The Gamblers Book Club was founded by the aptly named John Luckman.
Luckman was born in Illinois, served in the Marines during World War II, and stayed in southern California where he mustered out of the armed forces after the war. Luckman was a gambler and a bookie in Santa Monica in 1955 when a local crackdown on bookmaking sent him and his accountant wife Edna, like so many other illegal gamblers before and after, to the promised land of Las Vegas.
Luckman attended dealers school and worked at various casinos downtown and on the Strip. A self-educated man with a passion for non-fiction books, Luckman was amazed by two things: one, how ignorant the players he dealt blackjack and craps to were; and two, how little information was published, even as late as the early ‘60s, on how to gamble.
In 1964, Luckman launched the Gamblers Book Club (often referred to simply as GBC, though its official title is the Gamblers Book Shop) as a bookstore, library, and general gathering place where gamblers could share information. In order to start to fill the shelves of his store with gambling titles, he started publishing old books on gambling whose copyrights had long since passed into the public domain. He also wrote and published a series of The Facts pocket guides to gambling, such as The Facts of Blackjack and the Facts of Craps.
John and Edna published David Sklanksy’s first books, and sold self-published books by John Patrick and Frank Scoblete. John also helped Anthony Curtis launch the Las Vegas Advisor in the early ‘80s.
He hired the inimitable Howard Schwartz in 1979, who today is the renowned "librarian to the gamblers"; his files on everything having to do with gambling are as legendary as they are voluminous.
Both John and Edna Luckman are deceased, but Howard Schwartz continues to run the store, which today is the world’s oldest (42 years and counting) and largest supplier of books, videos and CDs, and software on gambling and related topics, such as casino management, racing and sports, Las Vegas, organized crime, magic, and more.
GBC is located at 630 S. 11th St., set just off Charleston Blvd., about a half-mile east of the Strip. Visit the store (open Monday-Saturday from 9 am-5 pm) to check out the latest gambling materials, or just to take in the atmosphere. You never know who you'll run into there, as many of the world's top gambling experts frequent the store and often make it a point to drop by and talk with the customers. If you're not in town, you can also visit its Web site at www.gamblersbook.com
