Thursday, April 03, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Books: Tilting the odds

Novelist James Swain writes about what he knows: casino cheats

By John Ziebell

"If it wasn't for Las Vegas," novelist James Swain says, "I wouldn't be doing this."

This refers to writing a series of novels that feature former Atlantic City cop Tony Valentine, whose mission in life is catching casino cheats. And Las Vegas is where Valentine's creator witnessed his first casino cheat in action, at the Golden Nugget, where he was playing blackjack while waiting for a magician friend to finish a gig.

"The guy switched hands, collected and split," Swain says. "By the time the pit boss and the dealer figured out what happened, he had disappeared."

That was in 1987. The incident piqued the writer's curiosity, and he began researching the phenomenon. Swain has a background that predisposed him to the study; besides being an educated player, he trained professionally as a sleight-of-hand artist and is recognized as one of the world's best card handlers. These elements have culminated in three novels--Grift Sense, Funny Money and the most recent, Sucker Bet-- that provide not only taut narratives, engaging language and solid characters, but fascinating insights into the world of scams and schemers.

"I found an area of crime that has never been written about," Swain says. "I knew magicians who could cheat. I met guys who caught hustlers. I talked to some people who were in Atlantic City when gambling was introduced there--it was a candy store back then. Hustlers streamed in from everywhere and took the casinos for millions."

That's a fate Swain fears is shared by a number of the 300-odd tribal casinos that have opened in recent years. Newer casinos, less experienced management, younger people controlling games and money... "Are they easier to scam?" Swain asks rhetorically. "Of course they are."

Like physicians, hustlers specialize. The term for those who focus specifically on beating casinos is "crossroaders," a phrase coined, according to Swain, in the days when gambling houses were located on intersecting thoroughfares. While the geography has changed, much remains the same, and the nature of the industry precludes it from ever being failsafe.

"Casinos know the overall odds work to their advantage," Swain says, "but the one thing they fear is the human mind."

First, crossroaders are significantly shrewder than the average felon; they have to be. Many currently successful scams work, according to Swain, because they have slipped below the institutional radar--"so old they're new again." And smart cheats have gotten into the habit of taking the long view: "They'll milk the cow, not slaughter it." Even slot cheats have become highly sophisticated.

"Most big scams," Swain says, "there's an inside guy. But not always. All the casino knows is that money is flying out the door. I've seen films of things so baffling they'd be impossible to explain."

The old saw "it takes one to catch one" holds true here. Again, the human mind--the one thing casinos fear most--can also be their greatest weapon against crossroaders. "It's called `grift sense,'" Swain says, "a hustler's term for the thing that scares them the most, somebody on the other side who thinks exactly the same way they do."

While Swain's protagonist Valentine personifies grift sense, and the author himself is a walking encyclopedia of scams and their infinite permutations, he's in the business of creating characters, not catching bad guys. "I'm a novelist who writes about cheating," he says, "not a cheat who decided to write a book."

So what would change if Jim Swain were running a casino? "Mega-slots. As a rule, casinos don't gamble. Walk up to any roulette wheel and try to put a million dollars on five--they'll say no. They'll go 50 K, but when there's a 3 percent chance they'll have to give back your million dollars along with 34 million of theirs, they won't take it.

"Mega-slots are a big draw, but they're also that kind of gamble. And it's a very technological world. A while ago I heard that some kids at a Japanese university managed to download information from a U2 spy plane when it flew over. Think about that. Now, suppose 20 simultaneous slot jackpots hit for $4 or $5 million each?"

Any final advice for the gamers among us? "Know the odds," Swain says. "And don't play any games with screwy rules."