Lucky Devils The True Story of Three Rebel Gamblers Who Beat the Odds and Changed the Game

The secret history of a trio of gamblers who used homemade technology and their own ingenuity to outplay the house, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars and transforming the way games are played.

In the late 1970s, three men declared war on the casino. They arrived in Las Vegas just as the personal computer was beginning its boom. If the power of computers could be applied to gambling, they reasoned, a player could make a mint. There was only one problem: How do you smuggle a computer, typically, the size of a suitcase, onto a casino floor without getting noticed?

Using cutting-edge strategies and technology that was decades ahead of its time, they did just that. They became pioneers of what’s known as advantage playing, applying their intellects and creativity to everything from poker and blackjack to horseracing and roulette. For more than thirty years they faced down angry pit bosses, violent Mafiosos, bankruptcies, nights in foreign jails, lawsuits, and personal betrayals. They learned that the only thing harder than reaching the pinnacle of gambling achievement was staying there.

Drawing from exclusive interviews with all three players and their associates, award-winning Bloomberg journalist Kit Chellel delivers a cinematic and often uproarious account of fortunes gained, lost, and gained again. Scrupulously reported and irresistibly told, Lucky Devils reveals how these players did more than simply amass wealth; they revolutionized the game itself.

They gave the lie to the old adage—the house doesn’t always win.

Kit Chellel is a reporter at Bloomberg and Businessweek Magazine, covering sports gambling, financial scandals, state-sponsored espionage, and more. He has received a Gerald Loeb Award, an Overseas Press Club Award, and a feature reporting prize from the New York Press Club. He is coauthor, with Matthew Campbell, of Dead in the Water, which was shortlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award.