I’m John Grochowski, and I’ve been on the casino beat for the last 14 years. I write a weekly column that runs in newspapers and on Web sites, and I’m a regular contributor to magazines that include Midwest Gaming and Travel, Southern Gaming and Entertainment, Slot Manager and International Gaming and Wagering Business.

I’m also the author of half a dozen books on casino games, including the “Casino Answer Book” series from Bonus Books. That series includes The Casino Answer Book, The Video Poker Answer Book, The Craps Answer Book and the newly revised Slot Machine Answer Book – that’s where the “Answer Man” title of this site comes from. You can buy any of these on the “Books” page on this site.

Chicago radio listeners know me from my “Beat the Odds” tips that air three times Saturdays and three times Sundays on WBBM-AM, News Radio 780 in Chicago. You can hear them Saturdays at 6:20 a.m., 2:50 p.m. and 7:41 p.m. Central time and at 8:20 a.m., 2:50 p.m. and 10:42 p.m. on WBBM-AM, News Radio 780 in Chicago, streaming online at www.wbbm780.com

Readers frequently ask how I came to write about gambling, and I tell them it was largely an accident. I was a copy editor on staff at the Chicago Sun-Times at the time of the great riverboat expansion in the early 1990s. The newspaper’s managing editor sent out a memo asking for ways to get consumer news about casinos in the paper. I proposed a weekly column that she said was the only serious response – other responses were of the “don’t bet on red” or “keep your money in your pocket” variety.

I started writing the column in February of 1994, and although the Sun-Times and my column came to a parting of the ways at the end of 2004, it’s still going strong in other papers. Some of what you’ll find posted on this site will be drawn from that column, while some will come from my magazine articles and books, along with special features original to this site.

Along the way I hope we have some fun with looks at games, strategies, quizzes and much more. You can contact me at casinoanswerman@casinoanswerman.com.

Good luck, and hope you enjoy the site.