It was three of the best years of his life. He was a college kid pulling in $1,000 to $1,500 a week. He was at the bar six nights a week and always came home with numbers in his pocket.
Tony was the biggest bookie on a Big Ten campus that loved to gamble – especially the athletes.
It all began before the 1994 football season. A history major, Tony spent two years working as a runner for a local, big-city bookie, who eventually got pinched right before the NCAA Tournament earlier that year.
Tony saw an opportunity.
“The next football season came around, and there was not anyone for us to bet with,” he recalled. “I thought, ‘you know, I can do this.’ I already had the names and accounts to begin with from working with the other book. He was gone, so I started making phone calls and said, ‘Hey, I’m opening up shop.’”
Tony's initial bankroll was his student-loan money, and it was all on the line in the first game of the season. Seventh-ranked Arizona was a 9-point favorite at Georgia Tech in the Thursday night opener. Everyone was on the Wildcats.
“I wouldn’t have had any kind of funds if I would have lost that one,” said Tony. “But Georgia Tech covered, and that’s what got me started. It basically bankrolled my whole football season. And I was ahead the rest of the way.”
He installed two phone lines in his apartment, which was located across the street from campus. There was no computer or cell phone – this was 1994, after all. His accounts were organized in 3-by-5 notebooks. He got his point spreads from score phones or Danny Sheridan's numbers in USA Today.
Tony’s book grew to more than 100 clients. Approximately a third of them were athletes, some current, some former. They included a former NCAA champion wrestler, who was down $10,000 after the Dallas Cowboys failed to cover against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XXX (the Cowboys, of course, won the game, 27-17, but were laying 13.5 points).
“I settled for a third and told him he couldn’t bet with me anymore,” explained Tony. “I didn’t want to go up against him. At the time, he was a maniac.”
Tony got stiffed a few times, as all bookies do, but looking back, he believes his collection rate was good. He did, however, once enlist the services of an offensive lineman to collect a debt.
“He was a large, very intimidating black man, and in that city there aren’t a lot of them,” Tony recalled. “I went up to him at the sports bar and just explained that I had this kid ducking and dodging me. ‘Is there any way you could pay him a visit?’ I gave him the kid’s address and he came back with the cash. I kicked him back $50. He only did it one time, but that’s all I needed him for.”
Another offensive lineman once bet $100 that his team would cover as heavy underdogs against Michigan. No athlete ever bet against his own team, Tony says.
“Now, basketball players would bet against the football team or vice versa, but no one ever bet against a team they were directly involved with,” he added.
The baseball team was by far his best client and would “bet with both fists.” Tony also catered to student managers, who were “always good for a few hundred dollars a week in losses.”
“The student managers thought because they worked for the football team that they know what they’re talking about,” he said with a chuckle, “but they didn’t have a clue.”
In addition to athletes, Tony had clients who were sportswriters from the local and school papers, a judge and an assistant professor at the university. He estimates he had, at the most, four losing weeks from September through May. He turned the book over in December of 1995 and moved to Las Vegas, where he owns a moving business.
“I never really felt any heat,” said Tony. “It was a fun time. I would come home from the bars at night with bets written down on pieces of paper in my pocket. I don’t regret any of it. I loved it. I loved the rush. I still bet sports out here probably six days a week.”
(courtesy TSN)
Tony was the biggest bookie on a Big Ten campus that loved to gamble – especially the athletes.
It all began before the 1994 football season. A history major, Tony spent two years working as a runner for a local, big-city bookie, who eventually got pinched right before the NCAA Tournament earlier that year.
Tony saw an opportunity.
“The next football season came around, and there was not anyone for us to bet with,” he recalled. “I thought, ‘you know, I can do this.’ I already had the names and accounts to begin with from working with the other book. He was gone, so I started making phone calls and said, ‘Hey, I’m opening up shop.’”
Tony's initial bankroll was his student-loan money, and it was all on the line in the first game of the season. Seventh-ranked Arizona was a 9-point favorite at Georgia Tech in the Thursday night opener. Everyone was on the Wildcats.
“I wouldn’t have had any kind of funds if I would have lost that one,” said Tony. “But Georgia Tech covered, and that’s what got me started. It basically bankrolled my whole football season. And I was ahead the rest of the way.”
He installed two phone lines in his apartment, which was located across the street from campus. There was no computer or cell phone – this was 1994, after all. His accounts were organized in 3-by-5 notebooks. He got his point spreads from score phones or Danny Sheridan's numbers in USA Today.
Tony’s book grew to more than 100 clients. Approximately a third of them were athletes, some current, some former. They included a former NCAA champion wrestler, who was down $10,000 after the Dallas Cowboys failed to cover against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XXX (the Cowboys, of course, won the game, 27-17, but were laying 13.5 points).
“I settled for a third and told him he couldn’t bet with me anymore,” explained Tony. “I didn’t want to go up against him. At the time, he was a maniac.”
Tony got stiffed a few times, as all bookies do, but looking back, he believes his collection rate was good. He did, however, once enlist the services of an offensive lineman to collect a debt.
“He was a large, very intimidating black man, and in that city there aren’t a lot of them,” Tony recalled. “I went up to him at the sports bar and just explained that I had this kid ducking and dodging me. ‘Is there any way you could pay him a visit?’ I gave him the kid’s address and he came back with the cash. I kicked him back $50. He only did it one time, but that’s all I needed him for.”
Another offensive lineman once bet $100 that his team would cover as heavy underdogs against Michigan. No athlete ever bet against his own team, Tony says.
“Now, basketball players would bet against the football team or vice versa, but no one ever bet against a team they were directly involved with,” he added.
The baseball team was by far his best client and would “bet with both fists.” Tony also catered to student managers, who were “always good for a few hundred dollars a week in losses.”
“The student managers thought because they worked for the football team that they know what they’re talking about,” he said with a chuckle, “but they didn’t have a clue.”
In addition to athletes, Tony had clients who were sportswriters from the local and school papers, a judge and an assistant professor at the university. He estimates he had, at the most, four losing weeks from September through May. He turned the book over in December of 1995 and moved to Las Vegas, where he owns a moving business.
“I never really felt any heat,” said Tony. “It was a fun time. I would come home from the bars at night with bets written down on pieces of paper in my pocket. I don’t regret any of it. I loved it. I loved the rush. I still bet sports out here probably six days a week.”
(courtesy TSN)