The father of professional Blackjack playing and author of the first heavily influential guide to blackjack, ‘Playing Blackjack as a Business.’

Like many other members of the hall of fame, Lawrence Revere is also a unique character with a life story that sounds more like the plot of a movie than a standard author bio. Starting at the age of 13 in the back of a smoke leaden barbershop in rural Iowa he began dealing cards before leaving to study mathematics at the University of Nebraska.As soon as his degree was inked he set out west to begin playing professionally in 1943.

Lawrence Revere is one of the few blackjack authorities famous for having been on every side of the game: working as a dealer, pit boss, owner and player for over 28 years. In the 1960’s and early 1970’s he was considered the preeminent blackjack expert.

His often remembered boast was that he was ‘barred from playing in all Nevada casinos.’ And for good reason. He was the first to conceive, utilize and eventually publish several breakthrough counting strategies that have proven to be the foundation for Edward Thorp and Julian Braun’s later work as well as countless others.

He was admitted to the hall of fame posthumously after passing away in 1977 due to lung cancer.