Gamblers Anonymous has a list of twenty questions that aims to identify those with a gambling problem. Anyone answering 'yes' to more than seven questions is deemed compulsive. Where then does the dedicated gambler fit in? And how would one categorise Amarillo Slim, the self-styled 'greatest gambler who ever lived' and co-author of Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People (Yellow Jersey Press 270pp £12)?

Slim is a legend in his time, a character to rank with any in gambling mythology. He has the outlandish manner and speech of a Damon Runyon character, and the dress sense of a line dancer - only the late Dodi Fayed can have owned more cowboy boots. Under this