By way of boingboing.net:

"Simon Lovell's "How to Cheat at Everything: A Con Man Reveals the Secrets of the Esoteric Trade of Cheating, Scams and Hustles," is a veritable encyclopedia of cons, scams, tricks and rip-offs. Lovell is a magician by trade, and much of the book is given over to detailed sleight-of-hand HOWTOs for palming, greasing, fixing and cheating cards, dice, coins, and so on. ... charming, breezy anaecdotes about rip-off bar-bets, boiler-room operations, and so on. ... Reading this thing cover-to-cover can leave you feeling pretty ***ed paranoid.

Amazon link

This is the paperback release of Billion Dollar Bunko.

Just ordered it. When BDB came out I passed it up thinking, "Oh I'll get it later on." Dumb-a** move! Anyway I can't wait to read it. Should be here in 5 or 6 days!

nola

I picked it up in paperback for $20. It's a good read but not much of the how-to manuals that magicians expect.

I bought it last week, and I already read it cover to cover.

It is true that although he shows you the moves and explain them, he doesn't teach you exactly how to do it. The goal of the book is to prove that Knowledge is Power. You get a VIP insight into the shady world of the con workers without risking your knee caps (phew..). You get to understand the psychology, the ruses,etc..

Bottom line: I'll never bet again..."I lost a pound"

What didn't he teach? Perhaps my 'street' past made it so I didn't need the detail some need to catch on but I thought he did a fine job teaching. Maybe he edited that part out for the paperback version.

Santa wasnt you the one who was hot under the collar because I critized the guy who protects the casino from hustlers. So what street past could you possibly have? Were you a snitcher on the street also?

MagicSanta, I'm refering mostly to the card section..I forgot to mention it
The other bets and cons are quite explicit in their description, but the card section only outlines the various moves. The thing is the author wants the reader to be able to recognize those moves, not duplicate them

If I understood correclty, after reading this, we should know the move exist, we should know how it is done...but we may lack some information to pull it off (let alone practice).

Memph, I may have said the casinos are not criminals in the same way you state you are because a casinos game are openly taking advantage of people while on the street the goal is to hustle and cheat. I wasn't hot under the collar son, I just expect a thief to call himself a thief. Years ago I use to hustle pool (low level), hock phony watches and forget to come back to retrieve it to people in bars, just to make a few bucks. It was illegal and thievery by deception and I admit it I don't try to justify it by saying "the casinos make money too".

As for the book it doesn't teach one how to cheat at cards etc like one might think so that fellow is correct.

This is a great book but the condensed version of Billion Dollar Buncko.

I do like this book. The name is so great that you can make jokes by just picking it up in your magic show.
Also I like th material

This is *not* a condensed version of Billion Dollar Bunko. It *is* Billion Dollar Bunko with the name changed to protect the innocent.

ajp

Thank you Andrew, I know you speak from a position of authority. I was always under the assumption it was edited differently for paperback release. I stand corrected. Hope all is well with you.

An old thread, I know ... however, I have just come across this.
It certainly is an encyclopedia of knowledge.

He covers everything you can imagine.