With the exception of its excellent sportsbook, Circus Circus Reno has long been one of the worst-managed casinos in the Reno area, seemingly actually being run by clowns. Old and dirty, with paranoid, unfriendly pit personnel, most dealers suffering from shuffling disease, and featuring house-ordered preferential shuffling even against tiny-stakes players, the dump is a burn joint.

But it has hit a new level of stupidity. Circus Circus Reno sends emails with weekly free play offers that formerly were able to be loaded directly onto customers’ cards by use of the PIN, ready for immediate use on the machine(s) of the customer’s choice. But now, the system has been changed to instead create a new “line-standing opportunity” for patrons. To “validate” the free play, patrons now must now stand in the long, typically slow-moving lines at the players club.

When a patron asked the players club manager the reason for this newly-concocted stupidity, the manager replied that most patrons “prefer standing in line” to directly loading the free play into a machine, because “now we can offer more free play.” Further questioning revealed the manager had no clear idea as to what she was talking about, as she provided nonsensical answers to simple questions. Among other things, she claimed the “new computer system” is unable to correctly set the dates on which the free play should be automatically activated, so it must be done manually at the players club. Because many other casinos with supposedly older computer systems can handle this mundane task, it is hard to know if the players club manager was lying or really is as ignorant as she seemed. The claim that most patrons prefer wasting their time standing in line instead of directly loading their free play is mind-boggling.

I hope top management at Circus Circus looks at this absurd situation and takes corrective action before more customers are lost forever because of this stupidity.

This book should be read by everyone who sets foot in a casino: average casino patrons, skilled players, casino employees, and anyone else. It should be required reading for police officers, regulators, other public officials, and attorneys who may represent any of the aforementioned. Beat the Players was the subject of a feature in USA Today.

Bob Nersesian is an attorney who represents victims of casino wrongdoing against patrons. In an enjoyable writing style, he takes a look at the often too-cozy relationship between casinos, police, and regulators. He discusses specific cases and dispenses sound, practical advice that patrons, casinos and public officials would be wise to heed. Cases discussed are from Nevada and other jurisdictions.

Chapters include: Your Money or Your Liberty; Scary Cop Statements; They'll Take Your Liberty Anyway; Gaming Agents Speak; The Take of the State; Rules for Casino Patrons; Gambling at the Legal Limits; Cops Hate Card Counters; Griffin Investigations; Casinos Cheat With Impunity; A Judicial and Government Overlay; Finding a Nickel Brings Trouble; Names and Aliases; The Security Office and Surveillance Functions, and Casinos and Cops.

Appendices include Nevada Cheating and Detention Laws with Commentary; Other Nevada Gaming Laws of Interest; Gaming Cases of Interest, and Nevada Gaming Regulations with Commentary.

The 320-page book includes a bibliography and an index.