EVERY GAMBLERS FINDS SOME FASCINATION
with how other gamblers find that elusive "edge." Maybe it's a form of professional jealousy; perhaps it's envy; or it could be plain curiosity. But the quest is there along with the question: "How'd he do that?"

Gambler's Book Club has just received a supply of a book called The Money Spinners by Jacques Black (201 pages, paperbound, $13.95). When we first put the book on the store shelves about a year ago, it collected dust, seemingly ignored by the populace. Then a funny thing happened--and it must have been by word-of-mouth advertising. The store was besieged with inquiries about it and the short supply we had dwindled and disappeared.

Like a classic movi, suddenly thrust into a new sort of limelight of attention, The Money Spinners has slowly become the equivalent of a "cult classic." It was originally published in England in 1993. Five years ago it was brought back to life.

Just what does this book contain to create all the fuss?

Maybe it's the variety of subject covered that makes it work. There are five information-packed little sections on roulette. They don't concentrate on how to play, but do reflect on how people have attempted to beat the game, with succinct pieces of advice. Black, (obviously not his real name) says "The guiding principle of this book, and of all successful gambling, is 'respect the odds, and they will respect you.'"

Obviously since roulette is favored by a high percentage of Europeans as the game of choice, Black concentrates on the game. Next he asks the question "The Greatest Roulette Player Ever To Hit Monte Carlo?" and follows with Roulette Scams and the Laws of Probability, a subject that has fascinated gamblers for centuries. He continues with an examination of the game and tries to determine what attracts people to play, and what success noted figures in history have had with it. Mixing history, with literature and the game (which includes the character of "Grandmamma" in Dostoevsky's The Gambler) he demonstrates how people have been obsessed with playing and winning since its invention.

Those interested in systems and what has worked or claimed to have worked for those who have attempted them will find a bonanza of material (D'Alembert, Fibonnaci and Labouchere are included here). There is even a short look at attempts to "clock the wheel" or find a "biased wheel" and what a croupier can do or cannot, in manipulating the ball.

Black next moves to blackjack, where Dr. Ed Thorp, Ken Uston, Arnold Snyder and Peter Griffin and their roles in trying to beat the game and the refinements they added are analyzed. This is not new stuff at times, but in the entertaining way Black presents the material, the reader should not mind at all.

Baccarat is a game people have been in love with for one reason or another for generations. With the demise of the popularity of blackjack for a variety of reasons (including the fact the automatic shuffling machines have put a damper on strategies of dedicated counters), the game seems to have attracted more players than ever. Black looks at the game through the adventures of the late Peter Griffin, who also asked the question: "Can baccarat be beaten?" and too, through the