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First, I would like to correct two errors in my previous post "Las Vegas is not Disneyland Part 1." (1)I grievously erred when I stated that the Horseshoe takes $100 on baseball totals over the phone. In reality, they do not even allow you to bet totals over the phone. However, all is not lost. If you walk into the sportsbook, they actually let you bet, as a testimonial to the late old man Binion, up to $100 on a baseball total. 2)I was wrong about Leroy's owner Vic Salerno completely retiring from his dental practice. If you are a consistent winner, Vic will be glad to give you a root canal, sans the novocaine. During the procedure, Vic will also play his favorite movie, The Marathon Man, while he drills into your dental nerves.
Second, I will respond to some replies to my previous post. 1) Vinny, didn't I tell you not to lay heavy lumber? -2000 that I'm over 50 is a loser. Stick with live dogs. I'm 47.
2) Shify Sheik, the best bookmakers are not necessarily the ones on Don Best. I see all kinds of fundamental bookmaking errors, which it doesn't serve my livelihood to elaborate upon, made by Don Best sportsbooks. However, I will give you a couple of examples of the fallibility of Don Best sportsbooks: Olympic is usually the first sportsbook on the Don Best screen to follow CRIS, which posts the opening line. One morning, CRIS, for some reason, put up the line for a morning Cubs game real early--around 7:30--before they posted the rest of their lines, which usually go up at around 7:50. Well, the line was obviously wrong by about 20 cents to anyone who knows baseball, and I nailed it for a few dimes. Sure enough, a few minutes after CRIS posted the bad line, Olympic, like the stupid follower they are, posted virtually the same line. Then, when CRIS subsequently realized they had put up the wrong number and pulled the bad line off the Don Best screen, Olympic immediately followed suit. Like a whipped puppy with his tail between his legs, Olympic, for several days thereafter, did not quickly post their betting lines immediately after CRIS. A second example: When the Don Best sportsbooks open their lines, it is obvious to this pro, by the way the books shade their opening betting lines, which bookmakers are sharp and which aren't. The sharpest offshore bookmaker, who the other offshore books follow, is no doubt Monty at CRIS, who posts the opening offshore line on the Don Best screen. In my estimation, none of the Don Best bookmakers, aside from Monty, is on par with the Michael Roxborough group, which has definitely improved over the years. 3) Maximum Value, truth be told, I hate the Nevada Gaming Control Board so much that I doubt if I can be objective about them. In fact, if I were to adress the members at a meeting, my advice to each of them would be as follows: "Esteemed member, when you return to your home tonight, immediately go to the bathroom and fill the tub with water. Then stick your head into the water three times but only remove it twice." Even back in the 80s, when I was in Vegas, the Gaming Contol Board was a Nazi-like organization that screwed serious sportsbettors with their actions and lack of actions. I can't recall everything they have done, but here is some of it:
1) Back in the 80s, there were a few private sportsbooks in Las Vegas that folded and stiffed players. There was one downtown joint whose name I'm not sure of (was it the Hollywood?),and two along the Strip: Gary Austin's and Santa Anita. The real reason that all private sportsbooks--including a legendary one called Churchill Downs, were destined to fold was their inability to afford the televised off-track horse race feed that became available in the mid-80s.
The exorbitant--many hundred of thousands of dollars a year from what I understand--cost to get this feed was no big deal to huge casinos, but was beyond the reach of private race and sports books. Without the feed, the race customers, most of whom also bet sports, migrated to the casinos so they could view the live race action. Anyway, Gary Austin, who owned and managed Gary Austin's race and sports book, was a degenerate gambler, who, as many people know, bet millions on a World series (was it the one between Kansas City and St. Louis) and lost because of a blatantly bad call by a first base umpire. Anyway, because of the loss, Austin's set up a fake robbery of his race and sportsbook, and used this as an excuse to close his establishment and stiff the players, me among them. The investigation was a farce, and Austin got off scot-free. The Gaming Control Board did nothing to help bettors recoup their losses and took no legal action against Austin. Then, if memory recalls, a few months later, Santa Anita, which was almost next door to Gary Austin's, also folded, and the day they folded they were booking so as to maximize their rip-off of players. Again, the Gaming Control Board did nothing. If they'd had any sense or decency, the Gaming Control Board would have immediately bonded all race and sportsbooks after the Austin fiasco. What they should have done, in addition, for good PR and for what would have been a micro-dot in the Nevada state budget, would have been to cover what players were owed. Eventually, under immense pressure,the Gaming Control Board did bond all race and sportsbooks.
In the 80s, prior to Don Best or Data Broadcast Service (which is a Don Best competitor), I was a partner for three years in a large betting, middling, and money moving operation. We employed numerous runners at the major sportsbooks. Each runner had a Motorola radio and would report to us with each line change and make bets. Since we got the "steam moves" first by virtue of our moving big money for the right people, we were in the catbbird's seat for making money.(However, although I made great money, I was also stiffed for humungus amounts from private bookies, runners, and, most unfortunately, a partner who turned out to be a cheat.) We also used private Vegas bookies, which are illegal in Nevada, and one offshore account, CRIS, which at the time was simply called "the Island," and was located in the Dominican Republic at that time. (We would simply settle up with an agent every week.) Well, to make a long story short, the Gaming Control Board outlawed radios and cellular phones in sportsbooks, and that was the beginning of the end for our operation. The feds busted bookies we worked with, interrogated my partner, had agents tailing him, and even had a helicopter periodically hovering over his apartment. The message was clear: Organized betting operations would not be tolerated, and Billy Walters,the biggest fish of 'em all, especially, became a government target. I knew it was time to get out, and soon thereafter I headed to Caliente.
At the time I was in Vegas there were two other major operations competing with ours. I knew them well, since I had worked for each of them and learned the ropes that way before starting my own operation. Don Bessett also worked as a runner for one of these operations before starting Don Best.
One of our competitors, the one that had employed Don Bessett, got out of the business not long after we did. That left one major group, and that group, due to huge financing by an outside source that I won't identify, has thrived despite government pressure. Now,in their latest attempt to stifle this particular group, a law has been instituted that I believe, but won't swear to,(someone correct me if I'm wrong),makes anyone who bets more than $3,000 at a Nevada sportsbook fill out a form with their social security number and show proof of personal identity.
The latest Nevada Gaming Control fiasco has been their inept attempt to prevent people from calling Las Vegas phone accounts from outside of Nevada--as if anyone other than the Nevada Gaming Control Board even cares. Prior to this year, someone with call forwarding to a Nevada phone could call a Vegas phone account from another state. But the Gaming Control Board has demanded that sportsbooks with phone wagering install equipment that identifies where a phone call originates from. Hence the end of the call forwarding strategy. The big problem is that the equipment doesn't work right. There are all kinds of people in the state of Nevada whose calls, due to the faulty caller identification systems used by the sportsbooks, are not identified as coming from within the state. A friend of mine who lives in Mesquite, Nevada cannot call his phone accounts. He called the Gaming Control Board. He told them that the law should be rescinded until the technology was ready to be properly implemented. He told them that it was unfair to punish him just to catch out-of state bettors who could just as easily bet over the Internet. They told him that it was illegal to bet over the Internet from Nevada and that it was tough **** that he couldn't call his phone accounts. The Mirage computerized betting system cannot deal with the ridiculous new law that the technology can't support. Thus, only people who live in Las Vegas can now have Mirage phone accounts...Yes, as I was saying, Las Vegas is not Disneyland.
Second, I will respond to some replies to my previous post. 1) Vinny, didn't I tell you not to lay heavy lumber? -2000 that I'm over 50 is a loser. Stick with live dogs. I'm 47.
2) Shify Sheik, the best bookmakers are not necessarily the ones on Don Best. I see all kinds of fundamental bookmaking errors, which it doesn't serve my livelihood to elaborate upon, made by Don Best sportsbooks. However, I will give you a couple of examples of the fallibility of Don Best sportsbooks: Olympic is usually the first sportsbook on the Don Best screen to follow CRIS, which posts the opening line. One morning, CRIS, for some reason, put up the line for a morning Cubs game real early--around 7:30--before they posted the rest of their lines, which usually go up at around 7:50. Well, the line was obviously wrong by about 20 cents to anyone who knows baseball, and I nailed it for a few dimes. Sure enough, a few minutes after CRIS posted the bad line, Olympic, like the stupid follower they are, posted virtually the same line. Then, when CRIS subsequently realized they had put up the wrong number and pulled the bad line off the Don Best screen, Olympic immediately followed suit. Like a whipped puppy with his tail between his legs, Olympic, for several days thereafter, did not quickly post their betting lines immediately after CRIS. A second example: When the Don Best sportsbooks open their lines, it is obvious to this pro, by the way the books shade their opening betting lines, which bookmakers are sharp and which aren't. The sharpest offshore bookmaker, who the other offshore books follow, is no doubt Monty at CRIS, who posts the opening offshore line on the Don Best screen. In my estimation, none of the Don Best bookmakers, aside from Monty, is on par with the Michael Roxborough group, which has definitely improved over the years. 3) Maximum Value, truth be told, I hate the Nevada Gaming Control Board so much that I doubt if I can be objective about them. In fact, if I were to adress the members at a meeting, my advice to each of them would be as follows: "Esteemed member, when you return to your home tonight, immediately go to the bathroom and fill the tub with water. Then stick your head into the water three times but only remove it twice." Even back in the 80s, when I was in Vegas, the Gaming Contol Board was a Nazi-like organization that screwed serious sportsbettors with their actions and lack of actions. I can't recall everything they have done, but here is some of it:
1) Back in the 80s, there were a few private sportsbooks in Las Vegas that folded and stiffed players. There was one downtown joint whose name I'm not sure of (was it the Hollywood?),and two along the Strip: Gary Austin's and Santa Anita. The real reason that all private sportsbooks--including a legendary one called Churchill Downs, were destined to fold was their inability to afford the televised off-track horse race feed that became available in the mid-80s.
The exorbitant--many hundred of thousands of dollars a year from what I understand--cost to get this feed was no big deal to huge casinos, but was beyond the reach of private race and sports books. Without the feed, the race customers, most of whom also bet sports, migrated to the casinos so they could view the live race action. Anyway, Gary Austin, who owned and managed Gary Austin's race and sports book, was a degenerate gambler, who, as many people know, bet millions on a World series (was it the one between Kansas City and St. Louis) and lost because of a blatantly bad call by a first base umpire. Anyway, because of the loss, Austin's set up a fake robbery of his race and sportsbook, and used this as an excuse to close his establishment and stiff the players, me among them. The investigation was a farce, and Austin got off scot-free. The Gaming Control Board did nothing to help bettors recoup their losses and took no legal action against Austin. Then, if memory recalls, a few months later, Santa Anita, which was almost next door to Gary Austin's, also folded, and the day they folded they were booking so as to maximize their rip-off of players. Again, the Gaming Control Board did nothing. If they'd had any sense or decency, the Gaming Control Board would have immediately bonded all race and sportsbooks after the Austin fiasco. What they should have done, in addition, for good PR and for what would have been a micro-dot in the Nevada state budget, would have been to cover what players were owed. Eventually, under immense pressure,the Gaming Control Board did bond all race and sportsbooks.
In the 80s, prior to Don Best or Data Broadcast Service (which is a Don Best competitor), I was a partner for three years in a large betting, middling, and money moving operation. We employed numerous runners at the major sportsbooks. Each runner had a Motorola radio and would report to us with each line change and make bets. Since we got the "steam moves" first by virtue of our moving big money for the right people, we were in the catbbird's seat for making money.(However, although I made great money, I was also stiffed for humungus amounts from private bookies, runners, and, most unfortunately, a partner who turned out to be a cheat.) We also used private Vegas bookies, which are illegal in Nevada, and one offshore account, CRIS, which at the time was simply called "the Island," and was located in the Dominican Republic at that time. (We would simply settle up with an agent every week.) Well, to make a long story short, the Gaming Control Board outlawed radios and cellular phones in sportsbooks, and that was the beginning of the end for our operation. The feds busted bookies we worked with, interrogated my partner, had agents tailing him, and even had a helicopter periodically hovering over his apartment. The message was clear: Organized betting operations would not be tolerated, and Billy Walters,the biggest fish of 'em all, especially, became a government target. I knew it was time to get out, and soon thereafter I headed to Caliente.
At the time I was in Vegas there were two other major operations competing with ours. I knew them well, since I had worked for each of them and learned the ropes that way before starting my own operation. Don Bessett also worked as a runner for one of these operations before starting Don Best.
One of our competitors, the one that had employed Don Bessett, got out of the business not long after we did. That left one major group, and that group, due to huge financing by an outside source that I won't identify, has thrived despite government pressure. Now,in their latest attempt to stifle this particular group, a law has been instituted that I believe, but won't swear to,(someone correct me if I'm wrong),makes anyone who bets more than $3,000 at a Nevada sportsbook fill out a form with their social security number and show proof of personal identity.
The latest Nevada Gaming Control fiasco has been their inept attempt to prevent people from calling Las Vegas phone accounts from outside of Nevada--as if anyone other than the Nevada Gaming Control Board even cares. Prior to this year, someone with call forwarding to a Nevada phone could call a Vegas phone account from another state. But the Gaming Control Board has demanded that sportsbooks with phone wagering install equipment that identifies where a phone call originates from. Hence the end of the call forwarding strategy. The big problem is that the equipment doesn't work right. There are all kinds of people in the state of Nevada whose calls, due to the faulty caller identification systems used by the sportsbooks, are not identified as coming from within the state. A friend of mine who lives in Mesquite, Nevada cannot call his phone accounts. He called the Gaming Control Board. He told them that the law should be rescinded until the technology was ready to be properly implemented. He told them that it was unfair to punish him just to catch out-of state bettors who could just as easily bet over the Internet. They told him that it was illegal to bet over the Internet from Nevada and that it was tough **** that he couldn't call his phone accounts. The Mirage computerized betting system cannot deal with the ridiculous new law that the technology can't support. Thus, only people who live in Las Vegas can now have Mirage phone accounts...Yes, as I was saying, Las Vegas is not Disneyland.
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