Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Ben Mezrich Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions
Book Review: Hit Me!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great story and the writing stands up to the quality of the story itself. It leads the reader through the rise and ultimate fall of a team that approaches Blackjack as if it were a sport that can be trained for and mastered rather than a game of chance. Absolutely great. Could have given greater perspective on those who developed the card counting methods that the MIT team built upon, but that's just a nit pick. Read this book if you have any affinity to playing games!Book Review: When you mess with casinos, they start messing back...
Summary: 4 Stars
After seeing the previews for the movie "21", I remembered that there really was a group of students from MIT who took blackjack card-counting to a whole new level in casinos. To get the non-Hollywood version of the story before seeing the movie, I grabbed Bringing Down The House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Ben Mezrich. It's a fascinating look into how the MIT team formed, made millions, and subsequently got barred from nearly every casino in the industry.
Mezrich is a reporter who was given the chance to interview one of the main players, Kevin Lewis. Lewis was recruited into the group in 1994, and quickly rose up to be one of the "Big Players" of the team, one who could put on a character, step into a hot table, and make tens of thousands of dollars on a single hand. These weekend raids on casinos continued for the next four years, earning each of the participants an incredible return on their "investments". Couple that with the fact that the casinos treated them as whales (high rollers), and they were living a life that one could only dream of. Comped rooms, shows, travel, parties, etc... But things started going sour in 1998. The team was showing some major dysfunctional behavior, and a rival team (also from MIT) was threatening the secrecy of the routine. What started as a minor barring from one casino quickly (and violently) spread to nearly every other casino in Vegas. What really surprised them was the speed at which other casinos outside of Vegas (and even the US) knew about them and shut them down. Lewis decided at that point that his life was more important than the money, and left it all behind. The only question that remains is who or what tipped off casino security.
Mezrich wrote the book in 2002, so it doesn't necessarily dig deeply into the recent world of casino security. The security technology has only gotten more high-tech since then, and I'm sure that story would be just as interesting as the card-counting story. I was riveted by how Lewis and his team could execute their operation with so much precision, while at the same time having the casinos spend a ton of money to keep them coming back. But greed often destroys everything it touches, and this is no exception. Lewis wanted to be much more low-key when the heat started. But he was overruled by the head of the team, and that decision nearly got some of them killed.
In the fast moving world of scams, casinos, and technology, it's amazing that people could get away with this much over such a long time. It makes you wonder what other scams and attacks are occurring these days. Bringing Down The House is a good look at one way it was done successfully. But it almost begs for a follow-up to reexamine the state of casino security six years after the original story ended.
Book Review: Great long-weekend read
Summary: 4 Stars
I found the story to be captivating and enjoyable. I was surprised at what a quick read it was. I read it in about 5 hours. But it made for a great read in one day at the beach. Don't expect deep plot lines or twists and turns, just a fun and fairly light account of a fascinating world.Book Review: Meh...
Summary: 2 Stars
I saw the movie and was intrigued. The movie wasn't great by any means, but it did just enough to inspire me to want to know the "real story". The first thing I noticed about the book, was it was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. The thing I remember about the book after having read it, is that it was too long.
Frankly, I thought the book was too long and boring. There were parts that were interesting, and parts that kept me wanting to read more.... but "just barely". Most of the book was a chore to finish. I almost gave up a few times, figuring I've read enough. I did finish it, it wasn't horrible, but I'd rate it below average.
Book Review: Great book fun and easy to read
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not much of a book reader, even though I enjoy buying books I hardly ever read one completely and almost never a non economics book. But this particular book has given me the opportunity to feel everything the author wrote as if I was there, I don't know if I'm growing into a book reader but this book has an excellent writing very friendly and easy to read, it keeps your attention, long waiting hours on the doctor, bank or anywhere become short while you read it. Also it's a great introduction for the movie 21: Blackjack. If you're interested in card counting this isn't a "how to" book, although there is a essay in the last chapter on card counting that makes a more in depth description on the subject, it's more of a novel based on real facts. As one of the praises for the book says: "Perfect for a read on the plane down to Vegas".