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Book Reveals Life of Casino Cheats

IOWA – As reported by the Daily Nonpareil: "They say that gamblers are the most superstitious people in the world.

"…It's all about luck ... unless you're cheating the casino, according to the new book "American Roulette" by Richard Marcus (c.2003, St. Martin's Press). Then it takes calmness, nerve and a couple of clever, furtive moves at just the right time.

"Richard Marcus grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey, and learned cheating at an early age when his friends conspired against him to take his baseball card collection in a schoolyard scam. Marcus quickly saw that cheating could be profitable, and as soon as he was able, he went to Las Vegas with a bankroll that he quickly lost.

"…He figured the fastest way to earn a paycheck was to become a dealer, so he scammed his way into dealer's school and became a dealer at one of the smaller casinos.

"This job, first taken for survival, would change his life. The job dealing blackjack and mini-baccarat was where he met Joe, the leader of the Classon gang, a group of men and women who made their living cheating casinos around the world.

"…From Las Vegas to Reno to France, Germany, and Greece, `American Roulette' is a slice of life in an inside world that most of us will never know.

"Though the details of who sat where and who did what can be a little tedious for a non-gambler or a one-armed bandit aficionado, the cat-and-mouse game that Marcus played with a casino detective for two decades is wryly humorous and a little on the suspenseful side…"

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