Editorial Review
#1 National Bestseller!The amazing inside story about a gambling ring of M.I.T.students who beat the system in Vegas -- and lived to tell how.
Robin Hood meets the Rat Pack when the best and the brightest of M.I.T.'s math students and engineers take up blackjack under the guidance of an eccentric mastermind. Their small blackjack club develops from an experiment in counting cards on M.I.T.'s campus into a ring of card savants with a system for playing large and winning big. In less than two years they take some of the world's most sophisticated casinos for more than three million dollars. But their success also brings with it the formidable ire of casino owners and launches them into the seedy underworld of corporate Vegas with its private investigators and other violent heavies.
Filled with tense action, high stakes, and incredibly close calls, Bringing Down the House is a nail-biting read that chronicles a real-life Ocean's Eleven. It's one story that Vegas does not want you to read.
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Customer Reviews
Fantastic book...one of my favorites! 
2008-06-17
I don't read much since it's hard to find something that keeps me interested. I couldn't put this down! It's an amazing story, especially considering it's true. I didn't think there would be much suspense to the story, but man was I wrong. The way the author tells it, he hints at something that could be coming, and sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. I loved it. For those looking to buy a book to learn how to count cards...this isn't it! This isn't even really a book about basic strategy. They talk about it VERY little since it's needed for the story, but the book is focused on the journey of one young man (20s for most of the book...my age) through Vegas, Atlantic City, and finding himself and his place in the world.
I can't recommend this book enough. I loved it!
Different from the movie, but still an enjoyable read 
2008-06-12
The reason why I'm focusing on the way the book relates to the movie is because this is the movie tie-in edition. After watching the movie I decided to read the book. I normally don't watch a movie unless I've read the book first. In this case, I'm glad I watched the movie first. The movie made it easier to understand the nonverbal and verbal cues they used to count cards.
It seems to me like the producers and writers just took the idea of counting cards and how the MIT kids did it and then Hollywood-ized the rest.
As a standalone, the book was good. Not only did they hit Vegas but they also a steamboat casino in the midwest, an Indian casino on the east coast and Atlantic City. The main character, Kevin joins the team because he is tired of his ho-hum life (because I'm sure life at MIT is so ho-hum).
Anyway, if you've watched the movie and are interested in a more factual and realistic setting in how they earned millions, you should read the book. Plus, there's an essay at the end by Kevin who teaches those who wish to learn how to count cards.
Great book! 2008-06-02
Loved ths book! I thought it was even more thrilling than the movie. Lots of fun and kept you enthralled and rooting for the "good guys".
Hit Me! 2008-05-28
This is a great story and the writing stands up to the quality of the story itself. It leads the reader through the rise and ultimate fall of a team that approaches Blackjack as if it were a sport that can be trained for and mastered rather than a game of chance. Absolutely great. Could have given greater perspective on those who developed the card counting methods that the MIT team built upon, but that's just a nit pick. Read this book if you have any affinity to playing games!
When you mess with casinos, they start messing back... 2008-05-17
After seeing the previews for the movie "21", I remembered that there really was a group of students from MIT who took blackjack card-counting to a whole new level in casinos. To get the non-Hollywood version of the story before seeing the movie, I grabbed Bringing Down The House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Ben Mezrich. It's a fascinating look into how the MIT team formed, made millions, and subsequently got barred from nearly every casino in the industry.
Mezrich is a reporter who was given the chance to interview one of the main players, Kevin Lewis. Lewis was recruited into the group in 1994, and quickly rose up to be one of the "Big Players" of the team, one who could put on a character, step into a hot table, and make tens of thousands of dollars on a single hand. These weekend raids on casinos continued for the next four years, earning each of the participants an incredible return on their "investments". Couple that with the fact that the casinos treated them as whales (high rollers), and they were living a life that one could only dream of. Comped rooms, shows, travel, parties, etc... But things started going sour in 1998. The team was showing some major dysfunctional behavior, and a rival team (also from MIT) was threatening the secrecy of the routine. What started as a minor barring from one casino quickly (and violently) spread to nearly every other casino in Vegas. What really surprised them was the speed at which other casinos outside of Vegas (and even the US) knew about them and shut them down. Lewis decided at that point that his life was more important than the money, and left it all behind. The only question that remains is who or what tipped off casino security.
Mezrich wrote the book in 2002, so it doesn't necessarily dig deeply into the recent world of casino security. The security technology has only gotten more high-tech since then, and I'm sure that story would be just as interesting as the card-counting story. I was riveted by how Lewis and his team could execute their operation with so much precision, while at the same time having the casinos spend a ton of money to keep them coming back. But greed often destroys everything it touches, and this is no exception. Lewis wanted to be much more low-key when the heat started. But he was overruled by the head of the team, and that decision nearly got some of them killed.
In the fast moving world of scams, casinos, and technology, it's amazing that people could get away with this much over such a long time. It makes you wonder what other scams and attacks are occurring these days. Bringing Down The House is a good look at one way it was done successfully. But it almost begs for a follow-up to reexamine the state of casino security six years after the original story ended.
better than movie 2008-07-15
the book was naturally a lot more detailed than the movie. they changed a lot about the characters in the movie. if you read the book and then watch the movie afterwords, you will probably be disappointed.
The Real Revenge Of The Nerds 2008-07-14
Winning gambling strategies, including counting cards, are mostly a tedious grind, so making it fast-paced and glamorous takes an art. The book is hard to put down as you keep waiting for these students to make a mistake and get caught.
The one question I kept asking myself as I was reading the book was if any of these MIT mathematical whiz kids would have lived to tell this story if organized crime was still operating the casinos instead of big corporations.
Brilliant book about an almost brilliant idea.
Great read and interesting development 2008-07-12
I read this book for my monthly book club. This book was a fast read and the characters and plot was an interesting development. I still can't believe that this is a true story!
I'm definitely looking forward to the movie to see if it lives up to the expectations that the book has already set.
Takes All The Fun out of playing the game! 
2008-07-09
You know the phrase that cheating doesn't really amount to anything except in this case when the card counting teams from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) organize, rehearse, and prepare to take money from casinos whether Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or the casino boat in Chicago, Mohegan Sun or Foxwoods in Connecticut. Sadly, the book is really for people who enjoy gambling at the casinos like myself. I'm not a high roller. In fact, I'm so far down on the todem pole of rollers that I barely qualify for comps at all. Anyway, the book is a lot more interesting than I thought it would be only because I am fond of playing card games. I just think that the whole idea of card counting and these teams ruin and take away the fun of the sport. Unlike Poker, blackjack can be beatable if you know the system. Then again, it still takes away the fun of playing. Yes, you lose money but you have to be prepared to lose when you walk in the door. Gambling is chance and randomness rolled into one. The house or casino takes their cut and they are going to always have a heads up. When I read about how the kids began to live double lives, I felt sorry for them. I felt sorry for Mickey Rosa, the MIT genius who brought the teams together and trained them. They decide to go without him and if I was on the team, I would have left at that point. Enough was never enough for the players, they wanted more. They got off the adrenaline and high of beating the house at times. The players were more like actors than players. When I go to a casino, I don't expect anything but to break even or lose some money. I don't expect to get it back but that's the fun. If this book has a lesson, it's enjoy the game and stop worrying about cheating and card counting. The house managers know better and they have security, pit bosses, and cameras everywhere. They follow the high rollers for a reason especially if the house is losing. By following the high rollers, they know what they like and if they are going to gamble thousands at a time, they are profitable to the house. Everybody uses everybody in gambling and casino industry. Gambling like prostitution has been around since the beginning of time. If you can control your gambling habit, you are better off. Don't spend a lot of money or worry too much about the cards. You are there to enjoy the game and pray for the chance to win some money. Don't bet your life savings, your house, your car, your children's college fund, your savings, or your plane tickets because you won't see it again. The house doesn't care if you go broke as long as you do it there.
This needed to have more umph to it 
2008-06-23
Rhis book needed to have more umph, more dynamite suspense. more of a sense of 'will we get away with it' to it. No pictures also makes this book lacking. I wanted to see the people who pulled all these card counting routines off. Pictures of the eye in the sky cameras. Pictures of casino bosses.
