Barneys book is indeed excellent, but the best autobiography about lads that have pulled off scams is Amarillo Slims book.
You could not believe some of the scams him, Doyle Brunson and all that crew pulled off. I say scams, but they were more wacky bets they had with various people and there was always an unreal catch to them you would not see coming.
Itâs called Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People: The Memoirs of the Greatest Gambler Who Ever Lived, get it Mac if youâre into those sort of books thatâs the best one Iâve ever read.
[quote=âballoobasluvsbeerâ]Barneys book is indeed excellent, but the best autobiography about lads that have pulled off scams is Amarillo Slims book.
You could not believe some of the scams him, Doyle Brunson and all that crew pulled off. I say scams, but they were more wacky bets they had with various people and there was always an unreal catch to them you would not see coming.
Itâs called Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People: The Memoirs of the Greatest Gambler Who Ever Lived, get it Mac if youâre into those sort of books thatâs the best one Iâve ever read.[/QUOTE]
But itâs more concerned with cards / poker is it?
Not really to be honest, obviously poker is in it a lot but there was no scams involved in the cards, that was down to luck and skill.
Every wacky bet you could think of from golf to table tennis. Youâd have to read it to see, I was crying laughing with some of the bets and there was normally huge money at stake as in 4 or 500,000 dollars at times.
I must read it again actually, itâs been about 7 years ago since I did.
Bringing Down The House is a good one to do with the cards, itâs a true story about the MIT Blackjack team of card counters. No scams though just the ability to keep track of the high and low value cards and then signal each other on the sly.
[quote=âThe Dunphâ]I was in Easons in Limerick recently looking for Veitchâs book but they didnât have it. I must go back to them and order it. Iâd read the extracts that were in the Racing Post and it made for excellet reading.
Excuse my ignorance, what does EPOS stand for?[/QUOTE]
Electronic Point of SaleâŚlinks all the betting shops to head office so they can study patterns and trends and their profits of course
[quote=âThe Dunphâ]
Excuse my ignorance, what does EPOS stand for?[/QUOTE]
I could be wrong Dunph, but I think it means Electronic Point of Sale, so that now all bets are fed back to a central monitioring office and they would be able to spot a fella hitting a few shops in the space of an hour a lot quicker than would have before.
Bringing Down the House is good alright. High Rollers of the Turf is another one that is a decent enough read, if a bit story book-ish in writing style.
If you want to read about pure dengeneracy it would have to be The Man behind the Shades, Stu Ungars book. Pretty sad story.
EPOS is also known as Extremely Poor Operating System.
[quote=âClaremanâ]I honestly donât know how casinoâs make money, bookies, yes, casinoâs in this country no. To make money in a casino you have to have vast amounts of people coming in to gamble, yuo are not going to make money are card tables or black jack, itâs at the roulette wheel and slots where the money is made, going by the number for tables mentioned there, thereâs at least 30 people working there at any time (1 person giving out the free drinks, 1 person manning the door, 1 person at each of the 14 roulette wheels and 1 person at each of the poker tables), this doesnât include supervisors. So if each person is being paid 10 an hour (rough min. wage) for 9 hours (9pm till 6am) that a wage bill of 2700 a week or 140400 per annum, throw on top of that your rent of 250,000, thatâs almost 400k you have to make to breakeven, this doesnât include all the freebees that they give out.
Lunacy I tells ya, lunancy :D[/QUOTE]
Clareman,
I hope you dont fancy yourself as a card counter. The calculations above are completely wrong, its 2700 a night wage cost if 30 people are working for 9 hours a night at 10 an hour!!
Bringing down the house is a good read. The film that came out based on it (21 I think its called) doesnât do it justice although it gives you the gist of what happened
[quote=âSHANNONSIDER**â]Good old Barney⌠Not surprised he laughed in their faces, he doesnât do tips, he does plots.
Patrick Veitchâs autobiography is worth a read. He is a guy genuinely feared by bookmakers, not like some of the other jokers. I was working for a firm when he was fiddling around with those horses with Stuart Williams, they were a professional outfit when they were clobbering the shops. Very tough now though with the EPOS system.[/QUOTE]
Great line there SS**. Read Dave Nevisons book over Xmas. Awful pile of scutter.
[quote=âballoobasluvsbeerâ]Barneys book is indeed excellent, but the best autobiography about lads that have pulled off scams is Amarillo Slims book.
You could not believe some of the scams him, Doyle Brunson and all that crew pulled off. I say scams, but they were more wacky bets they had with various people and there was always an unreal catch to them you would not see coming.
Itâs called Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People: The Memoirs of the Greatest Gambler Who Ever Lived, get it Mac if youâre into those sort of books thatâs the best one Iâve ever read.[/QUOTE]
Will look them up on Amazon BBLB.
Great book alright. Some scary shit they got caught up in Monte Carlo I think. Some balls on them lads.
I read Nevisonâs book too, Mac. The man canât be looked up to as a pro because he isnât. Heâs had to resort to tipping lines and shite books to keep going. Heâs off his rocker too if he thinks heâll make racing horses pay by backing them. Barney could do it through use of privately training the horses himself, Nevison wonât be able to do it in a public yard like Bestâs. Veitch pissed about with tipping lines at the start to get going when he was a student, and his were solely based on the subscribers putting on for you. There are a fleet of pros in Ireland who would leave Nevison in the haâpenny place.
[quote=âdancarterâ]Clareman,
I hope you dont fancy yourself as a card counter. The calculations above are completely wrong, its 2700 a night wage cost if 30 people are working for 9 hours a night at 10 an hour!![/QUOTE]
I wonder are a lot of these card clubs and casinos around the country a front for something else? Must be a very easy way to launder money. The casinos are totally unregulated at the moment so would be very easy run large amounts of cash through it claiming it was lost by a few mug punters.
Is Veitch the real deal do you think SS**?
Iâd have fierce admiration for anyone who can make a living from gambling (honest gambling, as in no inside information).
Never realised he had his own tipping service as well. Seems like a bit of a gobshite to be honest. Up his own hole as well. I wasnât one bit enlightened after reading it.
Didnt Dermot Ahern say last week he was changing the laws around these? Making it stricter from a money laundering and anti-terrorist point of view or something like that.
[quote=âMacâ]Never realised he had his own tipping service as well. Seems like a bit of a gobshite to be honest. Up his own hole as well. I wasnât one bit enlightened after reading it.
Didnt Dermot Ahern say last week he was changing the laws around these? Making it stricter from a money laundering and anti-terrorist point of view or something like that.[/QUOTE]
Ya he mentioned it alright. Theyâve been threatening to change these laws for the past 5 or 6years but have yet to do anything about it. I think there was a Casino Bill a couple of years back but nothing ever came of it.
McDowell tried to do something but never went about it. Brown envelopes may have been passed.
[quote=âThe Dunphâ]Is Veitch the real deal do you think SS**?
Iâd have fierce admiration for anyone who can make a living from gambling (honest gambling, as in no inside information).[/QUOTE]
I can only tell you from my own years working for bookmakers and from his book but the first âdanger manâ I learnt about in those days was Veitch. Veitch has a superb brain, he went to Cambridge to study maths but dropped out of it and went pro full time. Not only is he a superb form student, he perfected the ever more difficult art of getting his bets on through agents. His entire modus operandi was always the real deal. He had the odd plot through his own horses but his own form study was his bread and butter.
Did you work in bookies in England SS**? Iâm guessing if they knew Veitch was behind a bet theyâd run a mile. Presumably then if heâd agents putting on his bets the bookies would soon cop onto them also if they kept winning, resulting in them being turned away?
No I was a compiler for Powers a few years ago. Veitch was feared almost exclusively during the flat season, you could almost see a Veitch gamble unfold before your eyes as you looked at the show on the screens, it would be something like a maiden at Windsor of a monday and a 16/1 shot would start shortening rapidly, thereâd be stacks up on betfair for it and all of a sudden brand new account holders would be pounding into it on the net, with the shops in London ringing in stacks of bets for acceptance. In a disaster situation like this youâd just lock down and offer everyone ringing up âwin only - sp onlyâ Youâd see this and just think this is Veitch. Youâd hear back from England the next day then that it indeed was Veitch and youâd count up the losses and close all the new accounts that came on for it.
Sounds like he was a peculiar nuisance. Gas man. :rolleyes: