As well as the valuable information, you will also have access to some great and exciting reads. You will be expanding your gambling horizons while also keeping yourself entertained! With that in mind, let’s take a look at the best gambling books of 2022.
Enemy Number One
Strap yourself in for a thrilling ride of gambling prowess, mystery, danger, and redemption, as told by Patrick Veitch, the UK’s most successful gambler. In terms of gambling books, Enemy Number One: The Secrets of the UK’s Most Feared Professional Punter strikes a nice balance between punchy storytelling and helpful tips and hints on sports betting.
The way Veitch dissects bets and strategies will have you horse racing fans walking away with a new betting confidence. While the tips and tricks are appealing to bettors, the story of Veitch’s colourful life makes Enemy Number One a page-turner from cover to cover.
Published in April 2010, Enemy Number One covers the life of Veitch, who took an interesting path to become the UK’s top bettor. After studying maths at Cambridge, Veitch emerged as a leading professional gambler. However, he fell victim to a dangerous underworld criminal who tried to murder him twice and extort his money.
Since escaping that horrible scenario, which involved police protection and testifying in a bulletproof jacket, Veitch once again became the scourge of UK bookmakers. This remarkable tale and much more make Enemy Number One the gamblers book to get in 2022.
The Biggest Bluff
Here’s a personal selection for a modern gambling book, one of the best books of any genre I have read in recent years, The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, And Win. Written by psychologist Maria Konnikova (PhD), the 2020 book explores how concepts of luck can impact decision-making and affect our lives.
Konnikova became a high-stakes poker player to chart how we handle events in our lives that can be controlled and those that cannot. Her journey in the world of gambling is told in The Biggest Bluff, allowing us both a glimpse into the world of high-stakes poker and a deep dive into the human mind, specifically, how we process the concept of luck and apply it to decision-making.
Poker was chosen because it is a unique game. It is not a game where the best player is guaranteed to win, but neither is it down to pure luck. In other words, you can use strategy and gameplay knowledge in poker to help you succeed, but there are no guarantees, and luck still plays a role. That is why poker is the foundational basis of game theory.
Thanks to the unique combination of skill and luck in poker, Konnikova draws a line from the game to real life. In day-to-day life, we constantly make small decisions that we hope are the best based on the information we have. Still, because that information is complete, there is always an element of luck in our decisions.
The Biggest Bluff highlights and predicts human nature in a readable and digestible way, making it one of the best gambling books of recent years.
A Man for All Markets
Edward O. Thorpe is the ultimate gambler and the godfather of card counting in blackjack. Mathematician, polymath, trader, hedge fund manager, investor, and gambler, Thorpe not only creates theories around sports betting and gambling, but he also puts them into practice to highlight their accuracy. His life provides the underpinning of A Man for All Markets: Beating the Odds, from Las Vegas to Wall Street.
Aside from having an excessively long title, A Man for All Markets is so much more than a simple autobiography. Sure, it is about Thorpe’s interesting life, but the book is also a gambling bible for readers in the UK and beyond. I would put it on a list of essential gambling books for those looking for strategies, tips, and information.
You will also learn about card counting from the father of the method, allowing you to see how beautiful counting cards is as a concept. While Thorpe is known as an expert on blackjack, you can find tips and strategies that you can transfer to most gambling, including sports betting, poker, and roulette.
If you also happen to have a passing interest in finance and money management, A Man for All Markets will prove an eye-opening read. Thorpe’s experience in investment and accompanying tips will help you understand budgeting and bankroll management in gambling. Thanks to the financial tips available, it can also be listed amongst the best gambling addiction books (even if that is not the purpose).
Thinking in Bets
While there are hundreds of so-called gambling addiction books available, my personal opinion is these do more harm than good. They paint the person as being in the wrong for gambling in the first place. I believe the best books on gambling addiction are those that promote responsible gambling. That’s why this selection of the best gambling books of 2022 is all about strategy, managing money, and understanding betting.
Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke fits this description perfectly, making it an excellent companion for UK players who want to take control of their own gambling destiny. Far from being an anti-gambling book, Thinking in Bets promotes healthy gambling. Duke takes gambling and applies it to our everyday lives, using the concept that our lives are essentially made up of small and large bets.
Where we live, who our friends are, who we fall in love with, our jobs – everybody takes gambles on their life because the outcome (good/bad) is uncertain. As we get outcomes (changing jobs, failed relationships), we use our experience of past decisions/bets to inform our subsequent actions. Overall, this is similar to how gamblers use trends to make future betting decisions.
Duke points out how employing betting strategies can help people to become better decision-makers. Not only will this book give you a better understanding of your gambling decisions, but it may also help you improve your overall life.
Squares & Sharps, Suckers & Sharks
Why do people love to gamble? Betting is a form of escape, a way to entertain us, a tool to use our money, and it appeals to our sense of drama and will to win. However, gambling also speaks to our overwhelming desire to have control. It is human nature to seek control over a situation. Gambling is one activity where we can’t control outcomes but still gain a sense of mastery.
In 2016’s Squares & Sharps, Suckers & Sharks: The Science, Psychology & Philosophy of Gambling, Joseph Buchdahl seeks answers. Buchdahl’s title is one of the best gambling books if you want to understand the science of probability and how it impacts our betting habits. One of the interesting aspects of the book is it delves into the psychology of gambling.
While it is not a pure strategy book, it can help you change your perceptions of betting, allowing you to build your own strategies. At the very least, you will gain knowledge of the lure of gambling and can learn to develop your own framework for responsible gambling.
Furthermore, Squares & Sharps, Suckers & Sharks also explains why some people excel at gambling and others fall into certain traps. Power your future betting by understanding these traps (poor money management, choosing the wrong bets). Throw in the fact this book is just a jolly good read, and you have one of the unmissable gambling books for 2022.
Summary
Books have always been excellent companions to gamblers. Whether you want to become an expert in betting strategy, understand the history of gambling, or explore why we gamble, books can unlock a fountain of information. With the best gambling books on this page, you can build the betting theory you learned and apply it to top betting sites like Bet365 or at the leading online casinos like 777 Casino.
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