5 Brilliant Works of Fiction on Gambling
Gambling is undoubtedly one of the most popular pastime activities across the globe. This is why we’ve seen many online casinos crop up every now and then over the past few years. Take a look at casino jungle to know more. They cater to gamblers who love to play their favorite games from the comfort of their homes. However, this activity can also turn into a habit that gamblers can’t stay away from.
Reading some excellent books on gambling helps to some extent. Such books provide some interesting insights into the world of gambling and how one must play responsibly. Over the years, there have been many brilliant literary works on this subject. Most of them are instructional in nature. However, there are several works of fiction that contain valuable lessons for you.
You’ll certainly find the fictional works on gambling quite entertaining and insightful. Here, we’ll focus on some of these brilliant works of fiction:
1. Casino Royale
This novel is about James Bond, a British secret agent. He aims to bankrupt a member of the Russian secret service. His name is Le Chiffre. Besides being with the Russian secret service, Le Chiffre is also the treasurer of a French union. Bond receives great support from Vesper Lynd, CIA’s Felix Leiter, and Rene Mathis from the French Deuxieme Bureau.
The spy storyline of this novel deals with the themes of United Kingdom’s position in the world. It also tells us more about the country’s relationship with the United States. This is in light of the defections of Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess to the Soviet Union. Casino Royale is the first novel of Ian Fleming, the renowned British author.
While writing this novel, Fleming used his wartime experiences and the people he met at the time. He was a member of the Naval Intelligence Division. His experiences provided some excellent plot elements to the story. He completed the draft in early 1952 while awaiting his marriage. At the beginning, he was not sure whether his draft was worthy of being published.
He was then given an assurance by William Plomer, his friend, that the novel had great potential. The novel came out on the 13th of April, 1953, in the United Kingdom. This book received several positive reviews from the critics at the time. It was sold out within a month after its release and paved the way for the next eleven novels.
2. Loser Takes All
In Loser Takes All, the main character is Bertram, an accountant. He heads to Monte Carlo along with Cary, his fiance, to meet his boss on a yacht. They wait for a long time in the yacht, but his boss never shows up. The couple are put up in an expensive hotel. They try to make the most of the money that they have. When they begin running out of money, they must do something to avoid getting into further trouble.
Bertram tries to develop a system in order to win big at roulette. He gambles all of the money to such an extent that he begins borrowing funds. Finally, he finds out the winning formula for the system he was developing. Upon applying this formula, he does win big, but it’s too late. Cary falls for another gambler. Later, Bertram meets the individual who owns the shares that control his company.
This shareholder isn’t doing well while gambling and asks Bertram for funds. Bertram asks for repayment in return for his help. He gets the controlling shares for his company as the repayment. This short story by Graham Greene is interesting as well as funny. It was released in 1955.
3. God Doesn’t Shoot Craps
This book tells an exciting tale of how the main character manages to get himself out of trouble. God Doesn’t Shoot Craps was written by the author Richard Armstrong. The main character, Danny, is a con man who uses direct mail scheme to get rich. He is thinking of using a new angle when he meets Virgil Kirk, a rich inventor.
Virgil develops a strategy for craps based on mathematics, which has the potential for a big win. Danny finds out that the formula is highly effective as well as lucrative. The formula for the success of this system doesn’t remain a secret for long. Soon, the mobsters come to know about this strategy.
4. Dice Angel
In this novel by Brian Rouff, Jimmy Delaney is the main character. Following his father’s death, he inherits the bar that his father owned in Las Vegas. Jimmy is still recovering from a gambling problem, which has also destroyed his marriage. When you first get introduced to Jimmy in the book, he is doing pretty well. He is staying away from gambling and casinos.
He gets an unexpected call from the police and he learns that someone has robbed his bar. An amount of $12,000 has been stolen from the bar’s video poker machines. The police suspect the role of Jimmy’s employees in the act. Jimmy trusts the people who work at his bar. The IRS is behind Jimmy and if he doesn’t recover the money, he’ll lose his establishment.
Under such circumstances, Jimmy needs big money and he is running out of time. He happens to run into a homeless guy who gives him a business card. It belongs to an individual called ‘Dice Angel’. This mysterious guy is the one who can help him win at craps. At first, this seems like a crazy idea to Jimmy but he also has to act fast. He has only two weeks to get the money and save his business.
5. The House Always Wins
This is yet another fantastic work of fiction from Brian Rouff. In this novel, the central character is Anna Christiansen. She is a reporter who resides in a small town. Anna falls in love with a bass player whom she has interviewed. She gets married to him and is pregnant when she moves to Las Vegas. They’re staying in a house, which is haunted by a Las Vegas racketeer.
Anna gets into a conflict with a greedy casino owner. He wants the block that has Anna’s house on it and build a parking lot. She decides to fight for her house and gets some help from the ghost residing in it. This book would surely entertain you as it is a rather lighthearted take on gambling fiction.