The olympian John Scarne, the States' ruling expert on gambling casinos and their games, gives us many hints on how to beat the odds at craps, blackjack, twenty-one, roulette, the slots, shimmy (Chemin de Fer), and baccarat, and many of the casino side games. For once, though, Scarne has compromised himself by attacking his competitors in the gambling-book racket without saying just how these fellas are so damned wrong. He gives the dirk to Professor Edward O. Thorp's Beat the Dealer (1962), with its computerized analysis of odds and says simply that it was based on ""a false mathematical premise."" Then he shoves the old Scarne stiletto to Ian Andersen (Turning the Tables on Las Vegas) and other card counters who memorized the dead cards in blackjack and know just how thin or rich the deck is getting toward the bottom where they tend to bet more heavily if the odds favor them. ""Several of these windbags, having achieved their intended goal of being barred from a number of casinos due to their disruptive behavior, hired lawyers to start court actions against these casinos for violating their civil rights, and each asks enormous damages for his alleged sufferings."" What's compromising is that Scarne's Casino Consultants, his own firm, is often hired by casinos to root out the systems of big winners and have those ""cheaters"" barred from honest casinos. Scarne's new guide is plainly the best available and rarely dull, but it's also richly self-serving with a stacked deck.