Goodman's paperback book
How to Win: At Cards, Dice, Races, Roulette came out in 1963 from
Holloway House. Guild also wrote a brief foreword for the book.
How to Win mainly covers strategies for playing
blackjack,
craps, and
roulette in casinos, and for betting on
horse racing (there are also brief chapters on
poker and
slot machines). Goodman criticizes "
system players", believing they inevitably ended up losing, and to a newspaper writer said, "God have mercy on the system players." The
Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester called
How to Win "a lively book ... and an expert one." The book came out just as the initial
card counting systems for blackjack were becoming known, and Goodman took strident umbrage at any such mathematically oriented systems. The back cover for various printings of
How to Win had Goodman saying he was "just plain sick and tired" of reading about "experts" pushing such systems, calling out by name
Edward O. Thorp,
John Scarne, Mike McDougall, and someone going as "Mike Barron". In large bold letters, he said "I CHALLENGE" any of them to take their systems to the Dunes or to debate him in public.
How to Win was immensely successful. By early 1965, it was said to have sold 700,000 copies, and was included as a bonus in offers for a Las Vegas guest plan membership card. By 1967 it was on its eighth printing and had sold over a million copies, causing ghostwriter Guild to publicly rue that he had accepted a flat fee for his work on it instead of an ongoing royalty. In each of 1970, 1971, and 1972, printings came out with additional copyright dates and an "Editor's Supplement" on international gambling. In 1965, Goodman was the author of
Slots & Pinballs, issued as part of the
How to win the Las Vegas way series by a publisher called Gambling International. Arthur Dutton was credited as a special consultant on
Slots & Pinballs. His third book, who had been working as a reporter for the
Reno Evening Gazette among other papers. Like its predecessor, the book also included stories about gamblers, although a review in the
Detroit Free Press felt the tales were not always that interesting. giving Goodman's strongly voiced views which to try and which to avoid. By that time, Goodman had retired as a casino manager. == Legacy ==