Bookmakers vs Ball Owners: Behind the Demolition of the U.S. Ban on Honorable Sports Betting and Bookmaking

Introduction

(You have to pay on acts of God.)

Usually, when there’s a lawsuit, there’s a rivalry. Usually, when there’s a rivalry, there’s a history. But this is not the usual lawsuit. This is not the usual history. And these are not the usual rivals. In a world where nothing is what it seems, you have to look beyond the usual rivals.

Chapter 3:

The sharps gobble the flats then go for each other

His roots were humble. His ambitions huge. Triumphant in victory in the ring. Shortsighted in defeat outside it. He booked one of the most “exciting” Presidential Elections in history. Lost a ball club and a nation. And finished in the minus pool.

Chapter 6:

Charles A. Stoneham’s curbstone laundromat

“The most dangerous malefactors are the persons in high places who take good property, overcapitalize it, use artful publicity and market methods to beguile the public, and foist it on investors at a figure which robs them of great sums of money.”–George Graham Rice

Chapters 11-12:

Gilbert Lee Beckley Jr.’s wild ride

As a rivalry between the entrenched Director of the FBI and the new President of the United States raged, his government chased him from Newport, Kentucky to Montreal and back again. There comes a time when even a bookie must make a stand.

Chapter 14:

The Tiffany Network’s Bookmaker

He came around the desk, smiling all the way, stuck a sack over your head and a gun in your ear, and told you what you were going to pay. How Robert Wussler and Mike Pearl offered Pete Rozelle a Greek gift he couldn’t refuse. Nothing personal, it’s just business.

Chapter 16:

This is how you lost, Mr. Bettman

The ball owners forgot that all of life is six to five against and that God protects the bookmaker. You know what’s worse than finishing in the minus pool? Not being able to admit you played it wrong. I hate being around a team that didn’t cover and thinks it won.