A copy of Geoff Mangum's book has been kicking around the office for a couple of months. I hadn't really had a chance to give it a good look until someone tossed it in my lap the other day and said "go for it."

Gambling on the Internet is a tiny little book, small enough to fit in my shirt pocket, and yet it contains a surprising amount of information. The book lists its contents right on the cover:

• Online Casinos
• Who to Trust
• Tips and Strategies
• Reviews
• Site Addresses

So far so good, but what's inside? The good news is there is actually a fair amount of good information between the wine-colored covers. Everything from the business side of internet gambling -- including the key organizations and consultants -- through a vast array of websites and on to horseracing and sports-betting is discussed.

Each section of the book has an introduction to get you up to speed on the subject at hand and enough details to get you started in whatever area interests you. And in each section there are more URLs than you can shake a stick at.

In fact the bulk of the book is website reviews, one per page. Actually one per half-page because the bottom half of each page is a (bad) photo of the respective site's front page or logo. Unfortunately the reviews themselves are all over the map.

In some cases the reviews are brief, accurate and informative while others are downright misleading. Take Casino.com on p.70, for example, which Mr. Mangum states is "very useful as a consumer watchdog site." With all due respect to Casino.com the fact is that that site is an infomercial run by Boss Media to interest players in online gambling and, in the words of a Boss Media representative, "funnel players to Boss Media casinos." That's not exactly the kind of "watchdog" that most consumers have in mind.

While the book does have much useful reference info on an impressively wide range of subjects, it's virtually impossible to find anything. There is no index, no chapter headings on the pages and no cross referencing whatsoever. The fact that there are page numbers seems a bit irrelevant after a while since nothing past the iffy table of contents makes any reference to them whatsoever.

For instance, I wanted to find what Mr. Mangum had to say about us, WINNERonline.com, The Guide to Online Gambling. With this book you start at the beginning and start flipping pages. And if you don't see what you're looking for -- I didn't -- what do you do? Flip back to the beginning and start going through the pages again? C'mon guys, life is short enough as it is.

Once you've given the book a thorough going over you'll probably be left with the distinct impression that it's basically a hardcopy version of the "Favorites" list from Mr. Mangum's web browser. Add intro sections and a bit of commentary on the URLs and presto, a book! But it's not a good book, however useful the website references could have been.

This book's failure is unfortunate. In the first place a book like this could be incredibly useful if it was properly designed. At the very least that would mean a full and proper index.

In the second place it's unfortunate because the author obviously knows his subjects and spent no small amount of effort writing the clear and lucid introductory pages to each section. But the rest of the book is just a great wash of so-so site reviews and miscellaneous related links, all frustratingly inaccessible. Pity.