Covering all aspects of gambling, The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic is mathematically sophisticated, but can be read for what it says about the games and strategies, skipping the technicalities. The material is fascinating and detailed, and the analysis is masterful.

[Man] invented a concept that has since been variously viewed as a vice, a crime, a business, a pleasure, a type of magic, a disease, a folly, a weakness, a form of sexual substitution, an expression of the human instinct. He invented gambling.Richard Epstein's classic book on gambling and its mathematical analysis covers the full range of games from penny matching, to blackjack and other casino games, to the stock market (including Black-Scholes analysis). He even considers what light statistical inference can shed on the study of paranormal phenomena. Epstein is witty and insightful, a pleasure to dip into and read and rewarding to study.

A work on gambling and its mathematical analysis that covers a range of games from penny matching to blackjack, from Tic-Tac-Toe to the stock market (including Edward Thorp's warrant-hedging analysis).

Stochastic calculus has important applications to mathematical finance. This book will appeal to practitioners and students who want an elementary introduction to these areas. From the reviews: "As the preface says, ‘This is a text with an attitude, and it is designed to reflect, wherever possible and appropriate, a prejudice for the concrete over the abstract’. This is also reflected in the style of writing which is unusually lively for a mathematics book." --ZENTRALBLATT MATH

The first edition of this book was reprinted eight times. This book introduces and develops some of the important and beautiful elementary mathematics needed for rational analysis of various gambling and game activities. Most of the standard casino games (roulette, blackjack, keno), some social games (backgammon, poker, bridge) and various other activities (state lotteries, horse racing, etc.) are treated in ways that bring out their mathematical aspects. The mathematics developed ranges from the predictable concepts of probability, expectation, and binomial coefficients to some less well-known ideas of elementary game theory. The second edition includes new material on: sports betting and the mathematics behind it; Game theory applied to bluffing in poker and related to the Texas Holdem phenomenon; The Nash equilibrium concept and its emergence in the popular culture; Internet links to games and to Java applets for practice and classroom use. The only formal mathematics background the reader needs is some facility with high school algebra. Game-related exercises are included at the end of most chapters for readers interested in working with and expanding ideas treated in the text. Solutions to some of the exercises appear at the end of the book.