The first time I met Ritchie was 1964 in Pensacola Florida, when was playing Dick Hunziker. Next time 1971? in Weenie Beenie's Jack and Jill in Arlington Va. Then 1986 I was on a crap table in the Stardust, and heard a voice behind me, talking to a guy about caps. As i turned around I said, "You-uh Richie Ambrose! He had a distinctive voice!
From that point on, until 2019 every time i went to Vegas from Arizona (10+ times/year) we met up. I got to know him, and his problems well.
Unfortunately, he had a habit as bad as heroin addiction. Craps!
He promoted himself as a knowledgeable crap instructor, advertised on you tube, sold booklets, and gave instructions to novice visitors to Vegas.
He would approach people who never played craps, have them put up the money, and show them how to play, for 1/2 the winnings if there were any. Some would make appointments with him before coming to Vegas. This all worked well enough, until he was barred from all the strip Casinos.
For a while he had a backer, who thought there might be something to the whole thing with Richie, and gave him a motor coach to live in, that he wasn't using. Richie parked it in a park along Boulder Hwy. That lasted for about 5 years. For a while, before his van broke down, he lived out of it, and he a lifetime pass to those physical fitness exercise clubs....He had it rough, but brought it on himself!
Back in the day, he had the best 9 ball break I saw! He would "park" the cue ball dead center of the table (pop up in the air 18 inches and drop down in the middle of the table)...His biggest score came in Detroit cir 1971-72? when he was backed and got 1/3 of a $90,000 score when he
played one pocket where Richie had to go to 8, running 4 balls twice. run 4 then play safe off the 4th ball, the run 4 a second time.
He took his $30,000 and opened up a room in Detroit, said he took about $1000+ a week out of it for about 3 years, before selling out, and going back to Vegas.......Along the way, in Vegas, he ended up pawning his Original Balabushka for $1500 and could never retrieve it.
The craziest story of all; A undercover old pool player and a friend played the powerball on feb 29, 2012 PLAYED THE SAME NUMBERS SEVEN TIMES AND HIT FOR A TOTAL OF $14,000,000. Richie , and Jimmy Fusco were each given $10,000 as a gift, with more to come (Fusco asked for $25,000 to be able to remodel old family house. Richie hadn't had more than a couple of thousand for several years. He pays off some debts, gets a whore, takes her back to the Moter Coach, fall asleep, and she takes off and leaves LV with his last $5600