Lucky Devils
How Three Tech Mad Gamblers Beat The Odds and Made Millions
Published on 16. April 2026
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-1-80096-325-2 (ISBN)
Description
'Gripping. Someone should really turn Lucky Devils into a film' The Guardian
'There's simply no one better at chronicling the shady, hackable, and wildly anarchic world of gambling' Brad Stone, New York Times bestselling author of The Everything Store and Amazon Unbound
'The best book about gambling I've ever read' Liam Vaughan, author of Flash Crash
'A fascinating insight... Lucky Devils brilliantly reveals what it takes to challenge the seemingly impossible and come out on top' Adam Kucharski, author of The Perfect Bet
'Readers will be thrilled' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the late 1970s, three men declared war on the casino. They arrived in Las Vegas just as the personal computer was beginning its boom. If the power of computers could be applied to gambling, they reasoned, a player could make a mint.
There was only one problem: How do you smuggle a computer, typically, the size of a suitcase, onto a casino floor without getting noticed?
Using cutting-edge strategies and gloriously DIY tech that was decades ahead of its time, they solved this and many other problems. They became pioneers of what's known as advantage playing, applying their intellects and creativity to everything from poker and blackjack to horseracing and roulette. For more than thirty years they faced down angry pit bosses, violent Mafiosos, bankruptcies, nights in foreign jails, lawsuits, and personal betrayals. They learned that the only thing harder than reaching the pinnacle of gambling achievement was staying there.
Drawing from exclusive interviews with all three players and their associates, award-winning Bloomberg journalist Kit Chellel delivers a cinematic and often uproarious account of fortunes gained, lost, and gained again. Scrupulously reported and irresistibly told, Lucky Devils reveals how these players did more than simply amass wealth; they revolutionized the game itself.
They gave the lie to the old adage. The house doesn't always win.
'There's simply no one better at chronicling the shady, hackable, and wildly anarchic world of gambling' Brad Stone, New York Times bestselling author of The Everything Store and Amazon Unbound
'The best book about gambling I've ever read' Liam Vaughan, author of Flash Crash
'A fascinating insight... Lucky Devils brilliantly reveals what it takes to challenge the seemingly impossible and come out on top' Adam Kucharski, author of The Perfect Bet
'Readers will be thrilled' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the late 1970s, three men declared war on the casino. They arrived in Las Vegas just as the personal computer was beginning its boom. If the power of computers could be applied to gambling, they reasoned, a player could make a mint.
There was only one problem: How do you smuggle a computer, typically, the size of a suitcase, onto a casino floor without getting noticed?
Using cutting-edge strategies and gloriously DIY tech that was decades ahead of its time, they solved this and many other problems. They became pioneers of what's known as advantage playing, applying their intellects and creativity to everything from poker and blackjack to horseracing and roulette. For more than thirty years they faced down angry pit bosses, violent Mafiosos, bankruptcies, nights in foreign jails, lawsuits, and personal betrayals. They learned that the only thing harder than reaching the pinnacle of gambling achievement was staying there.
Drawing from exclusive interviews with all three players and their associates, award-winning Bloomberg journalist Kit Chellel delivers a cinematic and often uproarious account of fortunes gained, lost, and gained again. Scrupulously reported and irresistibly told, Lucky Devils reveals how these players did more than simply amass wealth; they revolutionized the game itself.
They gave the lie to the old adage. The house doesn't always win.
Reviews / Votes
'Lucky Devils is a fabulous book, perfect for the current moment. Readymade for the movies, its tale of the brilliant eccentrics who outsmarted the system offers vicarious thrills of the most satisfying kind, especially as dealt by the dexterous hands of Kit Chellel, whose prose is as kinetic as a ball on a roulette wheel. You can't keep your eyes off it.' -- Julian Sancton * New York Times bestselling author of Madhouse at the End of the Earth * 'Ever wonder what it's like to make your fortune as a winning gambler? Lucky Devils takes you there.' -- Edward O. Thorp * best-selling author of Beat The Dealer and A Man for All Markets * 'Cheating at poker and other gambling games has been around forever, but this diabolically entertaining new book brings us up to the minute-to the nanosecond, even.? In highbrow streetwise prose, Chellel reveals how the cunning designers of AI-powered algorithms threaten to make normal human betting decisions quaintly passe.' -- James McManus * New York Bestselling Author of Positively Fifth Street and Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker * 'A fascinating insight into the audacious, obsessive world of those who have used science to beat the house. Kit Chellel has uncovered astonishing stories about the luckiest people you've never heard of. From home-made computers to billion-dollar winnings, Lucky Devils brilliantly reveals what it takes to challenge the seemingly impossible and come out on top.' -- Adam Kucharski * author of The Perfect Bet * 'No one writes about gambling like Kit Chellel. Lucky Devils tells the story of three legendary advantage players, brilliant outsiders who devoted their lives and talents to disproving the adage that the house always wins. At turns insightful, hilarious and surprisingly moving, it's a stone-cold classic. The best book about gambling I've ever read.' -- Liam Vaughan * author of Flash Crash (2020) * 'There's simply no one better at chronicling the shady, hackable, and wildly anarchic world of gambling, and with Lucky Devils, Kit Chellel spins what amounts to an exuberant origin story. It'd be a suckers bet not to read this book.' -- Brad Stone * New York Times bestselling author of The Everything Store and Amazon Unbound * 'With its colourful cast and levelheaded look at the arms race between gamblers and casinos, this is an addictive profile of the rule breakers who anticipated gambling's data-driven future. Readers will be thrilled.' * PUBLISHERS WEEKLY * 'Cheating at poker and other gambling games has been around forever, but this diabolically entertaining new book brings us up to the minute-to the nanosecond, even.? In highbrow streetwise prose, Chellel reveals how the cunning designers of AI-powered algorithms threaten to make normal human betting decisions quaintly passe.' -- James McManus * New York Bestselling Author of Positively Fifth Street and Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker * 'Gripping. Someone should really turn Lucky Devils into a film.' * The Guardian * 'Lucky Devils is about the 1 per cent of gamblers who put in an incredible amount of hard work to beat the house (which always wins, until it doesn't). It's an ironic title, for it is about the elimination of luck.' * The Telegraph *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Octopus Publishing Group
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
N/A
Dimensions
Height: 243 mm
Width: 164 mm
Thickness: 31 mm
Weight
488 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80096-325-2 (9781800963252)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
04/2026
Monoray
€14.99
Available for download
Person
Kit Chellel is an investigative reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek and co-author of Dead in the Water: A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global Maritime Conspiracy alongside Matthew Campbell, published in the UK by Atlantic in 2022. The book was the winner of the True Crime Awards Book of the Year 2023 and shortlisted for the FT Business Book of the Year Award. It was also a Waterstones Best Books of 2022 pick and selected as a Book of the Year by The Financial Times, The Times and The Economist. Dead in the Water is in development as a limited series on a major streaming platform. Kit lives in West London with his three children.