The end of this book definitely puts a damper on the current "American dream" of getting rich quick. In the end, the big players of the team get busted, the team falls apart, and there is distrust and a lack of loyalty among the team members. I feel like this reinforces the original concept of the American dream for these kids. If they are all so smart and talented, they should be working regular jobs and helping to better society, rather than living it up and making millions in Vegas. The later will inevitably come back to get them, whether it is police, people at the casinos, IRS audits, robberies, or their own team members betraying them. If they had made the most of their talents and gotten a lot of money, that would be fine, but they needed to know when to put an end to things before everything went sour. The card counting lifestyle also lead to tension in Jill and Dylan's relationship and they eventually got a divorce. What I feel like the end is telling us is that card counting and quick money is fun for a while, but eventually it will all come to a grinding halt, and can lead to some pretty big problems too, so the best way to go is with the get and education, a career, and a family American dream, because that will last much longer.
One thing I found sad, but also quite true, about this book is the lack of loyalty to others, and how it made friendship to seem like a false hope. First they booted Mickey from the team, and then Kevin. As soon as someone becomes too controlling, or they don't care enough, they're gone. Friendship seems irrelevant, and the only ones who are your friends are those who are useful to you. That is the only reason that Kevin, Martinez, and Fisher became friends with pit bosses and those kinds of people at the casinos; to use them. It was also alarming how (comparatively) little money it took someone to sell out all of their friends and team members to the casinos. I just thought it was kind of sad. Once again, if they had all just made a decent sum of money and then called it quits, they could potentially still be friends with each other.