‘Advantage Player’ Author Gina Fiore Talks Beating Casinos, the DEA and HBO

^{Gina Fiore (right) discusses her new memoir, “Advantage Player,” with Richard Munchkin in front of a full house at The Writer’s Block in downtown Las Vegas. (Photo: Sandra Esparza / Casinos.com)}

LAS VEGAS – Gina Fiore isn’t conflicted about making a living beating casinos.

“I think they’re horrible places,” she said at The Writer’s Block in downtown Las Vegas.

On Thursday, Oct. 29, Fiore joined writer, director and producer Richard Munchkin to discuss her new memoir, “Advantage Player: A Memoir of Blackjack, Backrooms, and Beginnings.” Munchkin, also a professional gambler, Blackjack Hall of Fame member and co-host of the “Gambling With an Edge” podcast, brought plenty of his own experience beating casinos to the conversation.

The conversation covered casino bias, backroom encounters, an HBO project with Riley Keough and why parents should prepare for the gambling talk alongside the sex talk.

Fiore makes her living through advantage play, using skill and information to turn the odds in her favor. Casinos, unsurprisingly, prefer the odds where they left them.

The Rough Side of Advantage Play

At the book talk, Fiore told the audience of her path toward gambling.

Her mother taught her to deal blackjack, and a coworker who decided to leave dealing to become a card counter introduced her to the possibility of winning through a different set of skills.

She eventually quit dealing, too, and began beating casinos at blackjack herself. But she soon learned that the job was about more than math, and not all casinos wanted to celebrate her success.

Fiore recalled an encounter at the Ellis Island casino in Las Vegas where, she said, security pushed her to the ground and detained her.

“I was calling 911,” she said, recalling that she was told to drop her phone or she would be hurt. “So I dropped the phone.”

She and her partner later sued and settled. Fiore said she regrets settling, explaining that their limited bankrolls and concerns about trial costs influenced the decision.

She described once being handcuffed in a Louisiana casino after her team spotted security approaching. Their exit signal was a hand on the opposite shoulder, with no discussion once it was given. According to Fiore, she was stopped in the hotel lobby and detained in a back hallway with teammates.

She Fought the Law, and the Law Didn’t Win

She also recalled a 2006 incident where she was stopped in the Atlanta airport and had her cash confiscated by officers working with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“The DEA stole $100,000 from my partner and me,” Fiore told the audience about a search and seizure of almost $97,000 that belonged to her and fellow professional gambler Keith Gipson.

Fiore unsuccessfully tried to explain that they were professional gamblers and the money was their bankroll and winnings.

The money was eventually returned, and litigation on the matter reached the U.S. Supreme Court (Walden v. Fiore, 2014).

The decision concerned whether Nevada courts had jurisdiction over the Georgia officer working with a DEA task force whom they sued, rather than deciding the merits of their underlying claims.

HBO Wants More Gambling

Fiore said Keough – the accomplished actress, producer and granddaughter of Elvis Presley who is the current owner of Graceland – became interested after hearing her on a podcast. The television project began taking shape before her book deal.

“They wanted it to be actually more gambling-focused,” Fiore said of HBO’s feedback, “which was surprising.”

Fiore said it’s important to her that the female lead is shown to succeed because “she’s just really good at her job,” and not due to her appearance or sexual relationships.

Part of Fiore’s role with the HBO production is to help ensure that casino details look authentic, right down to how chips look on the table.

“There’s so many things I have to explain,” Fiore said of discussing her profession and experiences with people outside the business.

She said she also wants to make sure the show doesn’t conflate finding an advantage at the casino with cheating – because they are different. The difference between cheating and advantage play became even more apparent to her during the Phil Ivey cases.

Discussing Ivey’s edge-sorting, Fiore recalled her own team’s winning so much at single-deck blackjack in Atlantic City that, in her telling, casinos removed the games.

They were feeling pretty good about themselves, she said, only to be humbled by the scale of Ivey’s advantage play. (Ivey and his partner Cheung Yin Sun took casinos in London and New Jersey for nearly $20 million.)

Can a Woman Really Count Cards?

After telling her story, Fiore took questions from the audience.

Asked about prediction markets, Fiore acknowledged that they aren’t her specialty but questioned the image of two casual bettors taking opposite sides.

“They just sell it as peer-to-peer,” she said, warning that the other side may be an “institutional market maker” – a relevant distinction as market-maker incentives draw regulatory scrutiny.

Asked how being a woman had affected her experience at the tables, Fiore pointed to the assumptions casino employees make about who looks like an advantage player.

“I’m not suspected of doing anything,” she said, explaining that a “middle-aged white male” betting big is more likely to attract suspicion as a card counter.

She can use those low expectations to her advantage. If a boss starts watching, she might take a couple of small cards and act as though calculating the total requires considerable effort. Fiore said she wants them to conclude that she’s an idiot.

“I've been saying that casinos are racist and misogynistic,” Fiore explained. She said she’s not trying to fight the social justice fight here, but rather acknowledging a certain reality that she can use to her profitable advantage.

For Fiore, those assumptions are something she encounters at the tables – and sometimes uses to keep playing.

The goal, Munchkin elaborated, is to avoid leaving an impression. “Our job is to be as unmemorable as we possibly can,” he said.

A memoir and an HBO project may complicate that.

Going Beyond Gambling

Fiore’s interests go beyond just being a professional gambler.

“I’ve been working on a novella,” she said of a casino-heist fiction series called “Caper,” with an initial story involving a 1993 MGM heist. “I just love those stories.”

She also wants to help parents discuss gambling with their children, comparing its importance to the sex talk.

“I think it’s so important to talk about,” she said. “It’s just everywhere.”

The concern extends beyond casinos, with youth gambling and gambling-style mechanics in video games giving families plenty to discuss.

“Do I want my son to be impressed when he walks into the Bellagio when he’s 21? Or do I want it to be like Jerry’s Nugget, like it’s just another place?” Fiore said.

“Probably better if he’s not impressed,” Munchkin added.