THE BOOKIE

A longtime legal sports bookmaker reflects on a career in Las Vegas’ gambling world.

A first-generation Greek American from a Pittsburgh family of oddsmakers and gamblers, Manteris fell into the family trade almost by accident, after a string of youthful indiscretions sent his plans to be a Hollywood stuntman astray and stranded him in Vegas for what turned out to be his life. He worked his way up from changing the odds board by hand at the mob-owned Stardust Hotel on the Strip (when it was more of a strip mall in the desert than a row of luxury real estate) to innovating sports bookmaking, most notably at Caesars Palace and the Las Vegas Hilton’s SuperBook. “Most people have opinions about sports, and most think their opinions are better than the next guy’s,” he says to explain the simple appeal of sports gambling. “Having an opinion is one thing, but backing up an opinion with cash—that takes confidence and guts.” Two nemeses plagued him throughout his career: professional gamblers with inside information and teams of runners placing multiple copies of a single high-ticket bet, and the ban on betting on sports everywhere but Nevada, eventually codified by Congress in 1992’s Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA). Manteris and co-author Birkbeck, an investigative journalist and author of true crime and mob-related books, have created a gripping narrative that reads in places like a treatment for a Martin Scorsese film. Colorful characters abound, including the world’s most famous athletes (Mike Tyson, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, etc.), and surprising cameos, including a cocaine-snorting Rodney Dangerfield, a casino-wrecking Donald Trump, and PASPA-conquering Chris Christie. In the end, Manteris wonders what sort of monster he helped unleash on the world.

Very entertaining and, finally, thought-provoking.