Busting Vegas

Busting Vegas a non fictional story by Ben Mezrich, author of New York Times Best Seller "Bringing Down the House." It describes the thrilling life gambling and sex lived by a group of MIT students in the early 90's. The team's goal was to put a hit on the Las Vegas casino's by using three techniques developed and perfected by their teammate and leader, Victor Cassius. Although the many extravagant trips to Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Aruba, and Europe were very lucrative, money was not the only goal of their adventures. As stated by Semyon Dukatch, the main character of the book and the key player in the blackjack team, in the afterwords of the book "It was not only about how much we won, but about how much the casino's lost." The team wanted to make history and disrupt the empire that the casino industry was beginning to form.

The author did an excellent job of combining the excitement of the blackjack escapades with the suspense of getting caught. Throughout the story a private investigator, John Galen, was on his own mission to track the team and prevent them from accomplishing their wishes.

The final key to the story was the relationships that formed as the team went on their mission. Semyon Dukatch forms two main relationships in the story. The first relationship is with his teammate Owen. Owen faces many problems but Semyon always looks out to him and trusts that Owen is loyal. The second and defining relationship of the story is Semyon's relationhip with the beautiful Allie Simpson. Apart from the blackjack Allie's beauty and Semyon's lust for her define the story. At many times I felt that the author's goal was to make the reader fall in love with Allie, and if it was, I would say he succeeded.

After reading both Bringing Down the House and Busting Vegas I believe that the ladder, the semi-sequel, is the more exciting and more well written story. I would suggest it to anyone and especially those who love Las Vegas.