Each week I invite friends and guests to discuss a gambling-themed book (however loosely-defined) and whatever else may come up. Writers, entertainers, bon vivants and other smart and interesting people help me figure out what all belongs in the canon of books about gamblers as I work on my own contribution to whatever that is. Presented by InGame.com. davidhill.substack.com
Latest episodes
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1 h 02
Advantage Player with Gina Fiore
Gina Fiore has lived an extraordinary life. She’s spent more than twenty years making her living from gambling - but not just any kind of gambling. She is an advantage player: some…
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1 h 19
Beneath the Cards with Caitlin Comeskey
The last time we discussed Garrett Adelstein on this show was when we talked about the famous “Jack-Four” hand on the episode about Nate Silver’s On the Edge. This week we go even…
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1 h 18
You Can’t Win with Karl Johnson
Karl Johnson, author of The Magician and the Cardsharp, returns to the show to discuss Jack Black’s 1926 memoir of crime and punishment, You Can’t Win. Jack Black was a gambler, co…
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1 h 14
The House of Mirth with Kate Knibbs
Edith Wharton’s tragic 1905 satirical novel The House of Mirth is about the commodification of women, the hypocrisy and false moral rectitude of the rich, and the conflict between…
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1 h 26
Good Vibes with John Reeder
John Reeder is the host of the podcast Risk of Ruin (“the This American Life for gamblers”) and a scholar of all things gambling-related. He joins me this week to discuss Jay Cronl…
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2 min
A Brief History of Sports Gambling in America
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidhill.substack.comThis is the talk I gave at Bet Bash earlier this month. As I state at the beginning, this isn’t…
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1 h 15
Odds Man Out with Jay Cohen
Jay Cohen was one of the founders of World Sports Exchange in 1997, the first ever fully online sports betting site. In 2000 he was the first person ever convicted of violating the…
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1 h 19
Over/Under with David Bockino
Elon University professor David Bockino’s new book on the history of sports gambling makes the case that sports in America aren’t corrupted by gambling - but owe their very existen…
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1 h 19
The Natural with Charles Star
I finally broke my standing rule of “No Fiction” in this episode to read Bernard Malamud’s debut novel The Natural. If you’ve seen the 1984 film adaptation starring Robert Redford…
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1 h 24
On the Edge with Jennifer Shahade
Nate Silver’s 2024 bestseller On the Edge: Risking it All is a deep-dive into the philosophical and cultural underpinnings of our modern-day gambling-obsessed America. In nearly si…
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3 min
Book Club: Something for Nothing Chapters 4 & 5
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidhill.substack.comOur current book club pick is Something for Nothing: Luck in America by Jackson Lears. We’re try…
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3 min
Book Club: Something for Nothing Chapters 1-3
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidhill.substack.comOur current book club pick is Something for Nothing: Luck in America by Jackson Lears. We’re try…
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1 h 00
The Gambling Animal with Kit Chellel
Two experimental economists spent decades studying the way human beings evaluate risk and probability by doing gambling experiments on people all over the world. Then they repeated…
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6 min
Gamblers and the Public Gaze with Danny Funt
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidhill.substack.comAfter reading the recent Atlantic cover story on sports gambling I knew I needed to vent about i…
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1 h 06
Bookie with Roxy Roxborough
Gary Mayer’s first (and only?) book came out in 1974 when he was 29 years old. It was an account of the two and a half years he spent working for his bookie to pay off his debts ca…
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1 h 21
Jimmy the Greek with Peter Richmond
We’re kicking off the second season of AGBC with the memoir of perhaps the most famous American gambler of all time: Jimmy the Greek Snyder. Known as the “Oddsmaker to the Nation”…
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11 min
Movie Club! Marty Supreme with Ursula Lawrence
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidhill.substack.comI had a fun conversation with Ursula Lawrence about Marty Supreme. We talked about the incredibl…
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4 min
The (writing) Struggle is Real with Gina Fiore
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davidhill.substack.comIn the first of what I hope will be a number of regular Substack Live conversations here, I had…
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1 h 19
The Big Short with Sal Gentile
The final episode of the year AND the season, and it’s a good one. This week we read Michael Lewis’s 2010 bestseller The Big Short, a book about gambling at the highest of stakes,…
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1 h 14
Laughing in the Hills with Peter Thomas Fornatale
Laughing in the Hills, Bill Barich’s 1979 memoir of ten weeks spent at Golden Gate Fields racetrack in Northern California, was named one of Sports Illustrated’s Top 100 Sports Boo…