Nevada hates you, and merely tolerates you as a cost of doing business. While this is not news, many readers of this book suffered under some of the events described below. Professional advantage gamblers, and sometimes gamblers who are merely skilled or lucky, incur rousting, jailing, slander, handcuffing, and banishment for merely plying their legal trade or sometimes just enjoying a night out. This book presents a primer on what to expect, and suggests some courses of action when faced with the overreaching of the casinos and their sometime willing minions found in the ranks of the ... (law) enforcement agents ...

Courts are run by men and women, and are, therefore, imperfect. And these imperfect men and women hold power bordering on the absolute when it comes to determining the scope of the authority of a gaming licensee and the police coming to their assistance. Still, over dozens of incidents, it has been rare in the extreme that a judge has prevented an advantage gambler from ultimately placing the core issues surrounding his complaints before a jury of citizens. If the fix was in, as I have been repeatedly told by members of the gambling community, then jury determinations would be unobtainable. The truth of the matter is that they are not.

As mentioned, however, there are exceptions. The most egregious is presented in the determination by the Nevada Supreme Court that, in the process of an investigation, police officers possess discretion to intentionally fabricate evidence under Nevada law. Curiously, despite such a conclusion in one unpublished decision, this ruling has essentially been reversed in a published decision not involving a gambler (Jordan v. State). The next time such an issue arises, it may well turn out differently for the gambler.

The overriding message that is taken from this book should be that there are rights and protections, and choosing to gamble does not strip a person of these rights and protections. These rights and protections, as with all intangible concepts, are in a state of flux and always will be. When a gaming licensee flexes its muscle gained through juice, connections, tax paying status, or whatever other method allows it to believe that it is a privileged citizen, the patron, be they a recreational patron, a high-roller, or an advantage gambler must insist on his rights and must pursue vindication. Absent such vigilant activity, the fluctuations in the protections and rights will ebb towards absolute casino power, and may eventually cascade in that direction.

If this happens, then another truism about human nature will raise its ugly head. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And if Nevada’s gaming industry truly becomes institutionally saturated with corruption, then the citizens will either be enslaved by the business interests, or the guests will stop coming, or both. Thus, it truly is incumbent upon readers to keep and protect your chosen way of life and recreation, to meet oppression head-on through legal and calm means, and to assure that Nevada or whatever gaming state is involved remains a government of laws and not a government of men.

Throughout the book the reader will find anecdotal incidents based upon true occurrences, although oftentimes the names will be changed, as stated on Dragnet, in order to "protect the innocent." There will also be a peppering of law addressing the scope of gaming regulation concerning patrons. You may find that the level of protection and rights granted the gambler astounds you. Likely, the ignorance of these rights by the very persons sworn to protect the gambler will leave you aghast. It does me.