Every year Steve Bourie produces an update to his American Casino Guide. This book has become a standard reference for the traveling gambler, providing information on the casinos in all gambling jurisdictions in the United States. Even though I buy a copy every year, I haven't reviewed this book since the 1997 edition, so I thought that now would be a good time to do so.
The American Casino Guide is divided into two parts. The second part covers the material that gives the book its name. It's a listing of information about more than 600 casinos located throughout the United States, plus some in Canada. Grouped by city within each state, every casino listing includes an address, a phone number, numbers of rooms and prices if the casino has an affiliated hotel, a count of the number of restaurants available, a list of games played there and, if available, even information including how many square feet of casino space are available.
Occasionally, the book might seem a little arbitrary on what is included and what isn't. Smaller slot joints in Las Vegas, for example, Mermaids on Fremont Street, aren't included in this guide. Yet if a facility with that many slots was open in just about any other state, or even if it were in another part of Nevada, it almost certainly would be. Even the mammoth poker rooms of southern California aren't listed, yet small card clubs in Washington state get mentioned. Finally, only the very largest casinos in Canada are listed, such as Casino de Montreal, but there are many others that a traveller might find worth taking a look at in just about every Canadian city of significant size. There are other potential discrepancies as well, but overall Bourie does a good job of listing what is really important in each region and leaving out what isn't.
The first half of the book contains a set of essays providing advice to the prospective gambler. These essays have been written by people who will be familiar to every even moderately well-read gambler. Included is information on video poker by Dan Paymar, information on slot clubs by Jean Scott, an essay on blackjack by Arnold Snyder, and the list goes on. I believe that this part of the book is very much overlooked. It provides some of the best advice on a wide variety of games that has ever been assembled in print. Not only does this book contain a great deal of information on casinos, but it contains some of the best, arguably the best, introductory information on basic casino gambling, with pointers to excellent books from which one can continue their education.
The lineup of essays changes a little every year. In the 2002 edition, the five new essays have been added which are: "Slot Clubs and Comps", "An Interview With IGT", "Multi-Play Video Poker Games", "Three Simple Craps Strategies", and Steve Bourie writing about "How I Got On Who Wants To Be A Millionaire". Six essays were dropped from the 2001 edition to keep the gambling information section at about the same length as last year, about 180 pages. Of the new essays, the interview with a manager at IGT, the largest manufacturer of slot and video poker machines, is the most interesting.
Not everyone will want to buy an updated edition every year, but I do, and I'm more than happy to. In my opinion, for anyone who plans to travel to casino destinations in the United States, this is probably the single most useful book on the market. Over the years, my copies have criss-crossed the country with me getting a tremendous amount of use. I consider this to be an indispensable source of gambling information for both the tourist and the serious gambler, and it's well worth its modest price.
Updated every year, Steve Bourie's American Casino Guide is maybe the single most valuable gambling book in my library. It's the one book I always bring with me when I travel anywhere near a casino I might want to visit. Not only is the information on the casinos detailed and timely, but the often neglected first half of the book contains some of the finest gambling advice for beginners that I've seen in print. I highly recommend this book, although only the hard core folks (like myself) are likely to feel the need to pick up the new edition every year.
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