Frank Scoblete (born 1947) is an American author who has written both under his own name and King Scobe about

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

gambling. Referred to by ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' as "a widely published authority on casino games," his books include ''Beat the Craps out of the Casinos'', ''Golden Touch Blackjack Revolution,'' and ''Beat the One-Armed Bandits''. He has written and appeared in television documentaries such as the "What Would You Do If ...?" program on

The Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United S ...

, written numerous columns for gambling magazines and websites, and produced a series of videotapes and DVDs, with most of his work being about the games of

craps Craps is a dice game in which players bet on the outcomes of the roll of a pair of dice. Players can wager money against each other (playing "street craps") or against a bank ("casino craps"). Because it requires little equipment, "street c ...

and

blackjack Blackjack (formerly Black Jack and Vingt-Un) is a casino banking game. The most widely played casino banking game in the world, it uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as Twenty-One. This fami ...

Early life and education

Scoblete grew up in

Bay Ridge Bay Ridge is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by Sunset Park to the north, Dyker Heights to the east, the Narrows and the Belt Parkway to the west, and Fort Hamilton Army Base and ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York, the older of two children. He attended Our Lady of Angels elementary school, and then St. John's Prep. According to his website, he had a full athletic scholarship for baseball and basketball. He graduated high school in 1965, and then went on to college, this time under an academic scholarship, majoring in history, literature, and philosophy. According to his site, he has three Master's degrees, and graduated in 1969.

Career

From 1969 to 1974 he worked as a writer, editor, and eventually publisher of ''Island Magazine'', a

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

news magazine. He also had his own radio program "Frank Scoblete Live!", and worked for a time as a high school teacher, teaching English and an innovative class in Science Fiction at Lawrence High School on Long Island where he was known as "Mr. Scobe" or just "Scobe"."Long Island Journal", ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', January 16, 1994, section 13LI, page 3 In 1975 Scoblete experimented with acting, and in 1979 co-founded The Other Vic Theatre Company, a professional touring troupe that played dinner theatres, resorts, and charities. During his time with the Company, Scoblete produced, directed, and acted in approximately 50 plays. In 1985, while researching the role of a gambler for the play ''The Only Game in Town'', Scoblete and his co-star Alene Paone went to

Atlantic City Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, Boardwalk (entertainment district), boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020 United States censu ...

to do some research, which made them realize that they liked gambling more than acting. The play toured for four months. Scoblete sold his share of the theatre company in 1989, and starting writing columns for gaming magazines such as '' WIN Magazine''. He spent the majority of his time from 1986 to 1992 in the casinos. His first book on the subject was ''Beat the Craps Out of the Casinos'', published in 1991 by Paone Press, a mail-order publishing house founded by his future wife Paone, who has also taught at Lawrence Middle School. Scoblete and Paone married in 1993, and spent their honeymoon playing blackjack on a Mississippi riverboat.

Books

Along with his books and columns, Scoblete has also written for television, such as the

Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United S ...

's "What Would You Do If ...?" program, in which he also appears as an expert. He has been cited as a consultant in newspapers such as the ''

Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the ''Detroit Tribune'' on Februar ...

'' and ''

Kansas City Star ''The Kansas City Star'' is a newspaper based in Kansas City, Missouri. Published since 1880, the paper is the recipient of eight Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Star'' is most notable for its influence on the career of President Harry S. Truman and as ...

''. In 2003 during the gambling scandal involving ex-Education Secretary

William Bennett William John Bennett (born July 31, 1943) is an American conservative politician and political commentator who served as secretary of education from 1985 to 1988 under President Ronald Reagan. He also held the post of director of the Office of ...

, Scoblete was cited as a source in ''

'', which described Scoblete as "a widely published authority on casino games." Scoblete also self-published, via Paone Press, a quarterly magazine called ''The New Chance and Circumstance''. He also writes articles about gambling for websites such as worldcasinodirectory.com, gambling.co.uk, and his own site goldentouchcraps.com. As of 2007, he writes the "Ask Frank" column for ''Casino City Times''. He is a frequent speaker on the subject of

card counting Card counting is a blackjack strategy used to determine whether the player or the dealer has an advantage on the next hand. Card counters are advantage players who try to overcome the casino house edge by keeping a running count of high and low ...

and

dice control Dice control in casino craps is a controversial theory where proponents claim that individuals can learn to carefully toss the dice so as to influence the outcome. A small but dedicated community of dice shooters claim proof of dice influencing in c ...

, and gives weekend seminars on the exact techniques. He has been known to sponsor "gamblers jamborees" where he is joined by fellow authors and analysts such as Dr. Henry Tamburin,

John Grochowski John Grochowski (born c. 1952) is a gambling columnist and author. His weekly newspaper column began at the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and is now syndicated nationally. In 1994, the monthly Las Vegas Advisor reported that Grochowski was the first cas ...

, Dr. Donald Catlin, John Robison, and Jean Scott. He sponsored a "World Craps Championships" weekend in 2006, which drew 166 players.

Personal life

Scoblete lives in New York with his wife Alene Paone.Blackjack Insider Newsletter, 2006, #75
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Notes

External links

*
Casino City Times column
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scoblete, Frank American gamblers American gambling writers American male non-fiction writers People from Long Island Living people 1947 births