The key to maximum enjoyment is understanding. If you want to enjoy your casino trips more, try to understand what’s happening better. These are a handful of books that will help you do that. The list contains books about blackjack, poker, sports gambling, video poker, craps, roulette, slot machines, gambling psychology, casino tactics, and more.

1 – Gambling 102: Best Strategies for Casino Games by Mike Shackleford

Nineteen short chapters as brief as two or three pages at times cuts right to the heart of the games. They give you an assessment of the odds you are facing, the necessary strategies to lower them as much as possible. When should you raise when playing Three Card Poker? How right a hand do you need to Let It Ride? How will reduced juice affect your overall sports-betting results? How do you pick the best blackjack games? Everything you need to play the games are at your fingertips. Gambling 102 is the labour of years of mathematical analysis, computer modelling, and actual casino gaming. If you believe in hunches, you should probably look for another book. However, if you think that mathematics provides the best way to approach games of chance, then Gambling 102 is the book for you.

Gambling 102: Best Strategies for Casino Games by Mike Shackleford

2 – Video Poker for the Intelligent Beginner by Bob Dancer

Bob Dancer is a real-life legendary video poker player and a world-class teacher. After years of creating video poker reports, strategy cards, and software, Dancer’s is the best book on the subject. Video Poker for Intelligent Beginners is a winning blueprint for players on the fast track to the beatable game’s upper levels. First, you master the techniques for identifying the highest-returning games. You learn how to generate, understand, and implement the perfect strategies that yield the highest profits. Dancer offers his professional insight regarding the game’s many nuances and related considerations—including in-depth coverage of slot clubs, casino promotions, progressives, team play, scouting, and tournaments. It is the first book to explain in detail how his powerful Video Poker for Winners! The software can solve previously unanswered questions about bankroll needs, promotions analysis, and profit potential.

Video Poker for the Intelligent Beginner by Bob Dancer

3 – Comped by Bill Kearney

The price you pay when doubling down and living it up in Atlantic City. The book is a must-read for anyone who has a family member or friend being comped in the casinos. The author’s main character Richie V. will take you on a roller coaster ride as he reveals his short-lived High Roller adventures in the casinos of Atlantic City. From his first room being comped to the limos, helicopters, and lavish penthouse suite’s that the casinos provide as they cultivate their mark.

Comped by Bill Kearney

4 – Blackbelt in Blackjack: Playing Blackjack as a Martial Art by Arnold Snyder

The author is a genuine blackjack legend. He has brought back a revised underground gambling classic that targets serious, professional players looking to win real money and tips and tricks by the professionals involving: shuffle tracking, team play, multiple camouflaging deck techniques and a lot more. Includes a complete course on beating blackjack. Understand seven-count, hi-lo count, the zen count, true count and more.

Blackbelt in Blackjack: Playing Blackjack as a Martial Art by Arnold Snyder

5 – The Frugal Gambler by Jean Scott

Learn all the best low-roller secrets for Staying free at hotel-casinos, Beating casino promotions, Eating and drinking on the house, Playing video poker for profit, and Getting bumped from aeroplanes and flying free. Though Jean Scott was well-known to a select few Las Vegas fans throughout the 1990s, it wasn’t until The Frugal Gambler was published in 1998 that she became a household name to casino players across the country. Since then, no gambling personality has likely been featured more often in the media than this “Gambling Grandma.” Her frequent national publicity, her long-term success in casinos around the world, and the reliable low-rolling advantage-play techniques along the way have all helped catapult The Frugal Gambler into the ranks of best-selling gambling books.

The Frugal Gambler by Jean Scott

6 – Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

Raise your hands if you like the movie Casino Royale starring Daniel Craig as secret agent James Bond 007. It’s action-packed, hilarious and inspiring despite exaggerating Bond’s overall poker skills. Nevertheless, you can read the book that inspired the recent movie. Written by Ian Fleming, Casino Royale is gambling at its finest. In the book, Bond attempts to stop the terrorist financier Le Chiffre in a game of Baccarat. It’s also the book in a series of Bond books by Ian Fleming. So, if you love it, there are lots of other books by the author to read.

Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

7 – Casino by Nicholas Pileggi

While Casino Royale is a fictional thriller, Nicholas Pileggi’s ‘Casino’ shares intriguing stories of mobsters while they operated most casinos in Las Vegas back in the 70s, Pileggi was a crime reporter back then. As such, his book details real-life encounters with infamous mobsters Tony Spilotro and Lefty Rosenthal and how they took down other mobsters to run Las Vegas.

Casino by Nicholas Pileggi

8 – The Man With the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren

The book is a true classic on this list. While the novel isn’t only about gambling, it will transport you back in time, putting you in the shoes of a WWII soldier trying to piece his life back together. As a gifted musician with career aspirations to advance, he works a night-shift at a casino to make a living. Drugs, theft, passion, love and gambling are all in the novel by Nelson Algren. No wonder it won the prestigious 1950’s National Book Award.

The Man With the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren

9 – The Hustler by Walter Tevis

When published in 1959, The Hustler was the first and the best novel about billiards and gambling in the 400-year history of the game. The book quickly won a respected readership and later an audience for the movie with the same name starring Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason. It tells the story of a pool hustler, Fast Eddie Felson, who challenges the legendary Minnesota Fats. The Hustler was also a 1961 movie starring Paul Newman as Fast Eddie and Jackie Gleason as the elegant Minnesota Fats. The film was a commercial success with multiple Academy nominations.

The Hustler by Walter Tevis

10 – Scarne’s New Complete Guide to Gambling by John Scarne

The world recognizes the legendary John Scarne as an authoritative expert on gambling. He is the renowned author of dozens of books, and he has distilled everything he knows into this, the most comprehensive book on gambling to date. As a gambling consultant and many of the world’s top casinos, Scarne knew the world of gambling inside out, with access to the most influential figures and innermost secrets of gambling’s fascinating world. He spices up the volumes of gambling advice with inside tips and many of the stories and personalities he knew in his successful life as a gambling expert and writer. Every aspect of chance and skill is covered: official rules, correct adds and house percentages, advice and clear, useful instruction on playing strategy, explanations of swindling methods and how to detect them. Every game and sports event involving betting of any kind is, explained and analyzed.

Scarne's New Complete Guide to Gambling by John Scarne