Recommended reading - The Arm (1967):

The Arm

By Clark Howard.

Filmed as The Big Town (1987), directed by Ben Bolt and Harold Becker.

First published 1967.

Published by Fawcett / Gold Medal.

ASIN: B0012513FS

Paperback.

Description:

A high-tension novel of the seething underworld of the professional crapshooter – where the women come easy and the points come hard.

Before young J.C. Cullen hit Chicago, nobody had ever heard of him. But Cully knew he had it- the cool, the guts, the skill, the magic... whatever it took to be a winner. The big-time players in Chicago had never seen anything like him. Within a week he was known in every gambling haunt in the city... every bar, brothel, striptease joint, and backroom. He was Cully the Arm, King of the crapshooters. He was hated, envied, respected... and lonely. Then he met Lorry. Beautiful, tempting, and evil as Hell. As skilled in sex as he was with dice. And far deadlier. The game she played had no rules – and no limit. Cully knew this, but he couldn't stop. Even though the stake was his own life.