Everyone who plays pool knows that it is "mostly mental," but the conventional wisdom about the mental game is about as accurate as the idea that the earth is flat. Until now, no one with any expertise on how the human mind works has bothered to write about pool. In Pleasures of Small Motions, Bob Fancher, a psychotherapist and pool columnist, breaks new ground by applying good science to the mental game of billiards.This book does for pool what Timothy Gallwey's bestselling "The Inner Game" books did for golf and tennis. Fancher explains how the conscious and unconscious mind work together, prescribes drills to help players improve, advises on mastering emotion and developing rhythm, explains the difference between concentration and focus, and gives invaluable insight on competitive play. (6 x 9, 160 pages, illustrations)Bob Fancher's column, "Dr. Bob, Pool Shrink," appears monthly in The American Cueist. He earned his Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University and practiced psychotherapy in New York for fourteen years. His acclaimed book Cultures of Healing has been used in classes at Columbia University, Princeton, and many other schools, and is writing has appeared in The Washington Post and other publications. He lives in Austin, Texas.

This "raucous retelling of the life of a consummate gambler, grifter and quintessential American character" (Kirkus Reviews) introduces Alvin "Titanic" Thompson (1892-1974), who traveled with golf clubs, a .45 revolver, and a suitcase full of cash. A terrific read for anyone who has ever laid a bet, Titanic Thompson recaptures the colorful times of a singular figure.

When you think of 'gambling' you might think of Vegas casinos, betting shops and football flutters but the risk of gambling is embedded in numerous corners of popular culture that many of us consume. By considering the concept of 'soft gambling', No Dice asks how we could possibly link the Pokemon Trading Card Game with gambling. Can we compare Netflix to a night at the theatre? When does fictional gambling within video games go too far with their infamous loot boxes? Does such risk affect everyone or are socio-economic divides driving further inequality? No Dice explores the messy world of gambling and risk that we encounter regularly, from childhood through adulthood, considering if it is worth the risk and if we even know what risks we might be taking.

The Eastern approach to Feng Shui practice is timeless while from the Western perspective it is timely. Feng Shui is Chinese in origin while the casino game of craps is American in design. For the first time in print, the author advocates the use of this Eastern approach to enhance the player's chances of winning at casino craps. No book to date has addressed the influence and role of Feng Shui in craps or the subject of craps and Feng Shui together.

The book has an affluence of new material heretofore not published, such as the concept of the Circle of Chi, the flow chart of Feng Shui concepts, which eventually leads to a craps table, the statistical validation of the number 7 coming out more often, after a die accidentally falls off the table, dice presetups, medical tenets germane to the Yin and Yang concept, Feng Shui of selected casinos, and much more.

The superstitions that thrive at a craps table are presented with humor and insight. Learn about Chi management that is as pivotal as money management in augmenting one's chances of winning at craps.

Why is there a twelve on the cover of this blackjack book instead of the usual twenty-one? No blackjack author in their right mind would put a hand of twelve on the cover. Glen Wiggy did--he is full of surprises like that. Part how-to manual, part memoir, 1536 Free Waters and Other Blackjack Endeavors--Finding Profit and Humor in Card-Counting chronicles Wiggy's amusing experiences while playing blackjack during more than eight hundred casino visits from January 2001 until June 2008. It also introduces blackjack card-counting in a fun and easy-to-learn format.

In addition to the everyday casino patrons, starving puppies, angry pit bosses, French doughnuts, talking sea gulls, and 1536 bottled waters make unforgettable appearances in these entertaining stories tailored for casual blackjack gamblers. For players pursuing the game for serious profit, Wiggy also presents practical tips on

- Aspects of blackjack basic strategy- Fundamentals of card-counting- Techniques for managing money- Dangers of greedy gambling behavior

Unlike most blackjack strategy guides, 1536 Free Waters and Other Blackjack Endeavors won't teach you how to "kill" the dealer or make a living playing the game. Instead, you'll learn basic strategy and introductory card-counting skills that give you enough confidence to approach the table with a positive attitude and reasonable expectation of winning. Plus, you'll learn what to expect from the cards and the wonderfully strange people and places you may encounter. Enjoy the ride.

"Undoubtedly, the most enjoyable blackjack book I've read in my twenty years as the editor of a gambling publishing company. It had me laughing out loud."--Deke Castleman, editor for Huntington Press

Read more at www.blackjackstories.com.

A New York Times bestseller

In a remarkable career, Edward O. Thorp rose up from nothing to become a professor at MIT, invented card counting and the world's first wearable computer, beat the casinos of Las Vegas at blackjack and roulette, then became a bestselling author and a hedge fund heavyweight, ushering in a revolution on Wall Street. Now he shares his incredible life story for the first time, revealing how he made his fortune and giving advice to the next generation of investors. An intellectual thrill ride, replete with practical wisdom, A Man for All Markets is a scarcely imaginable tale of ludicrous success.

No longer confined to Nevada and Atlantic City, gambling is cropping up everywhere with astonishing pervasiveness, from the new Native American casinos to state-run lotteries to the Internet. Arguing against the idea that a moral case can be made for banning gambling in a society committed to liberal democratic values, Collins nonetheless sees a role for furthering public policy goals and mitigating the ill effects of gambling on communities as well as on gamblers themselves. Recognizing that governments and suppliers of gambling services have a common interest in ensuring that gambling is both profitable and well thought of by the general population, he argues for tax policies that direct investment toward communities in special need and for honest and realistic treatment and prevention programs for compulsive gamblers. Politicians, civil servants, and regulators concerned with gambling matters; those in and outside of the gambling industry who seek to influence it; and students of the gambling industry at all levels will find this a fascinating look at a growing and controversial industry.

A history and analysis of gambling in the United States from bingo to state lotteries to Indian gaming and the rise of Las Vegas, this book reveals how we have become a nation of gamblers and what the future holds for the gambling industry. From the colonial era to the present, Americans have enjoyed a love-hate relationship with gambling. It is a pastime that has gone from sin to recreational activity, and an industry that has moved from control by organized crime to management by executives with MBAs. While gaming is one of the nation's fastest-growing industries, Barker and Britz predict that this process will slow or stop in the next century as the result of market saturation and unknown social and economic effects which loom over the glitz, glamour, and action.

Providing the latest information on the nature and extent of legalized gambling in the United States, this study examines why we gamble and how the relative impact of the activity differs in certain segments of the population. Legalized gambling is, at best, problematic behavior with both good and bad consequences. State-sponsored gambling, both in the form of monopolistic lotteries and in tribal casinos, does to some extent call into question the proper role of the state or tribal nation in promoting a potentially harmful activity among its citizens. States that have looked to legalized gambling as a source of economic salvation may soon experience difficulties as gambling venues multiply and unregulated Internet gambling becomes more widespread.

Three quarters of the British population gamble (mainly on the National Lottery), and they generate around 46 billion pounds a year. This volume sets recent developments in the regulation and deregulation of its three primary forms - betting, gaming, and lotteries - against an account of their social and legal history. Many of the concerns that excite controversy today are little different from those with which the Home Office grappled for most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Based upon Home Office files and contemporary accounts, this book begins by evaluating how the law was used to control and suppress popular gambling. Miers shows how and why prohibition gave way to the recognition that regulation offered a more effective method of controlling a social pastime that, by the mid-twentieth century, had become a feature of everyday life. Concerns over gambling have recently resurfaced, as a result of Government proposals to replace the existing strict controls with a regulatory regime that will give greater scope for licensees to adopt more competitive practices. Like the introduction of the National Lottery in 1994, these proposals represent a marked departure from the traditional response: to permit but not to stimulate commercial gambling. The potential for expansion in opportunities to gamble raises concerns about the accessibility of gambling to children and the possibility of increased numbers of problem gamblers. Miers examines the implementation and impact of the present law governing gaming and the National Lottery in terms of regulation and the enforcement of regulatory regimes. He focusses on how these regimes regulate the probity of the supplier, the supply of gambling opportunities, the nature of the transaction, and the player's participation. The book concludes with an evaluation of the Gambling Bill, a draft of which was published in 2003 aiming to give effect to the Government's proposals.