Saturday, September 11, 2010

Five best books about gambling

Joseph Mazur is the author of What's Luck Got to Do With It?: The History, Mathematics, and Psychology of the Gambler's Illusion and professor emeritus of mathematics at Marlboro College.

For the Wall Street Journal he named a five best list of books on gambling.

One title on the list:
Lay the Favorite
by Beth Raymer

In this honest yet almost too-crazy-to-be-true memoir, we get a rare glimpse inside the sports-gambling underworld, at the bookies' harmless "pay and collect" agents (the author spent four years in the job), the hustlers, buffoons, fringe crooks and rogues of the trade. Every addicted gambler has a wish to lose, Beth Raymer says. "And as for the rare professionals who are talented enough to beat the house, rest assured they will go to whatever lengths necessary to surround themselves with people who will lose their money for them." Young, in need of guidance at the start, Raymer experiments with life and emerges a sports-gambling expert.
Read about another book on the list.

Learn more about Joseph Mazur's What's Luck Got to Do With It?.

--Marshal Zeringue