Bats at work in Reno & Vegas

I spoke to Bats the other day. Mentioned in an earlier post, Bats is one of the cheaters that had to be edited out of my book out of concerns over its length.

Bats and his crew run a staple ‘move’ of tracking aces and reading hole cards at blackjack. He told me he spent most of the last few weeks with his team up in Reno, where one can still find quite a few handheld blackjack games and dealers who still unwittingly flash their hole cards before tucking them under, giving Bats and his cohorts a super edge. Back in Vegas, they boldly stood tall against the six and eight-deck shoes and tracked enough aces to beat the pants off the MGM, Bellagio and the casino where my surveillance friend spotted the Italians, which of course I cannot divulge.

Their current plans are to head out east to give Atlantic City a whirl before going back to Vegas for New Year’s Eve, always the most profitable evening of the year for casino cheaters, scammers and even those who legitimately count the cards at blackjack.

I was disappointed with not being able to include Bats and many other cheaters and stories in my book, wherein I could more ably portray him as the unique character that he is. But, what can I say, if St, Martin’s had let me write 1000 pages, I would’ve done it.

On the positive side, it seems as if Bats likes my blog. He indicated he is amenable to providing updates of his cheating adventures for me to pass along to readers from time to time. Plus, I’ve got plenty more stories to tell about him as well as many other colorful characters.

I selected the best stories to include in AMERICAN ROULETTE, ones that work well to paint an accurate portrait of a 25 year career cheating casinos. On the whole, I think the edited version of AMERICAN ROULETTE worked out well. After all, my entire marriage was edited out -- I wish my editor had been able to make my ex-wife disappear from my real life as easily as he did in the book.