may also be familiar with, which starred the likes of Kevin Spacey, Jim Sturgess, and Kate Bosworth, to name a few.
What other books about gambling are also worth reading?
As well as the top three best books about gambling mentioned above, some of the other great reads include the 2020 book The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told by Mark Paul and the 2020 book The Biggest Bluff by Maria Konnikova.
There’s also the 2006 book Fortune’s Formula by William Pounstone, Andrew Brisman’s 1999 book MENSA Guide to Casino Gambling: Winning Way, and Joe Peta’s 2014 book Trading Bases.
That’s not forgetting the 2005 book One of a Kind: The World’s Greatest Player by Nolan Dalla, David Sklansky’s 1999 book The Theory of Poker, and Stefan Szymanski and Simon Kuper’s 2009 book Soccernomics.
Honourable mentions
If you enjoy reading any of these books about gambling and want more suggestions, don’t forget to check out The Confidence Game (2016, Maria Konnikova), Squares & sharps, Suckers & Sharks (Joseph Buchdal, 2016), and Book Blood Aces: The Wild Ride of Benny Binion (Doug J. Swanson, 2015).
If that’s not enough to keep you going, there’s also Gambling For Life: The Man Who Won Millions and Spent Every Penny, The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky, and Death, Texas Gangster Who Created Vegas Poker, and A Man for all Markets.
If you fancy a break from all this reading and want to check out a movie or two about gambling on streaming sites like Amazon Prime or Netflix, remember to keep an eye out for The Cooler, Rounders, Honeymoon in Vegas, Mississippi Grind, Casino, The Gambler (the original version with James Caan, and the much newer version with Mark Wahlberg), The Hangover trilogy, Leaving Las Vegas, Casino, and The Good Thief.
How to read these titles
You can purchase the online versions of these books (aka eBooks or digital books) from numerous trusted eCommerce websites.
Some of the best devices (aka E-Readers) for reading them on are the Amazon Kindle, the Fujitsu Quaderno, the B&N Nook, Hisense, Bigme, Jobo, Meebook, Onyx Boox, and Pocketbook, to name a few.
Markus lives in San Francisco, California and is the video game and audio expert on Good e-Reader! He has a huge interest in new e-readers and tablets, and gaming.