My Monday blog

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
Tell me something I don't already know.

That's my standard line when meeting fellow bettors in the sports books of Las Vegas.

Most recreational sports gamblers unwisely ask the imprecise question, "Who do you like?"

Three problems with that query: 1) Most gamblers who have an edge in the betting marketplace are not visiting the sports book, 2) If winners are present, most of them are not interested in sharing their selections and 3) "Who do you like" is not the right question, but rather "Who did you bet and at what price?"

Here are five things I know that even the most ardent follower of Nevada's race and sports book industry might not know:

---CG Technology continues its downward spiral.

About two years ago, Irish bookmaking firm Paddy Power offered $75 million to buy CG Technology but the offer was rejected by then-CEO Lee Amaitis.

Amaitis no longer works for CG Technology after two separate scandals cost the company a total of $7 million in fines: $5.5 million for illegal messenger betting and $1.5 million for faulty software that led to the underpaying of customers.

Now, Paddy Power has lowered its bid for CG Technology to $20 million and the parent company -- Cantor Fitzgerald -- has until March 15 to make a decision.

Cantor Fitzgerald is a New York-based financial services giant and its leadership cannot be pleased with the failings of its Nevada subsidiary.

CG Technology will lose its location at The Palms by the end of summer and surrender its spot at The Cosmopolitan by year's end.

A burdensome contract with Las Vegas Sands, operators of both The Venetian and The Palazzo, handcuffed CG Technology from gaining the necessary momentum to compete here in Las Vegas.

Insiders report CG Technology pays The Venetian $300,000 per month for the space to operate the race and sports book and the rocky relationship between the two parties appears irreconcilable.

Three policies to illustrate the frayed relationship between CGT and The Venetian:

1) The main cage at The Venetian will not cash winning sports tickets after hours, forcing CGT to staff the book 24 hours a day.

2) Drinks served by cocktail waitresses to sports book patrons are billed to the sports book at 80% of the cost.

3) The Venetian charges CGT $200 per day to clean the book on a nightly basis.


---William Hill adopted a different model from CG Technology when it joined Nevada's gaming fraternity in 2012.

The British bookmaking firm became the first of its kind to be licensed in Nevada.

The company acquired American Wagering Inc., operator of the Leroy’s Horse and Sports Place franchise; Brandywine Bookmaking LLC, which had the Lucky’s sports book brand; and Sierra Development Co., which operated as Cal Neva Satellite Race and Sports in northern Nevada.

Instead of attracting high-end action like CGT, William Hill promotes the "largest betting menu" and the "lowest minimum wagers," an advertising campaign targeting low-rollers with $2 bets available at the counter and 10-cent wagers available via the company's kiosks.

Any wager of $1,000 or more at a William Hill outlet requires the customer to produce a player's card, though the policy is not enforced evenly at all of the more than 100 locations.

With outlets spread across the state in remote locations such as Ely, Elko and Wendover, William Hill often employs only one clerk per location which leads to many customer service problems, not the least of which is a sign that reads, "Lunch break...back in 30 minutes."

Just yesterday, in a payout of a little more than $1,000 at the Alamo Truck Stop near the Silverton Hotel, a player was paid in twenty-dollar bills, shades of the Caliente Sports Book operation in Tijuana, Mexico.


---At the aforementioned Silverton last week, a player was asked to leave the property unless he provided valid identification.

Turns out, the player did not produce identification the previous week after a few of his transactions totaled more than $3,000.

Most sophisticated sports bettors are familiar with the "Bank Secrecy Act" which requires casinos to report any transactions totaling $10,000 or more over its normal 24-hour business day.

So why, if federal regulations require identification after a threshold of $10,000, would a sports book operation require identification after $3,000?

Control?

Harassment?

Micro-management?

Or simple incompetence?

Like The Venetian, the Silverton sports book is operated by CG Technology, a company not having a good week, month or year, for that matter.

The printer was not working in the sports book last Thursday, so the betting sheets and horse racing entries were not available for customers who visited the property.

Why didn't the supervisory staff reach out to Silverton management?

Surely, there was a functioning printer somewhere on the property.

Or why didn't the home office of CG Technology send along copies of betting sheets and horse racing entries to save the day for Silverton customers?

Or how about a quick run to M Resort to grab some extra sheets in an emergency situation?

Instead, the sports book staff at the Silverton was too busy harassing a loyal customer over silly in-house recordkeeping procedures.

Oh, by the way, there were four employees behind the counter at the Silverton last Thursday afternoon at 3:00, double the number of customers present in the sports book.


---The Westgate SuperBook is viewed as one of the best sports books in the city, and for good reason.

Jay Kornegay and his staff do a marvelous job keeping the struggling property afloat.

The sports book handle continues to show steady growth and the betting menu is one of the best in the state.

Only one problem with the operation is the precipitous decline in race book handle over the last four or five years.

I'll allow a Westgate insider to tell the rest of the story:

"The re-design of the sports book looks spectacular, but horseplayers got the short end of the stick. The race book is positioned near the buffet and older horseplayers are now asked to walk a long way to make a bet. And here's the worst part of the situation: when the player finally gets to the window, he finds an inexperienced ticket writer who doesn't know the difference between a trifecta and Pick-3. Tsk tsk."


---I expect a higher scoring game than the expectations of the betting marketplace tonight at Orleans Arena where the Gonzaga Bulldogs and Santa Clara Broncos meet in semifinal round action of the West Coast Conference tournament.

Gonzaga has scored 82, 85, 88 and 92 points in its last four conference tournament games at Orleans Arena.

In the team's most recent victory over Pacific, the Zags finished with 82 points after scoring only nine points in the game's first 10 minutes.

MONDAY'S BEST BET: 539-540 Santa Clara-Gonzaga OVER 133 (Pomeroy's projected total).


 

Viejo Dinosaur

EOG Master
Re: My Monday blog

Coaches tend to pull in the reigns during tournament games, especially in the semi finals and finals....but with the new shot clock and second half scoring fests, you might be on to something JK....good luck with the totals:cheers
 

newport2

EOG Dedicated
Re: My Monday blog

$3,600,000 rent per year to the Venetian! Rick Pitino's Brother-in-Law(died 9/11/2001) was a trader for Cantor Fitzgerald.
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
Re: My Monday blog

$3,600,000 rent per year to the Venetian! Rick Pitino's Brother-in-Law(died 9/11/2001) was a trader for Cantor Fitzgerald.

When "Slick Rick" gets in trouble, he likes to invoke the name of his brother-in-law to divert the attention from his bad behavior.
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
Re: My Monday blog

Coaches tend to pull in the reigns during tournament games, especially in the semi finals and finals....but with the new shot clock and second half scoring fests, you might be on to something JK....good luck with the totals:cheers

Huge support for Gonzaga here in Las Vegas as the fans from GU have invaded The Orleans for another WCC Tournament.
 

Sportsrmylife

EOG Master
Re: My Monday blog

Wow great material JK. Outstanding work. I love reading about the inner workings of the Vegas sports books.

One of your best blogs.

Thank you!
 

Voodoo

EOG Addicted
Re: My Monday blog

Nice job JK. The stories regarding CG could go on for pages.

It's what happens when you don't respect the opposition. In their case
that applies to their attitude towards the other sports books as well
as the players.

But they have the Midas Touch.
 

FISHHEAD

EOG Master
Re: My Monday blog

More than a couple places now request ID on total wagers less than 10k, not just the Silverton/Cantor.

The Silverton/Cantor last year requested I sign a form stating bets made were my own.
...........




As far as getting paid in 20's at the WH/Alamo on payouts over 1k, this has occuureed to self more more than a couple times at WH outlets, including the mentioned Alamo.
 

FISHHEAD

EOG Master
Re: My Monday blog

Mentioned it before, but one of the most hilarious payouts received was at the WH at TheGrand.

The writer/cashier stated he could only pay in 20's......stated "that's fine"

He the turned around and proceeded to put roughly 3k or so in one of those bill counters, upon doing such and starting the appliance, all the bills were projected many feet into the air and then began their slow fluttering decent to the ground covering many square feet.
 

bomzee

EOG Dedicated
Re: My Monday blog

Entertaining tidbits JK;
So often looking and learning from somebody who does something entirely incorrectly or wrong is the best way to prevent you from doing it.
How NOT to run a sports book by CG Technologies. Other books can learn by their example.
 

Sportsrmylife

EOG Master
Re: My Monday blog

Mentioned it before, but one of the most hilarious payouts received was at the WH at TheGrand.

The writer/cashier stated he could only pay in 20's......stated "that's fine"

He the turned around and proceeded to put roughly 3k or so in one of those bill counters, upon doing such and starting the appliance, all the bills were projected many feet into the air and then began their slow fluttering decent to the ground covering many square feet.
Did the clerk know where the money was going and was just "checking" how the bills flew around?

How the fk is a casino out of $100 bills.
 

Sportsrmylife

EOG Master
Re: My Monday blog

Entertaining tidbits JK;
So often looking and learning from somebody who does something entirely incorrectly or wrong is the best way to prevent you from doing it.
How NOT to run a sports book by CG Technologies. Other books can learn by their example.

If this was true there would be a matchbook and a pinnacle type of book in Vegas. Don't cut off "sharps" on a hot streak as a cold streak will soon follow.

Allow card counters to play with a 1-5 spread. Or your first bet is your biggest bet.

Come one come all.
 
Re: My Monday blog

Re: currency issues (other than not having big bills on hand), the feds are leaning on the state, which is leaning on the casinos, to enforce federal rules about large cash transactions, including vis-a-vis not allowing potential structuring of transactions to stay under reporting requirements.

The casinos are self-regulating, arguably perhaps sometimes over-self-regulating, to avoid federal and state penalties.

https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/shared/01162015.pdf

https://www.americangaming.org/news...st-practices-anti-money-laundering-compliance

https://www.americangaming.org/sites/default/files/AGA Best Practices for AML Compliance Final.pdf

It's all part of a global war on cash -- pursued ostensibly "to combat money laundering used in support of terrorism."

Even if that were true, the result for the rest of us is (a) far less privacy; and (b) susceptibility to direct bail-ins during the next major financial crisis, with all the money then being held in accounts rather than out in physical cash.

After Cyprus got away with bail-ins several years back, the EU and US changed their banking regs to permit the same procedure. So, next time, they'll just cut out the middleman -- the government -- and the banks will just get what was a bail-out from taxpayers last time instead directly as a bail-in from depositors (i.e., us, the taxpayers again), who will have no place else to stash what ultimately will be solely electronic cash. (Putting Bitcoin and such off to the side for the moment.)

Heads we win, when the markets and our over-leveraged investment banking gambles go up; tails you lose when those investments go south, as they always ultimately will.

I tend to suspect the widespread adoption of mobile betting is part of this move away from cash transactions. No compliance/sanctions worries for the casino when it's all electronic rather than physical cash.

The best practices document is long, but it is an educational read, as many of the practices that I see complaints about in betting forums are specific measures followed by casinos to stay out of state and federal regulatory hot water.

Same sort of issues going on with banks. In that general vein, I've seen reports of depositors getting convicted of structuring after a lower level bank officer -- stupidly -- told them there would be less paperwork (for the bank) if they deposited less than 10K at a time. And other reports of banks closing accounts because they didn't want all the reporting hassles involved with the large deposits from their high cash businesses. The consistent thread in those two otherwise unrelated items are banks not wanting to deal with the hassles and risks of dealing with large cash transactions (although the bank officer structuring thing is just stupid -- they should be charging the officer not the depositor for that).

They're all moving us away from physical cash, one way or another.
 
Re: My Monday blog

Remember that time William Hill US entered the Nv market and the sharps marched pitch fork in hand looking for Bogdanovich ?
Well,if you think that was bad,just wait till Paddy Power gets going,oh boy.
 

FISHHEAD

EOG Master
Re: My Monday blog

Did the clerk know where the money was going and was just "checking" how the bills flew around?

How the fk is a casino out of $100 bills.



Its a case of WH starting their daily drawers with only 20's apparently.......as it's the case when cashing at many WH venues before noon.
 

FISHHEAD

EOG Master
Re: My Monday blog

Remember that time William Hill US entered the Nv market and the sharps marched pitch fork in hand looking for Bogdanovich ?
Well,if you think that was bad,just wait till Paddy Power gets going,oh boy.


What do you mean by this?
 

waco

EOG Dedicated
Re: My Monday blog

ITS not that long of a walk from for a horse player to make a bet but problem is only one teller on duty.
 

Heim

EOG Master
Re: My Monday blog

I've had similar experiences. Bet Virginia over Louisville $999 one ticket.....$551 on the other at Alamo (don't want a plyr card). Went 2 days later to cash due to Super Bowl but system down. You can cash at cashier window but didn't have enough cash for smaller ticket. Came back next day, was also paid in twenties. Now I'm not walking out there alone so black lady who does everything at Alamo walked me to my car. Town has become a joke.


PS. Cantor pays 40k @ Silverton. MLB season must be in the red city.

PSS. When making the bet WH was making guys show ID & sign their winning tickets on SB. Amounts in question didn't ask.
 

FISHHEAD

EOG Master
Re: My Monday blog

I've had similar experiences. Bet Virginia over Louisville $999 one ticket.....$551 on the other at Alamo (don't want a plyr card). Went 2 days later to cash due to Super Bowl but system down. You can cash at cashier window but didn't have enough cash for smaller ticket. Came back next day, was also paid in twenties. Now I'm not walking out there alone so black lady who does everything at Alamo walked me to my car. Town has become a joke.


PS. Cantor pays 40k @ Silverton. MLB season must be in the red city.

PSS. When making the bet WH was making guys show ID & sign their winning tickets on SB. Amounts in question didn't ask.


Just park at the pumps, you're fine.

Just be alert
 

Scooper

EOG Veteran
Re: My Monday blog

I've had similar experiences. Bet Virginia over Louisville $999 one ticket.....$551 on the other at Alamo (don't want a plyr card). Went 2 days later to cash due to Super Bowl but system down. You can cash at cashier window but didn't have enough cash for smaller ticket. Came back next day, was also paid in twenties. Now I'm not walking out there alone so black lady who does everything at Alamo walked me to my car. Town has become a joke.


PS. Cantor pays 40k @ Silverton. MLB season must be in the red city.

PSS. When making the bet WH was making guys show ID & sign their winning tickets on SB. Amounts in question didn't ask.


Why not just refer to her as a lady? If she was white would you have thrown in the descriptor? And how the eff is she going to protect you if you get rolled anyway?

This one lowered your power rating a full point or three
 

Heim

EOG Master
Re: My Monday blog

Why not just refer to her as a lady? If she was white would you have thrown in the descriptor? And how the eff is she going to protect you if you get rolled anyway?

This one lowered your power rating a full point or three

Lower another half.....I lift Splenda from coffee shops.
 

MrTop

EOG Master
Re: My Monday blog

had to save that blog today ...good info from JK....Nice work ....but how does he find the time?
 
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