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Columnist Buzz Daly: Sports Book Scene

Watching the sun set on a Las Vegas tradition makes us realize that nothing is forever, and we should enjoy what we've got while we've got it.

That melancholy lead is prompted by the potential demise of this city's sports betting industry, as it gets ready to trundle off into the sunset.

This downbeat forecast is due to the following scenario:

* Proposed ban on betting on college sports.

* Drive to obtain a professional sports franchise for the city, at the probable cost of sports wagering on whichever sport is represented.

* General downsizing and devaluation of sports betting industry by casino executives who don't comprehend the intangible value of the activity to the city and gaming industry.

When we reflect on how the powers that be are squandering what was once a priceless and exclusive franchise - legal sports betting in the U.S. - it is pretty depressing.

So, as a respite from all this negativity, let's reminisce about better days. Who better to check in with than Jimmy Vaccaro who was a participant in the city's dynamic past of sports betting?

Jimmy wrote a sort of memoir for our annual magazine, but why wait 'til August to read it. Hell, we need a fix right now. So, we'll excerpt some of his observations and anecdotes about a time when we were all a few pounds lighter and a half-step faster.

As Jimmy approaches his 55th birthday this fall, he says he still gets satisfaction from playing street baskets with kids, some of whom are 30 years his junior. One of life's small satisfactions is being accepted as a competitor and appreciated for his efforts, which means he is "not always the last guy chosen for pick up games."

Over the past 40 years, Jimmy has indulged his interests and playing b-ball is one of them. Participating in the gaming industry and trying to make some semblance of this puzzle we call sports gambling is another.

During his lifetime, he's seen dramatic changes in both arenas. Two questions he is frequently asked are, how do you get into the business, and how do you measure success? Here are his responses.

"Both are relatively short answers. There is no place to sign up and nobody is barred. Just bring some heart and a little bit of larceny, for openers.

"I will deem myself successful if, when it comes time to check out, my two kids look at me and say, 'Dad, you did good, and by the way who do you like Monday night?'

"Translation: If you do this all your life and live comfortably while maintaining your mental stability, you have beaten the system.

"Quick footnote: 99 percent usually fail. I have seen a lot of comets flash in my time. Some are still burning bright, but most are cursing at anything that moves. It was always somebody else's fault, why the good times stopped.

"They stopped for several reasons. First, when things were going good, they deluded themselves into thinking it would never stop. That led to bad habits, which put them in the hole and made it tough for them to get out of.

"I like to go up against the 6 and 8 (craps) as much as anyone. But there comes a time when you must recognize and simply stick to something you have a fair chance of beating. I haven't bellied up to a table for any substantial buy-in for at least 15 years. And it was a good decision."

Jimmy noted that Damon Runyon won't need to make any more stops in Vegas. The characters are long gone. But he remembers a few.

Jack "Treetop" Strauss beat Jimmy's brains in one year, when Vaccaro was booking World Series props. And to the day he died, Treetop would tell Jimmy - in the cowboy twang for which he was known - "After I got it down on paper, I didn't have as much the best of it as I thought I did."

Jimmy would joke back, "Yeah, right, you made 10 bets and only won nine."

Recalling his first indoctrination in how to run a sports book, Jimmy said it came when he was at the Barbary Coast back in '81. That was the year a Hollywood film producer, Jim Tobak, was betting high limit baseball with the book. He played an average $1 million per day.

"Because it affected our opening price, at least the one we put up on the board, everybody waited to see what this maniac had done." But it didn't take Jimmy and the Coast BMs long to figure out how to deal with a guy betting $1 million per day.

Here's how they handled it. "He would bet a game at three different prices. $5,000 on the first number, $10,000 on the second number, and no limit on the third.

"It went something like this. Give me the Mets minus a nickel to win 5, the Mets minus a dime to win 10, and the Mets minus 15 to win $140,000.

"He went as high as $200K on the third number, and as you can see, Jim did not care about prices, he just wanted to get on a game. He would average seven to 10 plays a day, and usually threw in about 20 to 30 parlays at $5,000 a smash.

"Obviously our rationale was he was laying bad prices so we could just earn that way, and also should be able to knock down the parlays, which were usually three-teamers.

"I always said I had a great job when I worked at the Barbary, but Jack Franzi had the best job in the country when he worked there. Jack had been doing this his entire life and was in the catbird seat with plenty of power to reach out and put himself in a great spot every day.

"Me, I was just playing. Naturally, since I knew what the plays were, I picked my spots and was playing pretty good, maybe $50 a game. Remember, I was playing, not trying to earn, which would have been the smarter thing to do. Jim was picking a lot of winners and I was barely staying even.

"Then came the baseball strike and the crash which followed. In baseball there is an old adage that says it doesn't matter what price you pay so long as you keep picking winners …

"That might have some validity to a small degree over the short haul. But laying bad numbers is a treacherous policy, especially in football. If you're six or seven points off the opening number, it ain't going to take long to go broke.

"Our superstar started playing exhibition football and would have the line changed one point after each bet. After he made all his bets, we would stick the game up at a small bargain for the other side, but we took all the gravy ourselves at the top numbers.

"Throughout that whole summer, I began to realize that volume was the key to booking. Our book had its own little niche, but back then everybody made it a point to stop in and see what was going on. Getting the players in the door, that's half the battle.

"That summer of betting and booking baseball was an extraordinary set of circumstances that couldn't be recreated today. But it made me see that if you give the gambler a fair shake, he will make sure you're on his list of books to play at every day.

"In today's environment, as Frank Pantangeles would say, it is 'morte'.

"Off shore there is a better chance, but the logistics make it tough. And as we head into a new century, it is easy to see off shore operations have clearly moved ahead of Las Vegas in terms of sports betting.

"But the writing has been on the wall for many years.

"I have lots of friends in the off shore industry and marvel at the size of their operations. There is no doubt it has unlimited potential."

Thanks, Jimmy, for some insight, a few chuckles and a bittersweet remembrance of what was, but ain't no more.

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