Roll The Bones: The History of Gambling (Casino Edition)

By: David G. Schwartz

Narrated by: Eric Martin

Roll the Bones tells the story of gambling: where it came from, how it has changed, and where it is now. This is the new Casino Edition, which updates and expands the global history of gambling to include a greater focus on casinos, from their development in European spas to their growth in Reno and Las Vegas. New material chronicles in greater depth the development of casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and their spread throughout the United States. A new chapter better places Atlantic City's casinos into their correct context, and new material accounts for the rise of casinos in Asia and online gaming.

From the first modern casino in Venice (1638), casinos have grown incredibly. During the 18th and 19th centuries, a series of European spa towns, culminating in Monte Carlo, hosted casinos. In the United States during those same years, gambling developed both in illegal urban gambling halls and in the wide-open saloons of the Western frontier. Those two strands of American gambling came together in Nevada's legal casinos, whose current regime dates from 1931.

Developing with a healthy assist from elements affiliated with organized crime, these casinos eventually outgrew their rough-hewn routes, becoming sun-drenched pleasure palaces along the Las Vegas Strip. With Nevada casinos proving successful, other states, beginning with New Jersey in 1976, rolled the dice. From there, casinos have come to America's tribal lands, rivers, and urban centers. In the last decade, gambling has moved online, while Asia - with multibillion-dollar projects in Macau and Singapore - has become a new casino frontier.

Roll the Bones will give you a better appreciation for how long casinos and gambling have been with us - and what they mean to us today. This audio edition includes a brand-new exclusive author interview with background on the book and developments since its print publication.

©2013 David G. Schwartz (P)2018 David G. Schwartz

Chalk Full of Awesome History

I was voluntarily provided this review copy audiobook at no charge by the publisher.

I really enjoyed this audiobook. I am not an avid gambler, but when I'm staying near a casino I certainly enjoy stopping by and playing some casual games (typically roulette). To my delight, there was a lot of interesting history on the evolution and importance of roulette. I also loved some of the bigger themes of casinos/gambling history that I had no clue about before (like that casinos originated in spas/hot springs for the sick and injured). The book really has a ton of history, and I feel like the author left no stone unturned in his research.
The beginning, where the history was all in foreign countries, was a bit harder to follow just because there were so many foreign names. But once it got to the US, I was hooked and couldn't stop listening. That segment was my favorite part. It did feel like the section between the US gambling and the modern age of internet gambling, where many other current countries were referenced, was sort of haphazardly added in, but it was interesting nonetheless.
The narrator was great, too. His voice was perfect, he kept a good pace, and he had easy to follow rythm.
One minor criticism I did have was with the layout. The book had many chapters, each with many subsections. In Audible, there is no way to skip to the beginning of the subsections. I made sure to place plenty of bookmarks, but being able to navigate directly to subsections would be nice.

Gambling

Would you listen to Roll The Bones: The History of Gambling (Casino Edition) again? Why?

I'd need to wait awhile. The info is thorough, and at times it lost my interest.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the history and how it related to other social events. The story of the Pequot tribe.

Which character – as performed by Eric Martin – was your favorite?

NA

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

You bet your bottom dollar

Any additional comments?

This review copy audiobook was provided by the author, narrator or publisher at no cost. Which I can only assume was voluntary on their part. I am happy to give my honest review of it. I think I'm suppose to mention how reviewing this was voluntary on my part too!

Thanks!

Everything you ever wanted to know about Gambling.

Would you consider the audio edition of Roll The Bones: The History of Gambling (Casino Edition) to be better than the print version?

Have only listened to the Audio edition.

Who was your favorite character and why?

N/A

What about Eric Martin’s performance did you like?

He did a good job with the material he had to work with.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

N/A

Any additional comments?

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Take A Chance

At the end of the audiobook “Roll The Bones” there is an update by the author on what has happened since the book was written. In it he mentions that this is a condensed version of a previous edition of “Roll The Bones” focusing mainly on casino gaming in all its forms. That being said, it is hard to imagine a seventeen hour condensed version of any book but that is what you have here. Seventeen hours makes for a very long audio book but if what you’re looking for is a comprehensive history of casino gaming then this is the book for you.

Eric Martin does a good job of winding through David G. Schwartz’s written journey of casino gaming from the early, ancient times until the early twenty-first century and from the Middle East through Europe to the United States and now beyond to Asia. I can’t imagine anything has been left out.

If you’re got the time “Roll The Bones” makes for interesting listening.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Narrator Ruins It

The depth and breadth of the information is stunning. It’s a fascinating journey from start to finish. Bravo to the author.

But the narrator is brutal. He simultaneously sounds like he couldn’t care less about a single word he’s saying, while somehow also managing to sound condescending and pretentious. It’s an awful combination, and one that’s soul destroying to listen to for sixteen hours.

Textbook type coverage, I liked second half better

This book is thorough and detailed, which is the right book for a certain listener. For me it dragged a bit in the early European and USA wild west phases. But all along, I was looking for the part that starts about 40 percent into the book, which is the mid-20th century and more recently in the USA with some highlights not only in Vegas, Havana and Atlantic City, but also in Indian gaming, and some international developments since then. With these latter parts I was well pleased. The narrator is among my 3 or 4 all-time favorites, though even that does not rescue the slower bits. The same author's bio of Caesar's founder Jay Sarno ("Grandissimo"), with the same narrator, was a racier story. Overall this definitely met my expectations and needs.