Newtonian casino

out of 5 starsWin at Roulette? You bet!

Reviewed in the United States on July 6,

This book was published as "The Eudaemonic Pie" in the United States; a number of reviews for this book exist under the above title. There you will find reviews that outline the plot and offer critiques vis a vis the writing style; I have little to add, except a brief postscript:

The book ends with a major disappointment: The project -- beating roulette with a computer that can predict the outcome with some degree of accuracy -- never really works. As explicated in the book, the protagonists were convinced that their problems revolved around their hardware, which was by no means robust.*

It is quite possible, however, that, had the project succeeded at that time, "The Newtonian Casino" might never have been published. And, if that had happened, the next stage of the project would not have taken place.

Tony -- one of the main characters in "The Ultimate Edge" contacted Doyne Farmer -- the driving force behind the roulette project outlined in "The Newtonian Casino." As outlined in "The Ultimate Edge," a group of blackjack players had developed very robust hardware for something called "shuffle tracking." Tony figured that, with some minor modifications, the hardware could run a roulette program as readily as it had run the shuffle tracking program and, to make a long story short, he was right.

"The Newtonian Casino" literally changed history, in more ways than one. First: in , the Nevada Legislature was reviewing the bill that would become N.R.S. (a bill considerately provided to the legistature by the casinos themselves). The law was meant to outlaw "Devices," and the bill actually specified "card games." When the information published in this book came to light, someone had the forethought to change the law so it applied to games other than those in which cards were involved. Thanks a lot, Mr. Bass!

The strength of this book is weighted heavily toward the "story" side of the spectrum, and not toward the "telling." There are definitely stylistic weaknesses, but it could be argued that in this case, the story itself is so strong that style might have gotten in the way of the telling.

* This is not a criticism by any means -- reality is what it is, and the author should be commended for sticking with the truth. It would have been very easy for Bass to have ended the book with a huge, successful win and a giant party. That he didn't succumb to fiction is to his credit.

The Ultimate Edge