The Odds
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...
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One wild read (Rick Reilly, Sports Illustrated) about a unique city trying to find itselfand about three gamblers who win, lose, and risk everything during the college basketball season Las Vegas Review-Journal Superb...a must read.
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1"Death Is Not the End"12"It's Us Against the Wiseguys"113"Get Out of My House"224A Nation of Sports Bettors265Let the Games Begin446Hi Mom! My Bookie Called, Send Money607"A Dying Breed"678The Devil's Deal929"This Life ... Is Starting to Make Me Sick"10610Take Me Home12211"We Believe Anything Is Possible"14112"I Got a Winner, Huh Cuz?"15313"It's Just Another Day"17514"Without Nevada, This Would Not Have Happened"18615Everyone Jump in the Pool20716The Final Four224Epilogue247Index251
\ Sports IllustratedAn intimate, hilarious and, at times, sad portrait of...(sports betting) in Sin City.\ \ \ \ \ Wall Street Journalfascinating. . . a print version of cinema-verite. Its foul-mouthed dialogue seems all too authentic . . . screamingly funny\ \ \ Las Vegas Review-JournalSuperb...a must read.\ \ \ \ \ Las Vegas SunThoroughly reported and tightly written...splendid.\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalTo some, sports betting is good clean fun it adds spice to the game to put a little down on your alma mater. To others, it's big business federal agents estimated that before the 2000 Super Bowl that nearly $5 billion would be bet both legally and illegally, and the 2000 NCAA basketball tournament drew nearly $80 million in legal Nevada bets and estimates running from $2.5 to $7 billion in illegal action. Here, sports reporter Chad Millman goes to Las Vegas, the legal gambling mecca threatened by recent legislation and offshore Internet betting sites, and follows the men who make the odds and those who try to beat them. This is not a Reefer Madness-style expos designed to scare gamblers straight, but its depiction of the lives of a young bookmaker, a big player, and a rookie gambling professional still might make bettors consider dialing 1-800-BETS-OFF. Recommended for larger public libraries. Jim Burns, Ottumwa P.L., IA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ BooknewsMillman's close-up of three gamblers in Las Vegas to bet on the 1999 college basketball "final four" playoffs provides a harrowing view of gambling addiction even as he relates the concern of the gamblers and their bookmakers that their way of life is being threatened as Las Vegas becomes more family friendly. Millman is an associate editor at . Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)\ \
