Busting Vegas: A True Story of Monumental Excess, Sex, Love, Violence, and Beating the Odds

Written by Ben Mezrich

Narrated by Ben Mezrich

Semyon Dukach was known as the darling of Las Vegas. A legend at twenty-one, this cocky hotshot was the biggest high roller to appear in Sin City in decades, a mathematical genius with a system the casinos had never seen before and couldn't stop -- a system that had nothing to do with card counting, wasn't illegal, and was more powerful than anything that had been tried before.

Las Vegas. Atlantic City. Aruba. Barcelona. London. And the jewel of the gambling crown -- Monte Carlo.

Dukach and his fellow MIT students hit them all and made millions. They came in hard, with stacks of cash; big, seemingly insane bets; women hanging on their arms; and fake identities. While they were taking classes and studying for exams during the week, over the weekends they stormed the blackjack tables, only to be banned from casinos, harassed, on the wrong end of guns, and beaten in the notorious back rooms of casinos.

The stakes were high, the dangers very real, but the players were up to the challenges, the consequences be damned. In the classroom, they were geeks. On the casino floor, they were unstoppable. Busting Vega$ is Dukach's unbelievably true story; a riveting account of monumental greed, excess, hubris, sex, love, violence, fear, and statistics that is high-stakes entertainment at its best.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Sep 27, 2005
• ISBN: 9780061121104

Ben Mezrich

Ben Mezrich graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991. He has published twelve books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Accidental Billionaires, which was adapted into the Academy Award-winning film The Social Network, and Bringing Down the House, which has sold more than 1.5 million copies in twelve languages and became the basis for the Kevin Spacey movie 21. Mezrich has also published the national bestsellers Sex on the Moon, Ugly Americans, Rigged, and Busting Vegas. He lives in Boston.

Reviews for Busting Vegas

[Luke · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Found this accidentally after reading the one about the other MIT team (card counters). Great story, love how it’s written. My only thing was the music between chapters was awful. But that’s minor and I would listen again. Interview at the end was a fun touch.

[nielsengw_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book is good but not great. There are so many hallmarks of a misadventure doomed to fail that the end of the story comes with more sadness than you'd expect. Semyon Dukach gets recruited into a group of students at MIT who learn techniques to use at blackjack tables for profit. He learns, he wins, and then he loses. I'm sure he was chasing his way to a semi-comfortable life, but the egos and faults of those around him prevent that. Mezrich's writing is pretty decent, but nothing above the style of a true crime or beat newspaper author. It's a quick read if you have an afternoon to kill.

[ecw0647 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The book opens with a girls’ lineup in a Nevada brothel. (That will get your attention.) He follows the chosen girl up to a room, 232, and there the girl leaves and he meets up with the Russian MIT student who had used a technique that would take millions from the casinos. It was the safest place to meet.

Forget counting cards that only increases your advantage slightly, this team, led by Victor (of whom we really learn very little), another MIT student, this team developed several strategies that involved knowing exactly how to cut cards and would seek out dealers who were just a bit sloppy during the shuffle. (I know nothing about Vegas or Blackjack but don’t they all use mechanical shufflers now? In fact, Mezrich suggests this change was a direct outcome of the casinos’ fear of the MIT strategy.) In any case, these techniques increased their odds to 30% or better, a huge advantage, and by knowing just when to place the bets and knowing when the dealer was going to bust, they could take in hundreds of thousands in just a few hours.

The casinos were not stupid and knew they were doing something (the kids had fake IDs and posed as wealthy businessmen or foreigners) but couldn’t figure out what. Not that they were doing anything illegal except that to casinos anything that doesn’t give them their guaranteed 2-5% edge is wrong and needs to be punished.

The book has been somewhat controversial with some of the principals reporting the events didn’t happen as reported in the book. So take it with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, it’s a good read, just assume it’s like a novel. I’m downgrading it a bit because it feels very superficial, more a recounting of what happened (certainly fascinating in itself) but without much analysis of the characters and their motivation.

Perhaps the great irony is that their strategies had little to do with math and probability (MIT students weren’t needed, the personalities were more crucial) and more with concentration, card control, and knowing how to cut decks precisely. In an interview at the end of the book, Mezrich insists he still uses the techniques successfully in Vegas. Bullshit. I don’t buy it.

Audiobook read by the author who does a creditable job.

[scrub_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very Entertaining!!!!

[skokie_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had to wonder while reading this book whether the infromation was true ... or whether the author was attempting to cash in on his earlier success on this topic. I found the stories to be entertaining and outrageous, while striking a cord with the inner-criminal in the reader.

[nekosohana · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good, but nowhere near as good as Mezrich's 'Bringing Down the House'. This is about an alternative gambling system that some MIT wiz kids develop to beat the vegas blackjack tables.

Still pretty good, and a nice light read, but if you have never read Mezrich's books, start with the original, you won't be dissapointed.

[mayumikamon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Outrageous but entertaining.