A high-tech adventure about breaking the bank in Las Vegas with toe-operated computers. The result is a veritable piñata of a book, which, when smashed by the readers enthusiastic attention, showers upon him everything from the history of useless roulette systems to the latest developments in chaos theory, said The New York Times. Richard Dawkins called it an astonishing and fascinating tale of scientific heroism. The Los Angeles Times said that Bass has done the best job so far of capturing the marriage of technical imagination and the communal coziness that gave birth to Silicon Valley.
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About the Author
Thomas Bass was a member of the group whose adventures are chronicled in The Eudaemonic Pie. He writes for The New Yorker, Wired and other magazines, and lives in New York and Paris.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
By Leutchik
Format:Paperback
What this team set out to do was only possible to get away with during a very narrow window in history. Sharp analytical and electronic skills at the dawn of the microelectronic age made it possible, and at a time when casinos weren't paying much attention to the threat posed by this emerging technology. Those days are gone forever. The casinos finally wised up around 1983.
Bass has done a great job of telling the story of how a couple of physics postgraduate students and their friends develop tiny computers controlled by toe switches enable them to achieve an edge over the casino at roulette.
This was particularly poignant for me, because I independently developed similar wheel-clocking methods and verified a 26% advantage over the house on a rented casino quality roulette wheel in 1976. The 'device law', which Nevada passed in the early 80's in response to people attempting to use technology to sack their coffers, largely put an end to concealed computers in casinos. Those to whom a felony rap is no deterrent are presumably still at it, using extremely advanced and difficult-to-detect hardware.
Bass' story is a fascinating read and highly reccommended.
Bass has done a great job of telling the story of how a couple of physics postgraduate students and their friends develop tiny computers controlled by toe switches enable them to achieve an edge over the casino at roulette.
This was particularly poignant for me, because I independently developed similar wheel-clocking methods and verified a 26% advantage over the house on a rented casino quality roulette wheel in 1976. The 'device law', which Nevada passed in the early 80's in response to people attempting to use technology to sack their coffers, largely put an end to concealed computers in casinos. Those to whom a felony rap is no deterrent are presumably still at it, using extremely advanced and difficult-to-detect hardware.
Bass' story is a fascinating read and highly reccommended.
19 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'll admit it: I'm a geek, and the idea of a bunch of math geniuses using homebuilt computers to beat roulette is right up my alley. The plot does not disappoint, as an eccentric band of high-octane misfits create a commune motivated by discovery, innovation and greed.
Unfortunately, the author's style is often ham-handed, leaving the reader with the unsettling feeling that the story should have been told differently. For one thing, the plot follows the project's timeline with mind-numbing accuracy. It's okay for journalism, but it leaves many of the juiciest details buried amongst mundane activities. In addition, the pacing does not change, giving the book a feel of bloodless efficiency rather than real passion or excitement.
A few years ago I read Paul Hoffman's "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers," the excellent biography of mathemetician Paul Erdos. The whole way through "Eudamonic Pie" I found myself wishing that Thomas Bass had emulated Hoffman's engaging intertwining of Erdos' life, the history of math and the obscure culture and argot of top mathemeticians. Instead, I found this book to be an interesting plot bogged down by a flat and lifeless style.
Sort of like Leonard Nimoy singing "Proud Mary."
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
- Love this story! There is some validity in the reviews that critique the pace/style of the writing. However, I read it back in the early 90s, and the fact that it is still a vivid recollection counts for something. The advantage of time passage in analysis is better context and objectivity. Of course the disadvantage is that the details are not fresh. Probably I have forgotten minor irritations with style, while the strongly positive impression lingers. I do not give 5 stars lightly; though in this case the rating is more for the intrinsic wonder of the tale more than the technical adeptness in the telling.
- The story is ultimately not about the goal, not about winning or losing or beating the house. Its really about the journeying. A unique shared human experience of some ordinary yet extraordinary people in ordinary yet extraordinary times. The ordinary draws the reader in with a continual reminder that it's a true story, magnifying the extraordinary nature of events. Somehow I found it intensely compelling to follow the characters and realize that in the same month I was, say, starting a newspaper route or trying to make the varsity soccer team, these offbeat-yet-practical, idealistic-yet-enterprising, brilliant-yet-sidetracked, anachronistic hippie-tinged grad students were mathematically modeling a roulette table in their central california bungalow or troubleshooting a shock-giving computer taped to their body in a casino bathroom hoping security won't find them out. Its a human story because its about about creativity, determination, curiosity, fear, motivation, joy, friendship and pain. Its a techno-geek-as-hero story as they blaze trails at the forefront of computer technology before you could even think about buying a TRS-80, much less a Commodore 64.... Read more ›
- The story is ultimately not about the goal, not about winning or losing or beating the house. Its really about the journeying. A unique shared human experience of some ordinary yet extraordinary people in ordinary yet extraordinary times. The ordinary draws the reader in with a continual reminder that it's a true story, magnifying the extraordinary nature of events. Somehow I found it intensely compelling to follow the characters and realize that in the same month I was, say, starting a newspaper route or trying to make the varsity soccer team, these offbeat-yet-practical, idealistic-yet-enterprising, brilliant-yet-sidetracked, anachronistic hippie-tinged grad students were mathematically modeling a roulette table in their central california bungalow or troubleshooting a shock-giving computer taped to their body in a casino bathroom hoping security won't find them out. Its a human story because its about about creativity, determination, curiosity, fear, motivation, joy, friendship and pain. Its a techno-geek-as-hero story as they blaze trails at the forefront of computer technology before you could even think about buying a TRS-80, much less a Commodore 64.... Read more ›
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Blue Tyson
Format:Hardcover
A group of students and researcher types are hanging out together and generally having a good time. They come up with a project, trying to beat casinos at roulette. After a long time spent on experiments and various methods, they manage to come up with one. It, of course involves various social techniques as well as the scientific ones to prevent them being booted out, as per usual. It is something that won't work today, though.
By Matt
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I first heard about this book during fall semester 1991 from a fellow math grad student at the University of Texas at Austin who had just moved into our way-too-cozy little RL Moore Hall (RLM) office of three. It was my sixth and last semester there. I was on my way out of the Ph.D. program without any new titles attached to my name, or special paper to flash at prospective employers. With money short, that last semester I slept nights in the office on a surprisingly comfortable bench intended solely for day visits from students and colleagues.*
It was with this backdrop of living in Hotel RLM and experiencing a renewed kinship with the Beatles lyric "Oh, that magic feeling, nowhere to go, nowhere to go," that I checked the book out of the university library and spent the next few gorgeous November afternoons lost in its pages on the South Mall, with a view of the Texas State Capitol building a mile to the south. Aged 32, I had still never been to a casino in my life (on a solo cross-country motorcycle trip six years earlier I'd stopped for gas, and gas only, on my way through Las Vegas).
This 1991 read still ranks among my most enjoyable of all time. I disagree with the author-ragging that's gone on in many of the comments here. Bass clearly put a lot of care and effort into the presentation. Upon reread, I still find it to be an inspired work of art and very well-written book.
The only minor thing I've noticed (in the paperback version, anyway) to really complain about are a few typos here and there that jump right out (e.g., "perennnially"). It seems a bit ironic given the subject material, that digital spell checkers evidently weren't used to copyedit the author's work.... Read more ›
It was with this backdrop of living in Hotel RLM and experiencing a renewed kinship with the Beatles lyric "Oh, that magic feeling, nowhere to go, nowhere to go," that I checked the book out of the university library and spent the next few gorgeous November afternoons lost in its pages on the South Mall, with a view of the Texas State Capitol building a mile to the south. Aged 32, I had still never been to a casino in my life (on a solo cross-country motorcycle trip six years earlier I'd stopped for gas, and gas only, on my way through Las Vegas).
This 1991 read still ranks among my most enjoyable of all time. I disagree with the author-ragging that's gone on in many of the comments here. Bass clearly put a lot of care and effort into the presentation. Upon reread, I still find it to be an inspired work of art and very well-written book.
The only minor thing I've noticed (in the paperback version, anyway) to really complain about are a few typos here and there that jump right out (e.g., "perennnially"). It seems a bit ironic given the subject material, that digital spell checkers evidently weren't used to copyedit the author's work.... Read more ›
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Alternately inspiring, frustrating and ultimately annoying
I read this book before I went to college, and was suitably inspired. It read as a sort of breathless epic tale of high intellectual adventure, pitting a gang of brilliant and... Read more
Published on September 14, 2009 by Scott C. Locklin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Win at Roulette? You bet!
Others have reviewed the book stylistically and have outlined the plot; I have little to add, except a brief postscript:
The book ends with a major disappointment: The... Read more
The book ends with a major disappointment: The... Read more
Published on July 6, 2009 by Mark Billings
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Fascinating Tale!
Sometimes the plot of a book outweighs writing that is poor (The Da Vinci Code) or mediocre (Harry Potter Boxset Books 1-7). Read more
Published on May 29, 2009 by D. Jones
2.0 out of 5 stars
crapped out literature
hey if you want to read a well written book look somewhere else. I managed to finish this book because I kept in near my bed and it got me to sleep faster. Read more
Published on August 25, 2005 by Jeremy D. Johnson
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Piece of the Pi (or, How I Learnt to Love 22 and Hate 7)
A motley bunch of talented individuals driven by a mixture of altruism and selfishness but above all by a challenge simply because it is there, is a setting as old as humanity... Read more
Published on October 14, 2000 by Azeez Allawala
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Piece of the Pi
A motley bunch of talented individuals driven by a mixture of altruism and selfishness but above all by a challenge simply because it is there, is a setting as old as humanity... Read more
Published on October 14, 2000 by Azeez Allawala
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