The prominent Association Internationale des Jeus de Hasard Ecrivains (International Association of Gambling Writers) has named Les Golden of Oak Park, Illinois, as the winner of the Fortuna Award as the Gambling Writer of the Year for 2009.  Based in the international casino center of Macao in the Far East, the AIJHE is composed of 750 editors, writers, and publishers of gambling books, gambling magazines, and internet gambling sites.  The nominating board is composed of 11 members and voting is industry-wide. 

The award is named after Fortuna, the Roman goddess of good luck, and has been given every two years since 1989.   The award includes a $150,000 stipend and a platinum-plated key to the city of Macao.  Golden will travel to Macao to accept the award at the annual AIJHE convention in August.  As the Fortuna winner, he will address the convention prior to receiving his award at the awards dinner.   He will be introduced by the current chairman of the Nominating and Awards Committee, Lazar Masche de Santillana of Barcelona, Spain.

CITATION NOTES HUMOROUS WRITINGS

In their citation, the AIJHE recognized Golden as “standing alone in his synthesis of an expertise in probability, the ability to explain difficult concepts in layman’s terms, and humorous presentation.”  Golden, with degrees in Engineering Physics from Cornell University and a Ph.D in astrophysics from the University of California at Berkeley, has published several papers in applications of probability and statistics in astronomy and has taught probability and statistics at the Heller Graduate School of Management at Chicago’s Roosevelt University.

The mission statement of the AIJHE is “to promote and popularize casino and internet gambling for leisure and as a profession by presenting articles on strategy, the business of gambling, and profiles of prominent gamblers.”  Its charter states, “Our members are charged with a commitment to ensure the health of the casino and internet gambling industry by adherence to the highest standards of journalism.” 

Clifton M. Havencliff, the London-based executive director of the AIJHE, noted in the citation, “Dr. Les Golden has gained a widespread international following in the games of casino gambling by his ability to spice his erudite presentations with humor.  He has redefined what it means to be a gambling writer.”  The citation also reads, “Professor Golden’s contribution to strategy in the game of 21 is the most significant since the groundbreaking work of Edward O. Thorp and Peter A. Griffin and the development of team play by Ken Uston.  His application of physics has enabled a team approach to roulette which has revolutionized that game for the serious gambler.”

PREVIOUS AWARDS

Golden was has won numerous writing awards.  He was the Feature Editor and Editor-in-Chief of the Cornell Engineer magazine, won awards from the ECMA (Engineering College Magazines Association) for his editorials, was the recipient of the Lili Fabilli‑Eric Hoffer Essay Prize, and was the First Place Prize Winner, Senior Division, of  the Copernicus Essay Contest of the American Council of Polish Cultural Clubs.  His full-length murder mystery/comedy, “Murder by Mistletoe,” has been performed twice.  He received a contract from Bantam for “The Scientific Approach to Creativity:  The Techniques of the Chicago School of Improvisational Comedy,” based on his work with the legendary Del Close of Chicago’s Second City. 

His “Laboratory Experiments in Physics for Modern Astronomy” will be published by noted scientific publisher Springer, and Golden is preparing “The Body Shapes of Extraterrestrials and Other Essays in Science and Math” and “Astronomy vs. Astrology,” a book concept inspired by his CBS TV appearance with noted astrologer Laurie Brady, which will also be submitted to Springer.  Golden prepared the textbook while a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and as a professor on Semester at Sea, sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh.

Golden has been writing for numerous internationally-distributed print format gambling magazines since 2006, including Gambling.com magazine, iGamingBusiness Magazine, GamblingOnline Magazine, and Bluff Europe.   His writing is also widely reprinted and quoted on the internet.

He specializes in the strategies for card counting in the casino game of blackjack, but also writes about craps, roulette, and games of probability without replacement in general.  He has also written a short pamphlet, “The Arrest of the Card Counters:  Watch Out for    Judges on the Take,” a humorous but informative guide to defending oneself against charges of trespassing by casinos eager to bar card counters.  It has been translated into the Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, French, Italian, Spanish, Greek, and Japanese languages.  A number of Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe hotels now regularly place “The Arrest of the Card Counters” in the rooms of high-rollers.

“Casinos would have you believe that using your brain is an illegal activity,” says Golden.  Noting that a sign at the entry of most casinos reserves the right to “bar” individuals, Golden’s pamphlet describes the means to avoid “hassling by the thought police” and being prosecuted as “someone who can memorize numbers.”

Golden, nonetheless, admits that his card counting has led to his being barred from numerous casinos around the world.   Golden defends himself by noting, “That was before I learned the tricks I discuss in the pamphlet.”

ROULETTE AND BLACKJACK SYSTEMS EARN ACCOLADES

He is well-known among card counters for developing the theory behind the Golden Diagram.  This describes the phenomena of changing advantages to players with depth of penetration into multiple decks of cards and presents strategy and betting guidelines to  maximize expected winnings.  He also developed the Magic Circle strategy for team play at roulette.  This has led casinos, particularly those using the European roulette wheel, to change some rules of the game, particularly those known as the “call bets,” including “Voisins du Zero” and “Tiers du Cylindre.”

His editors are unanimous in their praise.  His editor at Bluff Europe, Philip Conneller, wrote:  "Les Golden makes numbers hilarious.  He's simply the funniest gaming strategy writer there is."  

Dave Bland, the editor of Flush Magazine and a frequent television gaming pundit, added, "Les Golden is a comedy genius.  I could write more but it really is as simple as that.  An expert in his field, he makes getting educated not only painless but actually funny."

James McKeown, editor of iGaming Business, states, "Les Golden has an ever-increasing influence and burgeoning popularity.  His is a significant name in the industry, and is the 'go to' man for counting, strategy and anecdotal literary dexterity.  I cannot acclaim his star highly enough."

Chris Lines, editor of GamblingOnline magazine, introduced Golden to his readers with the following:  “Where to start in introducing the complete one-off individual that is Les Golden?  Actor, stand-up comedian, humorist UFO lecturer, singer, astronomer, cartoonist, playwright, trumpet player, voice-over artist, political activist . . . we could go on.  You can probably tell that Les is a bit of a character.  Luckily for readers he’s also a great blackjack player.”

Jon Young, Editor of WPT (World Poker Tour)  Magazine and former editor of gambling.com Magazine wrote,  “I learned more about blackjack strategy during my tenure through Les' articles than I did through many failed trips to Vegas.  Always concise, easy-to-read, and intelligent, Les' pieces were the highlight of the month.  His talents also stretched to travel writing.  He provided gambling guides for the magazine to cities as far-flung as Hong Kong and Chicago which were informed, amusing, and relevant, and good enough to put a hundred Bill Brysons to shame." 

His editors enjoy his writing.  Mr. Conneller describes him as “rakish” and “bond-esque.”  Mr. McKeown’s favorite quote is Les’ description of a game he developed to illustrate how casinos set the rules of games to determine the payoffs.  The game “Dumbo Craps” is described by Les as “for those of you with unclean minds, a compound noun, not a complete sentence.”

Golden has compiled many of his columns into a book, “Confessions of a Card Counter:  How You Can Make a Living Playing Blackjack.”   His columns on roulette, including the theory behind the Magic Circle strategy, will be published as part of “The Best Winning System for Roulette Ever Devised.”

His writing continues in the scholarly literature.  “Analysis of the Disadvantage to Players of Multiple Decks in the Game of 21” and “A Study of the Viability of Gambling Websites by Secular Changes in the Pareto Distribution” have recently been published in refereed journals.

BACKGROUND AS RADIO ASTRONOMER AND PROFESSOR

Golden is one of a handful of Americans who has been elected to both Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi, the engineering academic honorary.  He has also been elected to Pi Delta Epsilon, the journalism honorary, was named a Fellow of the American Institute for Economic Research, was twice a recipient of a National Research Council grant, and studied at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University on a Kellogg Fellowship.  He has traveled around the world twice as a cruise ship lecturer on astronomy and the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligent life.

Golden’s boyhood interest in the field of astronomy led to this being his academic career after studying at Cornell University under Professor Frank Drake, the first astronomer to undertake a search for extraterrestrial intelligent life.  His master’s thesis advisor at Cornell was Professor Bruce Hapke, under whom he studied erosion of lunar meterorite craters.  At Cornell he studied philosophy of science with Professor Max Black, the Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy and Human Letters, and literature with Professor James McConkey, the Goldwin Smith Professor of English Literature.  Golden received the Ph.D in astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley, under Professor William J. Welch, the Watson and Marilyn Alberts Chair in Extraterrestrial Intelligence.  His dissertation committee comprised Professor Welch, Professor Harold Weaver, and Nobel Prize Winner Charles Townes.

RENAISSANCE MAN AS TRUMPET PLAYER, JAZZ VOCALIST, ACTOR, STAND-UP COMIC, AND PLAY-BY-PLAY ANNOUNCER

As a jazz trumpet player and vocalist, Golden was one of the founding fathers of the University of California, Berkeley, Jazz Ensembles.  He emceed for jazz festivals throughout California in the 1970’s with the UC Jazz Ensembles, most notably at numerous Pacific Coast Jazz Festivals in Zellerbach Auditorium on the University of California, Berkeley, campus, and also performed with his own Les Morris Quintet.  The UC Jazz Ensembles has been the training ground for numerous musicians including Michael Wolff, Andy Narell, Susan Muscarella, Steve Carter, Dave LeFebvre, Paul Giorsetto, Chris Gillock, and Dave Meros.   He has performed with Gunther Schuller, Freddie Hubbard, Hubert Laws, Ed Shaughnessy, Patrice Rushen, Sonny Rollins, George Duke, Bill Watrous, John Heard, and others.

Golden appeared on KALX-FM radio as “Flash” Golden, hosting a program featuring jazz, interviews, and comic interludes.  He was the play-by-play basketball announcer for the California Golden Bears in the mid-1970’s with George Skofis and Bob Mansbach.  His discovery of financial irregularities at KALX-FM led to a university investigation and an eventual change of management and return to the air with improved facilities.    KALX-FM became the training ground for, among others, station manager and owner Andrew Reimer and reporter Lisa Stark of ABC News. 

As an actor, Les Golden has made more than 100 appearances in film, theatre, and commercials.  As a stand-up comedian, he has performed from Boston to Los Angeles to Puerto Vallarta, worked the college circuit, was the opening act for Rodney Dangerfield,  appeared on the Merv Griffin Show, and has appeared on cable specials numerous times. He was a regular as the comic Bhutanese diplomat Jeffrey Clayton Maxwell on the Eddie Hubbard Radio Show broadcast from Arnie’s Restaurant in the Gold Coast section of Chicago in the 1980’s and also performs as Subramanyan Berkowitz from Bhutan.  He is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

Golden was discovered by Chicago commercial and film director Josef Sedelmaier of “Where’s the Beef” fame in 1980.  He appeared with Tippi Hedren and Troy Donahue in Jack Sell’s “Deadly Spy Games” and with Broderick Crawford in Sell’s “Outtakes.” In addition to Close, he studied with Don DePollo, Ann Woodworth of Northwestern University, and Helen Manfull of Penn State University.  He has appeared on stage with Val Bettin, Angel Casey, David Darlow, Greg Vinkler, Michael Halberstam, Kristine Thatcher, Dale Calandra, Nikki Geist, Anna Moran, Shea Purdy, Vanessa Hauss, Hillary Cox, Erin Brownback, Emily Platt, Jennifer Bokus, Pammie Crawford, Johanna Sabin, Heather Roark, Joanna Wertheimer, Ned Mochel, Toni Graves, and others, has appeared  in various Shakespeare productions in the Chicago area, and worked with Arnold Aprill as the Maharishi in City Lit’s “How I Became a Holy Mother,” among other roles of characters in various stage credits.  He was an original ensemble member of Chicago’s Porchlight Theater Company.