A gambler who raked in more than $15 million throughout her professional career has revealed she used a technique called 'hole carding' to beat casinos.
Gina Fiore, 48, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal she was working as a blackjack dealer when she decided at 24 that she would make gambling her full time job.
Fiore, who has a series about her life story being developed by HBO, doesn't suggest that anyone aspire to be a professional gambler, but told the outlet that there's still money to be made for those willing to take the risk.
The gambler said she was raised in the business. Her mother was a dealer who taught her how to deal blackjack when she was 21 years old.
But it wasn't until she initially discovered the strategy of counting cards that she decided to start taking on the house.
'A couple of years after that, somebody at my job was quitting to count cards for a living and it was a light bulb moment for me, because my mom had told me about card counting when I was a teenager,' said Fiore.
'I was like, 'This is a thing that you can do for money?' And that was it.'
She was able to quit her job after years of researching and learning techniques.
Gina Fiore, 48, became an advantage player at 24 years old after growing up in the business as the daughter of a casino dealer
Fiore, who has a series about her life story being developed by HBO, discovered strategies such as counting cards in order
'I couldn't quit my job just to count cards. It's not that strong,' she said.
She attributed most of her success to hole carding, a strategy that involves seeing the dealer's facedown card that should stay hidden during the dealing process.
'I learned how to hole card blackjack games and I learned how to sort cards, edge sorting,' Fiore said.
Fiore told the outlet that she discovered one in 300 dealers shows their hole card after scouting casinos for more than 16 hours a day.
Her other strategy, edge sorting, is a way of recognizing different patterns or flaws on the backs of cards to identify them even while they are facedown.
She beat casinos around the world of $15 millon over her 20-year career.
She recently released her book, Advantage Player: A Memoir of Blackjack, Backrooms, and Beginnings, on October 27.
'I've exposed more about advantage play and playing with an edge than any other gambling book ever written, as far as I know, and I've read a lot of them,' said Fiore.
'I give away a ton of gambling information, the actual inside secrets.'
She beat casinos around the world of $15 million dollars over her 20-year career
Riley Keough, Emmy-nominated actress and Elvis Presley's granddaughter, is set to play Fiore in her HBO series.
Fiore said the show has free rein to tell her story as the creators like, with only one caveat.
'They can do whatever they want with my story. But the one thing I said, when we were working on the show with the writer, is the character can never cheat,' said the gambler.
'They can never do anything illegal in the casino because then they go from advantage player to cheater.'
The techniques Fiore uses are not inherently illegal, but since casinos are privately owned, they generally have the right to refuse a player's business.
A premier date has not been announced for Fiore's series.
