Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich

The subtitle of Bringing Down the House tells the whole story behind the book: it is “the Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions.” It is a true account of some MIT students (some still enrolled while others had dropped out) who were recruited as part of a blackjack team that worked together to count cards and beat the major casinos at their own game. They flew to Las Vegas on weekends with hundreds of thousands of dollars strapped to their bodies and played blackjack. Millions were won. Eventually, the casinos caught on to what they were doing and banned them from the blackjack tables.
Bringing Down the House was extensively researched by the author, Ben Mezrich. He interviewed one of the card counters, Kevin Lewis (real name Jeff Ma), as well as strippers and pit bosses who had associated with him in Las Vegas. Lewis was obviously lured in by the mathematics and skill involved in card counting as much as the monetary rewards.
Mezrich does a very decent job of describing how card counting works. The ending is a bit disappointing because you never discover who ratted them out and how the casinos found out what they were up to.
Bringing Down the House is somewhat entertaining nonfiction book–I give it 3 out of 4 stars. I would recommend it to readers who are really interested in gambling and/or Las Vegas, but probably not to anyone else. This book is the basis for the movie 21 so you might recommend it along with the book.