Douglas Beatty was born in West Toronto, Canada raised by parents whose life style was oriented to gambling he was playing cards at five, and going to Crap games with his Dad at fifteen. He ran card games and had a small book making operation in his teens and into his twenties.

 

During this period he also spent far too much time playing hearts, gin, pool, checkers, chess, poker, golf and any other gambling game you can think of. Married with a child in 1964, he left his sporting business, which arguably was occasionally on the wrong side of the law , and settled down in Las Vegas where he became a Craps dealer at the Fremont Hotel.

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 Returning to Canada with considerable gaming experience, and having studied the detection and prevention of illegal gambling techniquies, he had the occasion to work with police departments in both Ontario and Manitoba. In both provinces, he helped to bring about the arrest and conviction of a number of card and dice cheats.