A School For Day Traders

It's 9:30 on a Sunday morning at the Gold Strike casino in Tunica, Miss. In the casino ambience of perpetual night, waitresses clad in skimpy riverboat-style dresses are delivering Bloody Marys and screwdrivers to patrons. All the while, there's the buzzing and ringing of slot machines that sport names such as "Life of Luxury" and "Filthy Rich." In a few hours, the after-church crowd will start pouring into this and the nine other Tunica casinos, which are situated on the banks of the Mississippi River, smack-dab in the heart of the Bible Belt some 20 miles south of Memphis. "Sin City South," Tunica is sometimes called.

On this Sunday morning, six people from as far away as Alaska and California have gathered to learn how to make big money day-trading stocks and commodities by mastering the game of craps. Each has paid $1,500 (not including airfare, lodging, meals, or the required $1,000 in gambling money) to attend a four-day seminar called "Casino War Games" taught by Richard McCall, a Little Rock behavioral therapist, martial-arts master, professional trading coach, and casino gambler.