Easy Money: Inside the Gamblers Mind - Hardcover

Spanier, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0436478889 ISBN 13: 9780436478888

Publisher: Secker & Warburg, 1987

Synopsis

A fascinating insider's analysis of the thrills, action, and intense emotional involvement that makes up the world of the gambler.In Easy Money, David Spanier examines the psychological motivation of gamblers--those who beat the system and those beaten by it. Portraying the personalities and legends of the gambling world, he ranges widely over his subject, considering the motivations of gamblers, even the physical sensations they experience. Although his focus is on the individual, he also looks at the percentages and the chances, the differences in European and American gambling, and the criminal element in U.S. gaming. A classic work by David Spanier, former London TIMES journalist and author of Total Poker and The Hand I Played.

About this title

Reviews

Easy Money is easy reading. Not only is Spanier (Total Poker) a smooth stylist, but he brings his book to life by concentrating on the human side of gambling rather than the theoretical. He discusses Freud's analysis of the compulsive gambler, yet his emphasis is on individuals: a mathematician who devised a way to beat the house advantage at blackjack; a London man-about-town who ran games for the upper class; the cleric who founded the British Gamblers Anonymous; the physician who established a "gamblers' hospital" in Brecksville, Ohio. Spanier considers the motivations of gamesters, stressing the physical sensations they experience, the percentages and chances, heuristic principles, the differences in European and American gambling, and the criminal element in U.S. gaming. But, however well done, this British import is overpriced.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Secker & Warburg
• Publication date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0436478889
• ISBN 13: 9780436478888
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 209