If you think that card counting is an easy road to riches, you're deluding yourself. The pro gamblers I know work harder for their money than most people who hold regular jobs. They don't even begin to think they're getting "something for nothing." They know that every penny they make comes from long hours of work, study, sweat, and guts.

And don't think that just because the state requires a casino to post the 800-number for Gamblers Anonymous that the state has any concern whatsoever for gambling addicts. They care as much about gambling addicts as they do about drunks. Every state makes bundles of money from casinos, and politicians in states where gambling is legal get their palms greased regularly by the industry powers that be. The state will be just as happy to take money from you as any casino, poker player, or racetrack.

I live in Nevada now, but up until a few years ago, I lived in California, and the Golden State provided me with an invaluable education in the perfidious tactics of pushers who supply gambling addicts with an excuse for indulging in their drug of choice. Shortly after California instituted its usurious state lottery some years back (50% house edge, like most state lotteries), a front-page article in the San Francisco Chronicle revealed that nearly half of the lottery tickets sold in the state were being purchased by the same small percentage of buyers, who happened to reside in the depressed big city ghettos, with little education, and poverty-level incomes. An official spokesperson for the lottery commission stated that these high volume ticket buyers fell into two classifications—"compulsive gamblers" and "professional gamblers."

I like that. Professional lottery players. A spokesperson for the state declares on the front page of the daily papers that certain individuals whom demographics would lead us to categorize as poor and uneducated, are in fact a new breed of urban professional. Perhaps, it won't be long before California's universities begin offering classes like Big Spin 101, so that some of the more educated citizens of the state, who don't currently buy lottery tickets, can obtain a Bachelor of Lotto degree.

If you are a compulsive gambler, my advice is: Don't gamble. And don't try to convince yourself that counting cards is an "investment." Throw this book away—and stay away from the casinos.

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