This week on PGA Tour: The Players Championship

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Certainly Sergio Garcia’s biggest moment thus far in the United States came in last year’s Players Championship.

Entering the 2008 Players, Garcia was struggling, failing to finish in the top 10 in his first eight starts on the PGA Tour and having missed the cut at the Masters for another disappointing major finish.

But he opened The 2008 Players with a 66 and finished with a huge par-saving putt on the 72nd hole, the same type of putt he usually missed, getting Garcia into a playoff that he won when Paul Goydos hit his tee shot into the water at the famous par-3 17th.

Garcia would go on to finish third in the FedExCup standings in 2008 — with playoff losses to Vijay Singh and Camilo Villegas in two events — and rose to second in the Official World Golf Ranking at the end of the year.

This year is shaping up much like the last. Garcia has gotten off to a slow start with no top-10 finishes in six starts on the U.S. Tour and has just one top-25 showing. He wasn’t a factor at the Masters again – even criticizing the course, which brought out all those critics who say Garcia whines when things don’t go his way.

He just missed the cut at last week’s Quail Hollow Championship and currently ranks 173rd on tour in putting. Garcia again has switched from a standard putter back to a belly putter.

“I obviously am not feeling 100 percent with my game at the moment and it shows. I’m just not having a great time on the course” said Garcia.

But maybe the site of his greatest triumph will be a spark for the second straight year.

“I’ve been looking forward to returning since they gave me the trophy,” Garcia said. “I’ve always enjoyed that demanding course, where you know pars and an occasional birdie is a good score. I know I can contend if my game is in good shape.”

But oddsmakers at WagerWeb.com only list the Spaniard near the bottom of the top-10 favorites at +3300.

Of course Tiger Woods is the favorite this week at +265. Woods will be favored in probably every event he enters for the next five years, but Sawgrass isn’t one of his favorite courses. He did win here in 2001 and finished second in 2000, but his best finish since then is 11th. He missed last year’s event.

This week, Woods admitted his driving distance has yet to return following that knee surgery. On Tuesday, he was experimenting with different shaft lengths but decided to stick with the same driver setup he had used all year.

“It’s just I’ve been away from the game for a long time,” said Woods, whose driving distance average is just over 293 yards, down a yard from a year ago, when he was ranked 44th on the PGA Tour in distance. “And it’s going to take a little bit of time before my body gets back to where I can hit the ball the same distances. I don’t hit the ball the same distance with my irons or my driver.”

Jim Furyk lives near the course and badly wants to win here. He has made 11-of-12 cuts at Sawgrass and has finished 28th or better in the past six. But he has broken par in the final round just four times.

Phil Mickelson (+950 on WagerWeb.com) also has had success here, winning in 2007 and having five career top-15 finishes. He also finished strongly last week at Quail Hollow.

Speaking of Quail Hollow, last week’s winner there, Sean O’Hair (+2300 this week on WagerWeb.com), has six top-10 finishes in 10 starts this year. He has finished outside the top 25 once. He is first in scoring average and first in all-round ranking.

Boo Weekley (+4500) is a long-shot worth considering. He has three consecutive top-15s on Tour.

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Craps Railing Scam

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Railing is one casino scam that takes lots of balls. On craps tables running hot with a lot of action, there are usually several players gathered around them with chips swelling in their table racks on the rail. These players are always bending down to place their bets and pick up their chips from the layout. Their movements are in unison. When a shooter rolls a winner, the players bend down harmoniously to collect their winnings. On a loser they do the same, replacing the swept-away chips on the layout. During these movements many of the players leave their racks exposed. Their chips could be picked away at by an agile chip-thief with quick hands willing to stick his hand into neighboring chip racks along the rail of the table. These thieves became known as “railbirds,” long before the same term was given to bust-out poker players gone broke watching poker games from the rails outside poker rooms.

Players drinking heavily as they gambled made the best targets. One aspect of stealing other players' chips that delights many railbirds is that railing other players’ chips is not ripping off the casinos; you couldn't take casino steam. Your principal danger was getting caught by the victim himself. True, there was the chance of being seen by a surveillance camera above, but that risk was minimal because surveillance operators are rarely watching out for craps players’ chips in the table racks.

The first known successful professional railing team was an offshoot of the Classon Pastposting Team, consisting of the notorious brothers Henry and Joe Classon. Cruising the old Las Vegas Sands casino in search of a potential victim one night in the late 1950s, Joe came across a tall wobbling craps player underneath a Stetson hat who seemed to never put his whiskey in the glass-holder built into the rail. He constantly held it in his left hand, handling his chips with his right. His chip rack on the rail was filled with black $100 chips.

Joe had wanted to be the first “railbird” and pass whatever chips he could pick off to his brother standing behind him, but Henry vetoed that idea and told Joe to stand behind him.

He squeezed in between the mark and another player while Joe stood behind. He already had a fistful of green $25 chips when he approached the table, avoiding the contact with the dealer and boxman that would have been necessary had he bought chips at the table. Henry knew that early chip preparation was essential, just like it was for all casino cheating scams.


The Art:

The first nuance of railing was to make your mark feel comfortable with your presence. If he became nervous or fidgety, his natural move was to excessively protect his chips. More important than talking to your mark was ingratiating yourself by your movements. The key was to follow him, keep the same rhythm. When he bent over to make his bet, you made yours. When he bent over to pick up his chips, you did likewise. A little chit-chat didn't hurt but wasn't mandatory. Not all gambling drunkards were open to conversation. You had to feel your mark's vibes.

Henry bet two green chips next to the mark's black chips. He had to be careful about the placement of his chips because if the mark wasn't comfortable with them, the occasion could be blown. In the same manner that you didn't want to crowd the mark with your presence, you didn't want to crowd him with your chips either. If you bet your chips too close to his, he might feel the encroachment. If you bet too far away, he might also be disturbed for one reason or another, though too close was definitely worse than too far.

A final precondition the railbird needed to victimize his mark was a table that stayed hot. When a table went cold, it was the casino getting all his chips. Soon there was nothing left in his rack for you to peck away at. A table could go from hot to cold extremely fast.

Henry got into the guy's rhythm after just a couple of rolls. They exchanged a little small talk about how the table was running good. The guy laughed, even patted Henry on the back. He was going to be plump for the pickings.

When the mark reached down to pick up the black chips the dealer had just paid him, Henry reached down with him to pick up his greens. While they were both bent over the rail, Henry's left hand picked up his own chips off the layout while his right hand slid underneath his left outstretched arm into his neighbor's chip rack. Then with a pinching movement of his thumb, index and middle finger, he plucked three black chips from the end of the lined-up chips closest to him, and in the same motion passed them subtly behind his back to Joe, who put them in his jacket pocket. This chip pass-off was necessary to protect Henry in the event the mark caught him in the act, or accused him afterward. If that happened, Joe would instantly leave the table. Since Henry had been betting only green chips, he could defend against any accusations by asserting that he didn't have a single black chip on him. How could he be guilty of stealing this man's black chips? If casino security searched him, they'd find no black chips at all, not in his pockets, not on his person. The pass-off to Joe was their cover and had to be done in the "dark."

Henry picked away at the mark for the hour that the table ran good. It was important not to be greedy. You chose your moments for picking. If you took too much at once, the mark was bound to notice. If the table was choppy you held back. The old saying about getting your fingers caught in the cookie jar was every bit as applicable to railing craps tables. When the table finally went cold and busted out the mark, Henry and Joe met outside the casino to count up their profits. Joe emptied out his jacket pocket. There were fourteen black chips inside, $1,400.


Over the years, the Classons railed craps tables whenever their pastposting operations were taking heat and had to be put on hold. At opportune times, they were able to rail $500 chips from high-rolling craps players, making scores above $20,000. One laughable incident occurred in the late 1970s when Joe Classon snuggled up to a gorgeous and even wealthier Texas Oil Baroness at a craps table who was playing purple $500 chips. He charmed her, cajoled her and railed her—to the tune of $22,500. But the grand prix came a week later when she invited him down to her Dallas ranch and showed him some Southern hospitality he never forgot!

Today, railing is still quite prevalent in the world’s casinos, if it is little known or talked about. The modern railbird always passes off the chips he picks to his or her cohort standing behind. Notice that “his or her” is used to portray railbirds. This is because more than half of today’s craps chip thieves are women! And usually pretty women, who use their seductive charm to divert men high rollers’ attention from the chips in their table racks to the tits in their neighbors’ racks!

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Doyle Brunson: A Real Man of Online Gambling

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When the going got tough, the tough didn't get going. Doyle Brunson, the fierce Texas Dolly whose escaped the clutches of death several times throughout his long lifetime, has stood pat for the industry he loves and believes in despite a law that has forced two of Doylesroom.com host poker networks to abandon the U.S. market. When down (not that Doyle was ever completely down), he just got up again and found a new vehicle to ride like some dusty old barn trailer.

Now - thanks to the Cake Poker Network - Doyle has never been stronger - offering a 110 percent bonus, the best Celebrity Bounty Hunter tournaments online today (with players such as Mickey Rourke and Nicky Hilton), and $100,000 guaranteed every Sunday at 5 pm EST.

"Doyle is a real man," exalted The Costa Rican Bookie Senior International Correspondent, Xi Tak. "A trooper - gruff, probably hairy, I doubt he shaves his body hair, and he's packing - in more ways than one I hear."

In fact, Doyle has become the new face of online gambling along with the equally hard-edged Annie Duke, both of whom are making it known that this industry is not made up of "quitters" and "pansies".

"Hee haw! The cowboy hat just drives me nuts!" a giddy Woo climaxed. "Doyle never postures and always says what's on his mind and everyone I know in the industry respects him. Not only is he sexy, masculine and full of hybrid vigor, Doyle is a wise man and his stamina has helped bring respect and integrity to online poker. Those eyes: They simmer and cut through my beating bleeding heart like a dirk."

Brunson is the first player to earn $1 million in poker tournaments and has won ten World Series of Poker bracelets throughout his career, tied with Johnny Chan for second all-time, one behind Phil Hellmuth's eleven. He is also one of only four players to have won the Main Event at the World Series of Poker multiple times, which he did in 1976 and 1977.

So what are some traits of a real man that Jenny loves about Doyle?

"Doyle is focused and doesn't waste his time on stupidities. When a real man makes a promise, he keeps his word. A real man would never desert his true love (poker). He also doesn't try to look like a woman (no offense to Sparky Collins). A real man isn't afraid to hunt down a wild bore as opposed from running away from the raging beast."

Likewise, Doyle does not have to hang around with celebrities to make himself feel important - instead they feel honored to hang around with him. Jenny can understand why.

"I've been with Vin Diesel, I've been with Doyle Brunson. I've had sex with neither," Woo anguished. "It I had to choose between two real men like Vin and Doyle, I'd go with the fine aged win - Doyle Brunson."

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Kentucky Derby Hangover After Record Numbers

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What recession? That's what some of us around here at The Costa Rican Bookie are asking - at least when we look at this past weekend's Kentucky Derby figures....what we have of them.

Preliminary stats show that the Derby brought more traffic through the Wagerweb.com website, however, final server stats were not immediately available on Sunday as the total had not been fully added up by the scheduled report time.

"Early numbers suggest that Kentucky Derby traffic was up around 25 percent from the Super Bowl," says Tommy "The Hammer", Senior Editor of The Costa Rican Bookie website.

Until now, this year's Super Bowl was the single most trafficked day for the Wagerweb.com website with over 2 million hits and close to 900,000 page views.

At one point immediately following the Derby conclusion, the Costa Rican Bookie site underwent extreme pressure due to the vast amount of traffic coming in. For nearly an hour and twenty minutes the site experienced the greatest strain on its resources ever. The server did crash for two intervals of eight minutes and twelve minutes over this period. Additional bandwidth pipelines in Canada had to be opened.

"Nearly everyone and their mother and their grandmother was clicking on the Wagerweb.com website to get the online payout results," says "The Hammer".

The best payout - found at - Sports Interaction - was 80/1 on the 2009 Kentucky Derby winner, Mine That Bird (compared to the 50/1 official odds posted by Churchill Downs). It is believed that as many as three Sports Interaction customers bet on Mine That Bird though no dollar amounts were revealed. The Sports Interaction website was also knocked out for a brief time following the race.

"Now we must focus in on the Preakness," says "The Hammer".

The Preakness, which takes place in two weeks, has traditionally underperformed compared with the Kentucky Derby, yet still ranks among the most bet on events of the year. Last year's numbers suggest that the Preakness is becoming even more competitive among major one day wagering events.

"We were pleasantly surprised by the numbers that came in for the Preakness," says "The Hammer". "When we have huge underdogs like Mine That Bird paying out significant sums of money, this only helps fuel an interest in horse betting across the Internet."

Kentucky Derby traffic figures were also supplemented by a huge fight card that drew significant attention from bettors:

Ironically, it was Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear who spoke during ceremonies on Saturday and celebrated in the Winner's Circle. It was Beshear who earlier this year lost a court battle to seize 141 online gambling domain names, claiming these businesses were cutting into Churchill Downs revenues. The Web gaming sector was represented by the powerful Interactive Media & Gaming Association (iMEGA).

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Interview with Poker Pro Vanessa Rousso Winner of One Million at EPT 25K High Roller

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Poker pro Vanessa Rousso informed The Costa Rican Bookie this evening that she won a cool million (or close to it) at the EPT 25K High Roller Tournament. We are so excited for her.

"I am so excited!" she said.

Rousso's luck has been extraordinary as of late. She recently came in second place at NBC's National Head's Up Championship Celebrity Poker Tournament.

I recently had a chance to sit down with Vanessa while she was in West Palm Beach taking part in the "Big Slick Boot Camp"

The Costa Rican Bookie: What was it like finishing second at the recent NBC Head's Up Tournament?

VANESSA: It was probably as good as it gets because not only did I finish second but I did so in a way that finally people couldn't really say, "Oh she just got]lucky" - because the people that I faced to get to the finals included Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, 2007 Head's Up champ - Phil Wasicka, and among others - formidable opponents to say the least. So I earned it to get there or at least I believe I did and I think most people agree after that line up. Being a woman in poker, I often have to swallow my pride and so it was especially sweet to get there.

The Costa Rican Bookie: Well here we are on the last day of Big Slick Boot Camp (www.bigslickbootcamp.com) - The Art of Poker where you were in Pompano earlier in the month, then Jacksonville, and now here in West Palm. Overall, how was the turnout?

VANESSA: They were great. We averaged about forty for each camp - maybe thirty for the first one and forty for the other two. So it's been good.

The Costa Rican Bookie: Do you think with a little bit more time there'll be a bigger response for next year's boot camp?

VANESSA: Yeah. I mean we really did a very short notice. We didn't give ourselves much time - we kind of winged it.

The Costa Rican Bookie: So lessons learned for next year - right?

VANESSA: Right.

(The Costa Rican Bookie messes up big time)

The Costa Rican Bookie: Has Chris been here through this whole thing or has he been off doing his own thing?

VANESSA: Who?

The Costa Rican Bookie: Chris - your fiancée Chris.

VANESSA: Chad.

The Costa Rican Bookie: I'm so sorry. I can't believe I said Chris. (haha)

VANESSA: I was like Chris who's Chris? I'm not supposed to know a Chris. (haha)

The Costa Rican Bookie: I'm sorry. (haha)

VANESSA: He's been here for most of the time. He's actually right now in Italy. He went up to San Remo first because I went to the 25K in Vegas and came back here cause I knew I had to do this. We actually have spent the last ten days apart. We miss each other a lot. I can't wait to see him. I see him tomorrow. Actually I leave straight to the airport from here.

The Costa Rican Bookie: Have you been able to relax? The last time we talked you had said that you wanted to get some sun and catch up on some movies.

VANESSA: No. A little bit - very little. It's been a lot of work.

The Costa Rican Bookie: Well you look great.

VANESSA: Thanks. I actually went to the beach yesterday.

The Costa Rican Bookie: Well have you been able to prep for Monte Carlo?

VANESSA: Not really but there's not really much to prep for a tournament like that. The important thing is that I get my sleep. I'll have an extra day when I get there to go to bed and make sure that I get enough sleep.

The Costa Rican Bookie: What key advice would you give some one like me that is looking to get started in poker?

VANESSA: Treat the study of poker like you would any other career you were preparing for. It has the potential to reap the rewards of a career, so why not treat it with the responsibility of career. You know - read the books that are out there, treat it responsibly, don't squander your winnings and gamble them away, don't show up to work drunk (haha) - things like that. Simple, be responsible - that's pretty much the most reasonable advice I can give you.

The Costa Rican Bookie: Thank you.

VANESSA: You're welcome.

Immediately after ending our interview, I took a spot in the back of the class (Jenny always avoided the front) to get a few pointers from this pro. After the first 15 minutes, I realized that I still had a lot to learn about the game of poker as I had no clue. I also realized how patient and willing Vanessa was to teach these students what they wanted and needed to know about the art of poker. She answered every question with ease with an added bit of her humor.

She began the class with an outline on what would be discussed throughout the six-hour session with a complete itinerary. The workbook provided had an initial question. "So, what is a game?" The answer provided, "Technically, a "game" is a strategic interaction between "players" with certain preferences and possible courses of action." Her examples given are: Dating Games, Political Games, Board Games, Negotiations, Poker. Her suggestion of a better question was - What isn't a game? She had a good point and I liked the idea of that question. "What isn't a game?" And you could tell that others in the room were understanding and liking her concept.

Vanessa stated early on in the course, "I'm going to teach you about tournaments today." She asked the group, "What is the main goal in a poker tournament"? As there were a few good and close answers - Vanessa said, "Ultimately, the goal in a poker tournament is surviving." Another pointer she outlined in her workbook was Many Sources of Info at the Table - Quantities and Calculations - Based on blinds, number of players, chip counts, chips in play, odds of winning a hand, size of pot. As she explained this section to the students she told them not to worry about learning it over night because it's almost impossible to do unless you're Bill Chen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Chen). She followed that up by giving a brief poker bio on who Bill Chen was to those who didn't know including that he was a game theorist like Chris Ferguson and herself. Vanessa had also referenced the book "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu further explaining that the military strategies used were a lot of the same fundamentals used in poker.

I sat through an interesting and informative hour more of the boot camp and thought it would be a good time to make my exit. However, Vanessa had other plans as she had called my name and asked me a question upon Jenny getting up for my departure. I felt like I was in school all over again being called on by my Algebra teach, Mrs. Mills. I answered her question correctly but in question form. Hey - I felt pressured. WTF? I stayed for a bit longer seeing that I didn't want to put another spotlight on myself. Big mistake! As she was explaining "outs" and your chances on winning on a flop and a turn, she called upon me again asking me how many 8s are in a deck. I responded (again) with a question. Uh, four? Duh!

Overall, The Costa Rican Bookie definitely has a lot to learn before I even think of getting involved with this game. I do have to say that I did learn some key points from this young talented and self-taught pro. Vanessa's a natural teacher always taking time to answer questions and involving the students by not doing all the talking herself and asking relative questions to keep all of us on our toes. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay to attend this boot camp in its entirety because I needed to get back to the office. But if given the chance for the next boot camp, I'm there ready and willing.

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Mayweather next for Manny Pacquiao?

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Bring on Floyd Mayweather!

That seems to the way the winds are blowing as to the next fight for Manny Pacquiao in the wake of Saturday’s stunningly easy knockout win over Ricky Hatton.

According to the Manila Times, Pacquiao said he wants to battle Mayweather in what will undoubtedly be the fight of the decade. Mayweather announced his own comeback just before Pacquiao’s fight.

“I like to fight him. I can fight anybody,” Pacquiao told the Times.

A Mayweather fight makes sense, in that Floyd Jr. retired as the regarded pound-for-pound champ, a throne since taken by Pacquiao. But Mayweather first must beat Pacquaio’s old rival Juan Manuel Marquez on July 18.

That Mayweather agreed to that fight apparently surprised the Pacquiao camp, who say they are unlikely to rest until the super-fight. Pacquio mentioned returning to the ring in the late fall.

“A busy fighter is a good fighter, we’re not going to wait around,” Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach said. “Mayweather just had to wait one day and this fight could’ve happened. I think he’s scared of Manny.”
Aside from Mayweather, Miguel Cotto, Sugar Shane Mosley and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. are also being floated as possible opponents for Pacquiao.

Mosley congratulated Pacquiao late Saturday, then quickly lobbied to get that fight.

“Let’s get it done,” Mosley said. “I don’t see a reason they’d want to fight Cotto when I’m the champion who beat [Antonio] Margarito, who beat Cotto. It’d be a classic fight [against Pacquiao]. We both have good hand speed and power and I think that fans want to see the best fight the best.”

According to the L.A. Times, Team Pacquiao doesn’t want to fight either Mosley or Cotto at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds, and would demand that either move down to a catch-weight bout of 143 pounds.

Hatton, meanwhile, is being urged by many to retire. That second-round KO in Las Vegas that left the 30-year-old Briton requiring a brain scan.

“I’m so desperately sorry for you all,” Hatton told his followers. “I thought I would win but it went wrong. I’m OK but so upset for all the supporters who came out here.”

About 20,000 fans are thought to have made the trip from Britain to see Hatton fight.

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Mr. Bookmaker

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It's about 12:30 p.m. Eastern standard time. At football stadiums from Detroit to Miami, kickoffs loom and excitement builds. But even in cities where the home team must win to ensure a playoff berth, the intensity level is nothing compared to what's going on in San José, Costa Rica -- a place where 10 years ago football could have only meant soccer.
From one end of the city to the other, in shiny office buildings and low-slung suburban developments, telephones ring incessantly. Digital pipelines overload with information. Computer screens grind through many megs of mathematical computations. All of this takes place within the walls of operations bearing names such as BoDog, 5dimes, Wager Web and Hollywood, online sports books that take massive numbers of wagers from gamblers across the United States.
A guard holding an enormous rifle, its barrel poking up toward the overcast sky, stands outside the building owned by an enterprise called CRIS (Costa Rican International Sports). Inside, a fluorescent-lit, airy white-walled room is crowded with about 200 telephone clerks handling the incoming wagers. But many more bets arrive invisibly, via the Internet. A gray-haired, slender line-maker (the person who decides how many points each team should give up or receive) introduces himself as "Mac, just Mac, from southern California," before marveling at the flow of action. "If not for the Internet, we'd never be able to handle nearly this much," he says, keeping both eyes glued to a computer monitor that allows him to track the incoming wagers and manipulate his lines so that he doesn't get stuck with too much of a liability on one side of a game or the other. "If everything came in over the phone, there could be a thousand clerks in here and it wouldn't be enough."
Mac is one of hundreds of American sports-betting professionals (i.e. bookies, marketers, money movers and line-makers) who've found refuge in Costa Rica, the reigning world capital of sports betting. While there are gambling operations scattered around the Caribbean, Costa Rica currently ranks as the hub, housing anywhere from 200 to 300 sports books (depending on whom you ask) that combined generate at least tens of billions of dollars in wagers each year. It's no accident that hundreds of American bookies have settled in Costa Rica. This Central American nation boasts a good technical infrastructure, a reasonably friendly government (only in the last year have Costa Rican officials begun pressing the betting operations to buy licenses for $45,000 to $90,000), loose laws, close proximity to offshore banks (gambling money is not allowed to pass through Costa Rica, so the books do their banking in places like
Curaçao, the Dominican Republic and Antigua), and so many beautiful, available women that one happily married sports-book manager comments, "If I didn't have a wife, I would lose my mind here." Another American, pointing out that cocaine is dirt cheap and plentiful, adds, "I've lost good guys to women and to coke. They get too involved with one or the other and stop coming to work."
Back at CRIS, with only 15 minutes until game time, the phone action escalates. Digital chirps ring out with the mounting intensity of a symphony reaching its crescendo. Sitting behind a raised dais-style table called the stage, Mac continually yells out changes to the lines, answers clerks who want to know whether or not particular gamblers can exceed their limits, and keeps an especially close eye on what he calls Wise Guy Row. It's a single table occupied by a small cadre of elite phone clerks who facilitate the bets of professional gamblers: players who are capable of moving lines at the last minute, then catching the other side of a wager and essentially risking no money while hoping that the final score will fall inside the point spread and result in a risk-free payday. Or else they simply are so smart about sports-betting that they're far more likely to win than they are to lose.
Told that a lot of his competitors eschew the wise guys, Mac says, "I happily take their action. Sharp players
bring a lot of volume. Then we nudge the line to generate action on the other side."
He looks at his monitor and grimaces. "Right now I'd like to have a little more money on Cincinnati," he says, acknowledging an imbalance of $90,000 weighted toward the opposing team. Then, as chaos swirls around him, he calmly adds, "But I'd rather book an extra bet than give away a number I don't want to give away."
CRIS, founded by Ron "Cigar" Sacco, the godfather of offshore gambling, is run like an old-school operation. Bereft of gimmicks, technologically low-key, not at all caught up in marketing gambits, CRIS is philosophically similar to the small, independent sports books that once dotted the Vegas Strip. Just across the parking lot, however, resides BoDog, a successful operation that is CRIS's antithesis. Where CRIS is stripped down, BoDog is a flashy, swaggering beast of a company, taking 90 percent of its action over the Internet (as compared to 70 percent for CRIS) and even featuring its own mascot: a tooth-baring canine that looks ready to pounce. CRIS's name is obvious to the point of sounding generic; BoDog's was devised as strategically as a soft-drink's: it had to sound aggressive, bear fewer than six letters (a preference for Web surfers) and be available as a URL.
Unlike CRIS, BoDog discourages wise guys -- going so far as to have two separate point spreads, one for the wise guys and one for the squares or recreational bettors that it aggressively courts. The site gets mass-marketed as if it's trying to compete with Amazon or Orbitz. "We only market on the Internet -- not in print or broadcast -- and in two seasons we've become the dominant brand on the Web," maintains Cole Turner, BoDog's Chief Executive Officer and founder. "Companies here in Costa Rica are run by one of two types of people: a bookmaker who somehow managed to educate himself on e-commerce and technology, or a technology person, like myself, who came in from the other direction. I believe that the most powerful person is the one who's strong in technology. You can dominate this industry with an average bookmaker if your technology and marketing are world-class. But you will never dominate this industry with a world-class bookmaker and average technology. Make mistakes on the marketing side and you get lost in the chaff of the industry. Nobody will even know that you exist."
It's a headstrong sentiment that generates controversy among the hardworking bookies here. But, judging by the late-game activity in BoDog's phone room, the approach seems to work. Clerks are busy, line-makers frantically massage the numbers being offered to their square customers, and Cole Turner stands on the edge of the stage with a self-satisfied look as a second round of kickoffs nears.
Turner entered the offshore sports-betting business after being accused of insider trading in Canada and carving out a niche for himself as a provider of e-commerce software. He shrugs off his crime as a youthful indiscretion, acknowledges that he changed his name and insists that he did nothing more than sign the wrong papers. Whatever the case, he is not alone in coming to Costa Rica after having a slightly sketchy situation up north.
If, as Casino author Nicholas Pileggi once wrote, Las Vegas is a morality car wash, then Costa Rica is the morality car wash of the morality car wash. One successful sports book owner here abandoned a similar operation in Vegas after he was robbed of millions and supposedly stiffed his winning gamblers for the dough; he's generally regarded as a great guy among his fellow expats. A highly esteemed oddsmaker got busted for money laundering, imprisoned and deported from the United States; he relocated to Costa Rica where he's since been embraced as an upstanding citizen. And even the guys who did nothing blatantly illegal inevitably turn squirrelly when questioned about their old lives in the States.
For all of that, the Costa Rican operations appear stunningly well run and efficient. Telephone rooms, with their long tables of bilingual clerks, are as antiseptically comfortable as any telemarketing setup in the United States. The businesses (which are run by men whose ambitions rarely exceeded 20 clerks in a little broom closet of a bookmaking office operating on the down-low) are solid enough that one was sold for $14 million and another supposedly went for $30 million, plus some $270 million in stock options. Both were purchased by the British company sportingbets.com. Hearing those amounts, though, and finding out that one bought-out company had the particularly enviable URL of sportsbook.com, I wonder if it was purchased partly for its online handle. Reggie Reggoni, who runs a mid-level sports book called Blue Marlin and was among the first half-dozen bookies to begin working down here, looks at me with some disbelief. "No," he says. "They bought it because they wanted the company's 80,000 American gamblers."
With deals like those, it's clear that bookies' lives in Costa Rica are as legit as it gets in this world. Undoubtedly, they're out of the shadows, perfectly legal and part of society. Collectively employing tens of thousands of young Costa Ricans, they pay better than average salaries, employ bodyguards (especially if they like to wear their diamond-encrusted Rolexes while swanning around town) and occasionally own the buildings that they occupy. Bet-On-Sports, one of San José's more successful books (it takes 1.6 billion bets per year), boasts an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a private club for its premier players and a free daycare center for the children of its employees. "The idea," says Bet-On-Sports' CEO David Carruthers, "is for our customers to realize that we are a substantial operation" few months later de DOJ went so hard on them that erase them from the map, but that is another story.
While CRIS's Mac goes so far as to say that the sports books have created a middle class in San José (a somewhat dubious assertion, as many Costa Ricans believe that the books are a corrupting influence on the good Catholic kids who work there), his boss, Mickey Richardson, gives the impression that being a bookie here has become too much of a real job. "It was more fun before," admits Richardson. "It used to be a party atmosphere. What used to be considered a racket is now a real business and we're dealing with things we couldn't even have imagined 10 years ago.
The watershed moment for all of this can be traced to the evening of December 13, 1992. That's when Steve Kroft of "60 Minutes" interviewed Ron "Cigar" Sacco, the lifelong bookmaker, who looked cocky with his shock of red hair, shirt pocket crammed with pens, and a signature Cohiba jammed between his teeth. Speaking from the Dominican Republic, to which he had relocated and set up dozens of toll-free phone lines, Sacco told Kroft that he was doing nothing illegal. Sacco insisted that he felt comfortable taking bets from U.S. customers in the Dominican Republic, where sports wagering had long been legal.
Sacco's message was a seductive one for bookies across the United States. "Seeing that interview changed me," remembers Richardson. "Suddenly, bookmaking seemed like something that could be done outside of the United States. It immediately appeared to be the ticket." In no time, the Dominican Republic was home to more than 200 expatriated American bookies, plying their trades beyond the reach of stateside authorities.
Within a couple years, however, the Dominican Republic ceased to be a gambler's Eden. "The government got greedy," says Reggoni. "You'd pay one general $50,000 and the next week his brother would show up demanding another $50,000." Following a false start in Antigua, Sacco moved his operation to Costa Rica; he was the first one in the industry and, once again, other bookies followed. Then, in the late 1990s, the Internet blew wide open. With easy access to information, the ability to place bets hassle-free, and an opportunity to monitor ever fluctuating lines (via services such as Don Best), the Web seems to have been custom-made for sports betting -- and it has ignited the multibillion dollar explosion in wagering.
However, all is not perfect in paradise. On the consumer end, gamblers run the risk of getting ripped off. It can happen surreptitiously or blatantly (in a well-publicized event, one of the major books in town stiffed a professional from Las Vegas for nearly half a million dollars, claiming that it simply didn't want wise-guy action, maintaining that the Vegas gambler knew this and bet anyway). "Some of these places get set up specifically for the purpose of not paying people," says one bookie, who did not want to be named. "They attract a lot of post-ups [the betting bankroll that you deposit up front] and then disappear, only to reopen under a whole other name." And it's not only the gamblers who face financial risk. "Sport Bucks [which worked as a bank for local sports books] recently went out of business, owing the books a total of $1.5 million," remembers Reggoni, adding that Sport Bucks got into trouble after its owners got hooked on betting games with money they were supposed to be minding. "We lost $30,000 on that one and felt lucky."
Even worse is the constant vulnerability to high-tech terrorists who cripple computer systems by flooding them with calls and demanding payments of $30,000 be sent to Saint Petersburg, Russia, or else the site will remain unusable. "We could have paid those guys who were putting out the denial of service attacks or stood up to them," says Will Gatten, a goateed hipster from Texas who does marketing for a respected sports book called Hollywood. "We did the latter and paid way more than $30,000 to upgrade our system" -- and make the attacks impossible -- "but it was the right thing to do."
Questions loom as to whether Costa Rica will be the gambler's refuge for much longer. In light of the recently activated licensing fees, those in the industry fear that politicos in their adopted homeland will get as greedy as the Dominicans had once been. And while few bookies are currently prepared to say hasta la vista, baby, they are looking at alternatives to Costa Rica. "Right now Panama is a front-runner," says one sports-book manager who recently returned from a trip to Panama City. "The place is completely modern. It's got a skyline that rivals those in many American cities, and it's cheaper than San José. From what I understand, the government is looking to bring in 10 big sports books." The manager's cell phone rings, he deals with some business involving a line move for an NBA game, then he softly adds, "One problem, though, is that Panama has a closer relationship with the United States than Costa Rica does."

And therein lies the rub. Never mind that it's legal to book bets in Costa Rica, the true lawfulness of what the offshore books are doing remains fuzzy. Consider this: if an American citizen opens a sports-betting business in a place such as Costa Rica and takes bets from customers in the United States, is he breaking the law? Maybe. Since hardly anyone in America has ever been busted for placing a bet (only for taking them) and taking bets is legal in Costa Rica, you have an area so gray that even attorneys who specialize in representing gaming-related cases can't provide a straight answer.
What's indisputable is that Ron Sacco -- who supposedly became a massive FBI target after showboating on "60 Minutes" -- was recently arrested while trying to go from Costa Rica to Nicaragua. The Costa Rican government maintained that his passport was not in order, and, rather than take his chances waiting for slow justice in Central America, Sacco turned himself in to U.S. authorities where an old bookmaking warrant led to his receiving a nearly two-year prison sentence.
Sacco's arrest had a chilling effect on Costa Rica's sports-book community and has led to much speculation about the future of online gambling as a big public enterprise. Already the U.S. attorney general has advised publications such as Maxim and radio programs such as the "Howard Stern Show" (both beneficiaries of advertising dollars from Costa Rican sports books) that running ads for offshore gambling may put them in the position of aiding an illegal activity. "Right now the American government is the biggest threat to the future of online gambling," says one bookmaker who believes that the business will be forced to return to its underground roots. "Supposedly the NBA and NFL are at least partially behind it. But the really ridiculous thing is that sports betting helps keep basketball and football and everything else going. Without having a little something riding on the game, how many people do you think would really bother to watch?"

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The Man Behind Las Vegas Lines

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Bob Scucci learned much of what he knows about the sports betting industry at one of the most unlikely places: the family dinner table. That's because both his mother and father worked in Las Vegas sportsbooks. After the family moved

to Las Vegas from New Jersey when Bob was in high school, his father took a job at the old Rose Bowl sportsbook and his mother took a post at the Showboat sportsbook. Dinner table discussions were a lesson in Sports Betting 101. And Scucci has used that knowledge to get where he is today, managing the Race & Sportsbook at the Stardust. Because of the history behind the hotel/casino and the fact that the book sets the first Las Vegas line for football, his job is one of the most recognized and revered in the industry.

"My dad probably taught me the most, whether he knew it or not," said Scucci. "We would have conversations at the dinner table and it wouldn't even be like he was trying to teach me anything. It was just a normal discussion. And, over the course of those years, it just, by osmosis, sunk in. Some things are just second nature. You don't realize it until you are actually working in the industry that things kind of come naturally."

The Stardust sportsbook is famous for setting the opening Las Vegas line for football. At 5:30 p.m. on Sundays during the NFL season Scucci, with help from consulting services, posts the first lines and lets the professional bettors take the first crack at them. The sportsbook holds a lottery for line placement in order to avoid a free-for-all to the window. Bettors are allowed to make five wagers before they have to move back to the end of the line. During the first couple hours of action, the line on an NFL game can move as many as two points. The lottery, however, has decreased in popularity over the last several years.

"In recent years it seems like people want to think about it a little bit before they rush to the counter," Scucci commented. "So there hasn't been as many people that want to join up in the lottery. They just prefer to wait until the numbers are up and then gradually pick their spots. For the first hour and a half, the numbers are bouncing around all over. If you are talking about 1 ½ points on every game and you are taking $10,000 a whack, it doesn't take long to have a $30-$40,000 decision on each game."

Since the Stardust sportsbook is a favorite of professional bettors in Las Vegas, Scucci is used to sweating it out. While the goal of most sportsbooks is to get 50 percent of the action on both sides of a game, it doesn't always work out that way. The Stardust has taken some big losses in the years that he has been there (Scucci served as the right-hand man for former manager Joe Lupo, who took a position as vice president of operations at the Borgata in Atlantic City, for six years before taking over last October). Putting out the first line can be a liability, said Scucci, because there are no other numbers out there to compare to his lines and because the pros are usually there to attack a bad

number. When the Las Vegas sportsbook industry does well, the Stardust usually follows suit, but when the industry as a whole has a bad week, Scucci usually takes a harder hit. "Occasionally, but not often, when the industry does well we may not do as well at all because we take all the early hits that the other casinos don't take," he added. "But I feel we can draw enough off of it that it's worth the liability."

One of the most unique things about the Stardust sportsbook is its ability to draw an even mix of locals and tourists. Now that the south end of the Strip is the place to be in Las Vegas, Scucci's sportsbook is still keeping pace with the big boys in terms of handle. Tourists want to visit the Stardust because of its history and atmosphere and locals like the wide variety of parlay cards and the chance to take advantage of the opening numbers. "We probably have the highest percentage of locals of all the Strip properties," said Scucci.


Limits for NFL games are $10,000 for sides and $2,000 for totals and college football limits are $5,000 for sides and $1,000 for totals. Scucci's philosophy is not to set the lines by predicting the outcomes of games, but rather set the number according to the way he thinks the public will bet. And he always has to be concerned about the professional bettors, who are lurking around every corner at the Stardust.

"To make money in this business isn't just to give the bettors what they want, because that's not in our best interest," he said. "However, knowing which way they are going to bet is always a help. There are a lot of factors that go into making the numbers. The whole key is to not give away too much value to someone who is making a living betting on sports. We know which way the public is going to bet, predominantly. The public likes to bet favorites, they like to bet a lot of home favorites and they like to bet a lot of overs. There's a pattern that we know the public will bet on these games and a lot of times we just have to go into a game knowing that they are going to bet this way but we let them bet it because we feel like this 2 ½ (as an example) is the right number. So we let them lay the 2 ½. If they win they win and if we win then so be it. But we are not going to move it to 3 or 3 ½ just because we know the public is going to bet it because at that point the sharp guys are going to say 'at 3 ½, it's a buy.'"

The sportsbook also offers two contests in order to attract business. The public is invited to play the weekly free All-American Football Contest, in which $10,000 is awarded weekly, and the Stardust Invitational is an annual battle among 16 of the best handicappers in the nation who compete for a $10,000 prize in a head-to-head format. The weekly contest takes place live in the sportsbook and always gathers a good crowd.

According to Scucci, the Stardust is the only sportsbook in Las Vegas that gives bettors the information they need to beat the house. The sportsbook offers its patrons a handicapping library with wall-to-wall information about sports betting. In order to make betting easier for locals, Scucci has implemented Sportscall, a telephone betting system that differs from traditional phone accounts in that it is geared toward the average bettor instead of the high-limit player.

Since taking over in October, one of the most difficult aspects of his new job, said Scucci, is following in the footsteps of Lupo, who was one of the most respected and well-liked managers in the industry. This will be his first full football season without his former mentor.

"He was great to work for - he really knew his stuff," said Scucci. "When somebody is that well respected you have some big shoes to fill and you've got to rely on your own confidence in your abilities to hopefully do the job that he did. You realize that everything falls on your shoulders now. I kind of felt like the first March Madness without him it was noticeable. From years of working with him and having that symbiotic relationship where we would bounce ideas off each other, I found myself, at times, turning to ask his opinion and realizing he is not around anymore. A couple of times I have felt like giving him a call in New Jersey and asking him 'what do you think about this or that?'"

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Top recruit Wall makes wrong kind of news

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Monday was supposed to be a big day for college basketball fans, as the nation’s No. 1 recruit, John Wall, was going to cut his list of schools down to about three or four.

Well, Wall is in the news, but for all the wrong reasons. The point guard at Raleigh (N.C.) Word of God was charged with a misdemeanor breaking and entering after police found him walking out of a vacant house in North Carolina.

Raleigh police said Monday that the 18-year-old Wall was detained briefly April 27 but not arrested. He and two other teenagers were cited. Police said there was no indication of forced entry at the empty house or that anything was taken.

Wall averaged 21 points, seven rebounds and nine assists this past season and is the No. 1-ranked point guard in the country by both Rivals.com and Scout.com. He is considering Baylor, Duke, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Memphis, Miami, North Carolina and hometown North Carolina State.

Baylor, by the way, created a coaching position for Dwon Clifton, Wall’s club team coach. But the player said that didn’t mean he would necessarily follow to Waco.

“I’m wide open,” Wall said at the time. “Dwon and I never had that type of agreement.”

So, will this scare off some of those schools? No chance. At worst this might mean some community service. The NCAA spring signing period ends May 20.

“I wouldn’t jump to conclusions,” said recruiting expert Dave Telep of Scout.com to USA Today. “It could be nothing more than a mistake. I think John is a good kid. It doesn’t feel right.”

Duke associate sports information director Matt Plizga and N.C. State assistant athletics director for media relations Annabelle Myers said the schools would have no comment on the Wall report. They said NCAA rules prevent school officials from commenting on prospective student-athletes.

This might speed up his decision as Wall might finally want to be out of public scrutiny whereas before he seemed to invite it.

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