I am currently in the process of making a magician whose primary focus is using magic to cheat at games of chance. So far I have decided on Clairvoyance, to see other peoples cards, Trid Phantasm, for that ace up the sleeve, Magic Fingers, to manipulate dice rolls, and Catalog, this one I'm not 100% on, but I'm sure it will come in handy at some point. I'm trying to steer clear of direct mind control, as that would be cheating "for real". If anyone has any ideas to contribute or just wants to flame me for such a lame concept I would appreciate any input. Also please forgive the epic run-on sentence.

It's probably a bad idea to focus on any spells for this at all. The only place you'd be able to gamble with active spells is on the streets, and you best pray there aren't any other mages around to notice. Casinos are right out.

You'd be better off spending 22 Spell Points to join a group and initiate twice with ordeals and snag Masking and Divination. Divination is a lot harder for others to detect than Detection Spells, and Masking will help cover up your mojo against most magicians of a lower or uninitiated grade.

An adept or physical magician is probably even better because then you could take Centering (Knowledge Skills) and then use Centering to increase your chances of using any of your gambling skills (which should be Knowledge Skills under most circumstances). Adepts can take all three of those metamagic techniques, too, leaving you with all of your Power Points to spend on other things (like Missile Mastery so you can throw your cards Gambit style).

Hmm, good point. I think that you are right on about the card throwing also. Definitely a must have for this guy, especially if they catch me cheating!