"BestOfVegas"
03/13/09 -see other reviews-
 Attitude - 4 Eye Candy - 2 Price - 2
"Dingy Little Den with Astonishing Variety"
From L.A. Times...
Gambler's Book Shop
"This has to be one of the most comprehensive of its kind in the country, and it's certainly a household name among serious gamblers. In fact, two of Vegas' best-known bookies called the day I stopped by.
"We're mentioned in over 125 books, have helped more than 200 authors write or research books on gambling and published 134 books through our GBC Press [publishing company]. And we're known in over 100 countries," says owner Howard Schwartz.
The store remains a dingy little den tucked off 11th Street and Charleston Boulevard (east of downtown), where you can find an astonishing variety of how-to, odds, percentages and betting-line books; videos; cassettes; computer simulation programs; and laminated "cheat-sheets" cards; as well as daily and weekly tipsheets. The store even has a selection of gambler greeting cards, medical humor books, coffee-table tomes and general-interest books about Vegas, boxing, horse racing, crime bosses, the mob, casino history, casino management, you name it. What really surprised me was the selection of serious literature, including Dostoevsky's "The Gambler" and Hemingway's "The Gambler, the Nun and the Radio." (Its selection of books is available online.)
Schwartz has put the shop up for sale because of ill health, but he hopes the buyer will continue its long tradition. "We have about 60,000 regular customers," Schwartz says, adding wryly that the world has an estimated 60 million gamblers. Not a bad percentage, considering that the masses would never in a million years find the little place."
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