After the Jets game Sunday, “60 Minutes” did a profile on multimillionaire Billy Walters, who terrorizes Vegas sports books with scores of computers, consultants and shills.
Walters proves the exception to my rule that you can’t beat the bookie, but he is as common as an honest politician. He’s such an oddity that “60 Minutes” devoted an entire segment to him.
I don’t know Walters, but in my nine years of bookmaking and 50 years of gambling, I don’t know anyone who ever beat the house.
Walters told interviewer Lara Logan that he has never had a losing year. Walters then told Logan that gamblers always gave him a fair shake, but “suits” on Wall Street ate his lunch. He said CEOs of Enron, Tyco and AIG fleeced him.
The same “philanthropists” responsible for derivative swindles, looted pensions and the housing bubble are the boys who run Vegas now. When it comes to larceny, corporate CEOs make John Gotti look like the Easter Bunny.
Walters insinuated casinos are no longer player-friendly. I agree.
Laying more than $110 to win $100 on football was once unheard of. When one side was top-heavy with action, “wise guys” simply moved the spread. Now, it’s common to lay $115 or $120 to win $100.
Corporate larceny seeps from the sports book in Vegas, past high-percentage slots then slips into dealers’ shoes at blackjack tables.
The larceny resides behind a single sentence scribed across the soft felt: “Dealer must hit soft 17.” The rule doesn’t exist in the Caribbean — only Vegas.
That corporate hustle plows chips and percentages toward the casino. A dealer must hit on soft 17, an ace and a six, and stand on hard 17, a 10 and a seven. This kills card counters.
Card counters bet the minimum until they get an advantageous deck, then they “send it in.” During short, favorable intervals, they maximize their bets. The soft-17 rule adds a 0.20 percent edge to the house.
According to the Casino City Times’ Alan Krigman, if players use perfect strategy, the house advantage is 0.43 percent. Few people play perfect blackjack.
Card counting once enabled the player to reverse this 0.43 percent house advantage. The new rule makes it tougher.
The casino’s biggest edge is that, if both the player and the house bust, the house still wins. I’ve heard players say casinos like when you win because it’s good for advertising — “Tell ‘em where you got it.” That shit belongs under the south end of a cow.
I’ve been thrown out of two casinos for card counting, and I was winning less than $1,000 both times.
CEOs get paid for the bottom line. Wise guys who ran casinos in the old days threw the dice occasionally. Corporations don’t.
In 1988, my first year of bookmaking, Washington played Denver in the Super Bowl.
I flew to Vegas for the NFL playoffs. I wanted to bet $15,000 on the winner of the NFC championship against the winner of the AFC game. I thought, incorrectly, that the opening line would change. I wanted to buy the “early price” and sell the higher line to my customers. In other words, I wanted to cover my ass.
Immediately after Denver beat Cleveland, “Circus Circus” posted Denver as a three-point favorite over Washington.
Seconds after the line was posted, I said, “I want Washington plus 3 for $15,000.”
The clerk laughed and said, “Wait, $15,000? I’ll give you two dimes.”
I said, “Are you kidding? This is Vegas. You won’t take $15,000 on the Super Bowl?”
The clerk responded, “You want the $2,000 or not?” I said, “Yeah.”
As he took my money, the slip sped through a computer that noted my wager throughout every casino in Vegas. He handed me my receipt. I turned to walk away.
He yelled, “Wait a minute. You want another $2,000 at plus-3?” I said, again, “Yeah.”
Same routine. Seconds later he said, “Now, the line’s plus-2½.”
I hopped on a plane for this shit, I thought. I came here to bet 15 large on a future.
In New York, I could bet 10 dimes with four bookies without taking a nickel out of my pocket. Shit, even a five- and 10-cent operation like mine would take $3,000 a game. Yet Vegas won’t take more than two dimes on a future?
Millions of dollars won’t change a Super Bowl line on game day, yet $4,000 can change a line seconds after it’s posted.
Corporations don’t get screwed. These MIT boys don’t gamble. If you want to beat Vegas, take Steve Wynn’s advice: buy a casino.
If you do get jammed up gambling, CEOs let you bail out using credit cards. What’s the going rate these days, 28 percent?
