Summer School
Re-publishing a story that originally appeared July 13, 2013 however if you haven’t read it before it’s new to you
Every year around this time we hit the sports gambling doldrums known as summer. Gone are the residual crumbs from the NHL/NBA playoffs and the start of football seems just a little too far away (CFL does not count) for the recreational bettor to get excited. Handicappers and bookmakers alike have completed analysis of win totals and game of the year lines but until teams reconvene for camp, there aren’t a whole lot of other variables to factor into the equation unless you consider inevitable UGA suspensions. This is the the time to take summer vacation and leave sports on the backburner, at least for a few days. However, that gambling IQ shouldn’t go idle so we’ve provided our bookmaker approved summer reading list. For those averse to reading books without pictures, I’ve included a few movies that will entertain the sports enthusiast even if they don’t inform the same way as the written word. Out of principal, you won’t see me endorse Two for the Money anywhere on this somewhat professional blog because frankly, well that’s an entire blog post in itself.
Note: Special thanks to everyone that contributed their votes for the best books and movies worthy of inclusion on this list, without your input consolidating a list made for a daunting task.
We Were Wiseguys and Didn’t Know It – By Scott Schettler (description courtesy of Amazon)
We Were Wiseguys and Didn’t Know It by Scott Schettler presents a rare and unprecedented history of the early days of “old Las Vegas” and the sports betting luminaries who set the standards and culture in the evolution of sports betting in Las Vegas. This is not a dry history lesson, but rather author Schettler has drawn multiple portraits of key players who shaped the framework and foundation of one of Las Vegas’s biggest draws. Schettler has set the record straight about what really happened in the glory days of Las Vegas sports betting, and he has done so not as an academic, but as an insider. Personal experience and hands on accounts tell the stories about a time that will never come again, and of a place even Hollywood could not reproduce. Written in easy and accessible prose, We Were Wiseguys and Didn’t Know It will educate and entertain, while it serves as witness to little known (if shadowy) characters of Las Vegas gambling history.
Movie Pairing: The Sting
Todd’s Take: To understand where the industry is now, you have to understand how the foundation was built. This book provides a historical account about the founding fathers of Las Vegas wiseguys and gives an accurate depiction of what life was like way back then (or so I’ve been told from the guys who lived it themselves)
The Odds – By Chad Millman (description courtesy of Amazon)
One gambler is a manic former cokehead with an Ivy League degree. The second is a college dropout trying to make a living at the only thing he enjoyed at school—gambling. The third, one of Vegas’s most respected bookmakers, is perilously close to burning out. The Odds follows the lives of these three professional gamblers through a college basketball season in a one-of-a-kind city struggling to reconcile its lawless past with its family-friendly makeover. With a wiseguy attitude and a faultless eye and ear for the sights and sounds of Vegas and its denizens, Chad Millman has created a portrait that the Wall Street Journal called “fascinating. . . often screamingly funny.”
Movie Pairing: Bookies
Todd’s Take: Having met the primary characters in the book and worked with the author on multiple occasions, this book holds a special place in my bookmaker education. Millman does a superfluous job of re-creating the scene in Las Vegas and chronicling the trials and tribulations of both gamblers and bookmakers. Unlike the sensationalized Hollywood versions of our business, this is an honest representation of how Las Vegas can chew you up and spit you out.
Lay the Favorite – By Beth Raymer (description courtesy of Amazon)
Lay the Favorite is the story of Beth Raymer’s years in the high-stakes, high-anxiety world of sports betting—a period that saw the fall of the local bookie and the rise of the freewheeling, unregulated offshore sports book, and with it the elevation of sports betting in popular culture. As the business explodes, Beth rises—from assistant to expert, trusted and seasoned enough to open an offshore booking office in the Caribbean with a few associates, men who leave their families up north to make a quick killing, while donning new tropical personas fueled by abundant drugs and local girlfriends, and who one by one succumb to their vices. They lie, cheat, steal, and run, until Beth is the last man standing.
Movie Pairing: Lay the Favorite (coming soon to a theater near you)
Todd’s Take: This memoir from Beth Raymer delves into the offshore bookmaking industry and the corner shop rather than Las Vegas. Unlike other gambling memoirs, the human element is essential for weaving a heartfelt story about the sacrfices and lifestyle choices people make to pursue their dreams. I also found it fascinating to get the female perspective on gamblers and how each win and loss for gamblers isn’t even half the struggle they endure every day in a quest to be successful.
Smart Money – By Michael Konik (description courtesy of Amazon)
When journalist Michael Konik landed an interview with Rick “Big Daddy” Matthews, the largest bet he’d placed on a sporting event was $200. Konik, an expert blackjack and poker player, was no stranger to Vegas. But Matthews was in a different league: the man was rumored to be the world’s smartest sports bettor, the mastermind behind “the Brain Trust,” a shadowy group of gamblers known for their expertise in beating the Vegas line. Konik had heard the word on the street — that Matthews was a snake, a conniver who would do anything to gain an edge. But he was also brilliant, cunning, and charming. And when he asked Konik if he’d like to “make a little money” during the football season, the writer found himself seduced . . .
So began Michael Konik’s wild ride as an operative of the elite Brain Trust. In The Smart Money, Konik takes readers behind the veil of secrecy shrouding the most successful sports betting operation in America, bypassing the myths and the rumors, going all the way to its innermost sanctum. He reveals how they — and he — got rich by beating the Vegas lines and, ultimately, the multimillion-dollar offshore betting circuit. He details the excesses and the betrayals, the horse-trading and the paranoia, that are the perks and perils of a lifestyle in which staking inordinate sums of money on the outcome of a single event — sometimes as much as $1 million on a football game — is a normal part of doing business.
Movie Pairing: The Runner
Todd’s Take: It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who Michael Konik is moving money for in Las Vegas. Some of the most prominent figures in sports gambling lore are included in this story although they’re protected with aliases for obvious reasons. Smart Money is one of the only books I’ve ever read that explains how things work in a large scale syndicate and provides a bird’s eye view of what it takes to bet millions at establishments that don’t openly embrace sharp action.
Honorable Mention Late Edition:
Gaming the Game (description via Amazon)
Gaming the Game delves inside the FBI investigation of illegal gambling involving former basketball NBA referee, Tim Donaghy. The story examines Donaghy’s relationships with professional gambler Jimmy Battista and Tommy Martino (the intermediary between Donaghy and Battista), the involvement of Italian-American crime families in the scheme, and the FBI’s failed efforts to “flip” Battista into a cooperating witness.
Todd’s Take: The story the NBA never wanted told about the point shaving scandal that almost brought the game to it’s knees. Gaming the Game chronicles the major events, players, and timelines that created the biggest mess to face a major sports league in this country over the last 20 years. There are points the book reads a little slow but the level of detail is fascinating, especially for those unfamiliar with the story.
