How times have changed!
I was standing in line trying to get a bet in on some baseball games that started at 10:10 this past Sunday morning. I had gotten in line at around 9:45. There was a guy in front of me and someone in front of him. This person, I will assume, had the window tied up trying to make a soccer parlay for $5.
How times have changed!
The guy in front of me really didn’t notice who I was or didn’t recognize me but I had seen him around the books for years, even at the old “Dust” where he was a good player. He wanted to make some flat bets on baseball and I know he was a $100 bettor, not a wise guy.
How times have changed!
He says to me while just looking straight ahead, “You know, back at the Stardust when there was always a supervisor on the line this would never happen.”
He was right as we would just take the person aside and explain that at post time have your bets ready so other bettors don’t get shutout and 90% of the time the person understands.
Now with no one on the line to supervise and writers who could not care less or are unafraid the person may be a plant just to see how they handle the question, they simply take their good old time.
Oh well, the times have changed!
Back behind the counter in the 80’s in the summer we had little problems at this time of year. All we had to deal with was baseball. Soccer was not a sport we had lines on nor was it a sport we even knew existed at the time. This was the slow season for sports books.
My boss Scotty Shettler, who was the director of race and sports at the great race and sports venue the Stardust back then, would come and tell me to make sure all my writers and supervisors got their vacations in before football. No one, whether it was a writer or supervisor, could take time off during football season with the exception of a death in the family (not counting animals).
This time of year Scotty had what we called a player appreciation dinner/get together with all the race and sports bettors. Not only the big bettors were involved but our everyday players who were there day in and day out.
These dinners were so much fun. Now places don’t know one bettor from the other. All they know is what is your players card number!
How times have changed!
We had no global warming back in the 80’s here in Vegas, but what I don’t understand is: why was it hotter back then? With the heat and not much action in the books we looked for things to do to stay cool.
Most of us looked to Del Mar as that was the time to get in our vacation and really have some fun. We could actually afford going to Del Mar back then when you could get a room for $50 and a beer for a few bucks.
If it wasn’t Del Mar time you could actually go see a movie that would entertain you in the cool theatre and have a box of popcorn for under $100. We saw such great movies as “The Breakfast Club” in 1985, but 1986 was a great year for movies with several of my favorites still today, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Top Gun,” “Stand by Me,” and in 1987 one of my all time favorites, “Dirty Dancing.” No such movies this year. Maybe the “Jersey Boys” movie will be my answer this summer.
There’ll be no bets on soccer for me, but with OVER/UNDER NFL totals up, the College Games of the Year up at the Golden Nugget and the entire NFL season up at M Resort, there are lots of things to bet on.
As I delve into the NFL, I love to make future bets. I put them away and if one wins it’s like looking at money just found.
The bet is OVER 8½ wins on the Baltimore Ravens, which won the Super Bowl two years ago and will get at least 9 wins.
Before last year Joe Flacco and John Harbaugh were in the playoffs five straight years, but after winning the Super Bowl they had a slump last season. Now they have a new offensive coordinator in Gary Kubiak and his run first offense will help Flacco with shorter third down conversions.
We do look for a lot of UNDERS with the Ravens’ new offensive scheme. When Kubiak was at Houston his teams usually led the league in time of possession so we will also lay the 2½ points in Game 1 of the regular season. That’s also a bet you can make now.
I know the books were jamming this past weekend with the soccer, but I’ve already had enough. All I can say is come on September and parlay cards!
Richard Saber, a former director of race and sports at the famed Stardust book, is GamingToday’s horse racing and sports handicapper. Follow Richard on Twitter @SabesBet. Contact Richard at [email protected].