American Gambler Book Club
Each week, host David Hill invites friends and guests to discuss a gambling-themed book, however loosely defined, along with whatever else comes up. Writers, entertainers, bon vivants, and other smart and interesting people help him figure out what belongs in the canon of books about gamblers as he works on his own contribution to that canon. The podcast is presented by InGame.com. It is part of David Hill's Substack feed.
Episodes
Beneath the Cards with Caitlin Comeskey
The last time we discussed Garrett Adelstein on this show was when we talked about the famous “Jack-Four” hand on the episode about Nate Silver’s On the Edge. This week we go even deeper into not only that infamous hand, but Garrett’s fascinating and turbulent life story, told in his new memoir Beneath the Cards: A High Stakes, High Anxiety Poker Journey. Joining me to discuss Beneath the Cards is
You Can’t Win with Karl Johnson
Karl Johnson, author of The Magician and the Cardsharp, returns to the show to discuss Jack Black’s 1926 memoir of crime and punishment, You Can’t Win. Jack Black was a gambler, conman, burglar, safecracker, opium addict, train hopper and prison escapee who lived through the straightjacket at Folsom Prison. He eventually went straight and published his memoir to great critical acclaim. The book th
The House of Mirth with Kate Knibbs
Edith Wharton’s tragic 1905 satirical novel The House of Mirth is about the commodification of women, the hypocrisy and false moral rectitude of the rich, and the conflict between art and romance and the strict social order of the Gilded Age. It’s also about gambling - on cards, on stocks, and on love.I’m joined to discuss this American classic by the writer Kate Knibbs. Kate is a senior writer at
Good Vibes with John Reeder
John Reeder is the host of the podcast Risk of Ruin (“the This American Life for gamblers”) and a scholar of all things gambling-related. He joins me this week to discuss Jay Cronley’s 1979 darkly-comic novel Good Vibes, which was the inspiration for the 1989 film Let It Ride. Listen to Risk of RuinRead Good Vibes by Jay CronleyTheme music by TRØN THE ARCHERCheck out Edge Boost (use promo code AGB
A Brief History of Sports Gambling in America
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidhill.substack.comThis is the talk I gave at Bet Bash earlier this month. As I state at the beginning, this isn’t a comprehensive history or even a scholarly one. It’s merely a collection of anecdotes and stories I found surprising and interesting as I’ve researched this topic over the last couple of years. Folks at Bet Bash seemed
Odds Man Out with Jay Cohen
Jay Cohen was one of the founders of World Sports Exchange in 1997, the first ever fully online sports betting site. In 2000 he was the first person ever convicted of violating the federal Wire Act for running an online sportsbook, despite the fact that his company was fully established and licensed in Antigua and that he built it with the advice of an army of lawyers, accountants and consultants
Over/Under with David Bockino
Elon University professor David Bockino’s new book on the history of sports gambling makes the case that sports in America aren’t corrupted by gambling - but owe their very existence to the undeniable American urge to gamble. He joins me on this episode to discuss his book and his research. Buy Over/Under: An Unexpected History of Sports GamblingAmerican Gambler is a reader-supported publication.
The Natural with Charles Star
I finally broke my standing rule of “No Fiction” in this episode to read Bernard Malamud’s debut novel The Natural. If you’ve seen the 1984 film adaptation starring Robert Redford but, like me, had never read the novel, you will be shocked at how radically different the story in the 1952 novel is from that of the feel-good film. Joining me to discuss is the co-host of the No Homework podcast Charl
On the Edge with Jennifer Shahade
Nate Silver’s 2024 bestseller On the Edge: Risking it All is a deep-dive into the philosophical and cultural underpinnings of our modern-day gambling-obsessed America. In nearly six hundred pages he examines everything from poker to cryptocurrency to AI, and presents an ontology that divides American elites into “The River” and “The Village”: risk-takers and risk-averse. Joining me to discuss it i
Book Club: Something for Nothing Chapters 4 & 5
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidhill.substack.comOur current book club pick is Something for Nothing: Luck in America by Jackson Lears. We’re trying something new for this book: weekly livestream discussions. Tune in live each week to watch for free or subscribe and get access to the archived videos. This week we continue with a discussion of Chapters 4 & 5. Amer
Book Club: Something for Nothing Chapters 1-3
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidhill.substack.comOur current book club pick is Something for Nothing: Luck in America by Jackson Lears. We’re trying something new for this book: weekly livestream discussions. Tune in live each week on Mondays at 2pm to watch or subscribe and get access to the archive. This week we kick it off with a discussion of the Introduction
The Gambling Animal with Kit Chellel
Two experimental economists spent decades studying the way human beings evaluate risk and probability by doing gambling experiments on people all over the world. Then they repeated those experiments with elephants. What they learned might hold the key to some of humanity's most pressing issues - including climate change. This week we read The Gambling Animal: Humanity’s Evolutionary Winning Streak
Gamblers and the Public Gaze with Danny Funt
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidhill.substack.comAfter reading the recent Atlantic cover story on sports gambling I knew I needed to vent about it to someone, so I asked my friend Danny Funt to come on my substack and have a friendly debate about it. He’s the author of the book Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling and has been covering
Bookie with Roxy Roxborough
Gary Mayer’s first (and only?) book came out in 1974 when he was 29 years old. It was an account of the two and a half years he spent working for his bookie to pay off his debts called Bookie: My Life in Disorganized Crime. It was darkly funny and at the time it was well received. Over the years it has faded into obscurity, and its author and subject both gone with little trace of the rest of thei
Jimmy the Greek with Peter Richmond
We’re kicking off the second season of AGBC with the memoir of perhaps the most famous American gambler of all time: Jimmy the Greek Snyder. Known as the “Oddsmaker to the Nation” during his twelve-year run on CBS, his life was a high-stakes drama defined by a presidential pardon, the tragic loss of his children, and an abrupt 1988 downfall that he claimed “carved his guts right out”.This episode
Movie Club! Marty Supreme with Ursula Lawrence
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidhill.substack.comI had a fun conversation with Ursula Lawrence about Marty Supreme. We talked about the incredible cast, the ways the film explores life in the immediate aftermath of the war, and the ways that it is as much a gambling movie as Uncut Gems. We also check the prices on Kalshi and decide it’s a strong BUY at $0.07. Ame
The (writing) Struggle is Real with Gina Fiore
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidhill.substack.comIn the first of what I hope will be a number of regular Substack Live conversations here, I had a really enlightening conversation with Gina Fiore. Gina is also in the midst of trying to complete a book, and we talked all about the writing process and the fears and anxieties that accompany publishing. Some of the b
The Big Short with Sal Gentile
The final episode of the year AND the season, and it’s a good one. This week we read Michael Lewis’s 2010 bestseller The Big Short, a book about gambling at the highest of stakes, the unlikely characters who won big, and the losers who let the American people settle their debt. Joining me to discuss The Big Short is Sal Gentile, who writes A Closer Look on Late Night with Seth Meyers. Sal and I di
Laughing in the Hills with Peter Thomas Fornatale
Laughing in the Hills, Bill Barich’s 1979 memoir of ten weeks spent at Golden Gate Fields racetrack in Northern California, was named one of Sports Illustrated’s Top 100 Sports Books of All Time. First serialized in The New Yorker, the book is about far more than the sport of horse racing, and far more than just gambling. It’s about grief, philosophy, art, culture, spirituality, media, and more. I
The Vig with Peter Alson
This week we do something a little different. Our paid subscriber book club met up in Brooklyn over the weekend to play some low-stakes poker with Peter Alson, the author of our most recent book club pick, The Vig: Confessions of an Ivy League Bookie. This episode is a recording of a conversation with Peter during that game. Presented by InGame.com. Buy The Vig by Peter AlsonBuy Take Me to the Riv
A Fan's Notes with John Semley
This week we discuss a book that has it all: a writer succumbs to alcohol and ends up in a mental institution, fist fights with random strangers, has tons of meaningless sex, engages in self righteousness, self hatred, and cynicism in equal measure, rejects middle class morality, and acts as a courier for a single bet made on a football game (we had to get some gambling in there somewhere). The bo
Titanic Thompson with Steve Ruddock
Kevin Cook’s 2010 book The True Story of Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet on Everything is a superbly written, thoroughly researched, novel-like history of one of the most fabled figures in the annals of gambling lore: Alvin Thomas. I’m joined to discuss the book and all things Titanic by the journalist and former poker pro Steve Ruddock, creator of the substack Straight to the Point. Presented b
Learning from Las Vegas with Molly Lambert
This week on the show we discuss the classic architecture text Learning from Las Vegas, a book that revolutionized design theory by rejecting the original and heroic and celebrating the ugly and ordinary - qualities the authors found in abundant supply in 1966 on the Las Vegas Strip. My guest to discuss this book is the funny and brilliant Molly Lambert: a cultural critic, journalist, and the crea
The Smart Money with David Purdum
Michael Konik set out to write a magazine article about a famous sports gambler. Instead he ended up working for him for years. When Konik finally had enough of the gambling life he wrote a memoir called The Smart Money, and it offers a rare up-close view of the ins and outs of one of the biggest sports betting operations in American history. Joining me to discuss it is ESPN’s David Purdum. We tal
Low Life with Peter Alson
Lucy Sante’s 1991 book Low Life is a survey of life among the underclass of New York City in the nineteenth century - a life that was oft described as “sporting,” which is to say one filled with sex, booze, and gambling. It’s a brilliant work of research and writing that feels decidedly un-academic and poetic, yet still tells many tales long forgotten by many historians. Joining me to discuss Low
Dangerous Odds with Gina Fiore
This week’s book is a potboiler of a memoir of one young woman’s time in the trenches of the biggest illegal bookmaking operation in the United States. Joining me to discuss it is writer and professional gambler Gina Fiore. We have a wide ranging conversation that touches on everything from sweepstakes casinos to fantasies about hockey players. Presented by InGame.comRead “Polymarket May Not Be Ab
The Noble Hustle with Ian Frisch
This week we once again venture into the realm of the World Series of Poker and read The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky and Death by Colson Whitehead, a memoir of the 2011 WSOP which has the dubious distinction of possibly being the worst book ever written by the greatest living American writer. My guest is Ian Frisch, author of the new book Inside the Cartel. Presented by InGame.com. Buy The Nob
The Big Player with Richard Munchkin
And we’re back! This week I am joined by Blackjack Hall of Fame member Richard Munchkin to discuss Ken Uston’s messy and outrageous debut book, The Big Player. For most of the 1980s Ken Uston was a celebrity for beating casinos at blackjack. He wrote countless books, his picture adorned magazine covers and video game boxes, he appeared on national television and hung out with stars. And The Big Pl
Life's Work with Ursula Lawrence
This week the television writer Ursula Lawrence joins me to talk about Deadwood creator David Milch’s memoir Life’s Work. We talk about addiction, ego, generational trauma, prestige television, meat raffles, and so much more. Presented by InGame.com. Read “CNN Failed To Tell ‘The Whole Story’ Of Sports Betting Expansion” by Jill R. Dorson at InGame.com Buy Life’s Work by David MilchAmerican Gamble
The Biggest Game in Town with Lance Bradley
This week I discuss Al Alvarez’s classic The Biggest Game in Town with writer and poker-chronicler-du-jour Lance Bradley. The book details the British poet and critic’s month spent in downtown Las Vegas covering the 1981 World Series of Poker for The New Yorker, and it continues to be celebrated to this day as one of the greatest books on poker ever written. We discuss the romanticism of gambling,
Vegas with Haley Mlotek
This week’s episode is recorded in a hotel room in downtown Vegas, which is fitting because I discuss the book Vegas: Memoir of a Dark Season by John Gregory Dunne. Joining me is Haley Mlotek, author of the acclaimed book No Fault: A Memoir of Romance and Divorce. We talk about Las Vegas, love, divorce, fiction, fantasy, debauchery, empathy, and, of course, Joan Didion. Presented by InGame.com. Re
The Magician and the Cardsharp with Karl Johnson
This week we travel to 69 Atlantic in Brooklyn to watch a magic show and then discuss The Magician and the Cardsharp - the story of the world’s greatest magician in search of the world’s greatest card cheat during the Great Depression - with none other than the author of the book himself, Karl Johnson. We discuss the intersection of magic and gambling, the history of wide-open gambling towns in th
The Odds Must Be Crazy with Ryan Goldberg
Eclipse Award-winning journalist and author Ryan Goldberg joins me for a day of racing at Aqueduct to bet on some horses and discuss former union organizer-turned-horserace handicapper Len Ragozin’s memoir The Odds Must Be Crazy: Beating the Races With the Man Who Revolutionized Handicapping. Presented by InGame.com. Buy Bird City by Ryan GoldbergRead “The Fanatics Difference? It Doesn’t Need Spor
Fast Company with Michael Kaplan
America’s foremost gambling journalist Michael Kaplan joins me to talk about the 1975 book Fast Company: How Six Master Gamblers Defy the Odds and Always Win, a collection of work by the man once dubbed “the Indiana Jones of magazine journalism”: Jon Bradshaw. Presented by InGame.com.Read “Why Fantasy Sports Ruling Could Cost Democrats Young Male Voters” at InGame.comBuy The Ocean is Closed by Jon
The Telephone Booth Indian with Oliver Roeder
Scrabble player, NYT crossword constructor, puzzle maker, backgammon hustler, economics PhD, Harvard fellow and all-around brilliant writer Oliver Roeder from the Financial Times joins me this week to discuss AJ Liebling’s 1942 collection The Telephone Booth Indian, which includes profiles of carnies, cutmen and con artists - as well as some of the country’s biggest bookies and gamblers. Presented
National Football Lottery with Jay Kang
The New Yorker’s Jay Kang joins me to discuss Larry Merchant’s 1973 book National Football Lottery, a work of stunt journalism where Merchant gambles his book advance each week on the NFL. Presented by InGame.com. Buy The Loneliest Americans by Jay Kang by clicking hereBuy The Dead Do Not Improve by Jay Kang by clicking hereFollow Jay Kang on twitterListen to Jay’s podcast Time to Say Goodbye This
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