The Odds: One Season, Three Gamblers, and the Death of Their Las Vegas

by Chad Millman

One gambler is a manic former cokehead with an Ivy League degree. The second is a college dropout trying to make a living at the only thing he enjoyed at school -- gambling. The third, one of Vegas's most respected bookmakers, is perilously close to burning out. The Odds follows the lives of these three professional gamblers through a college basketball season in a one-of-a-kind city struggling to reconcile its lawless past with its family-friendly makeover. With a wiseguy attitude and a faultless eye and ear for the sights and sounds of Vegas and its denizens, Chad Millman has created a portrait that the Wall Street Journal called "fascinating. . . often screamingly funny." The Las Vegas Review-Journal had just one word for the "Superb."

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2001

Reviews

[Dustin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad. If you happen to wager for fun or professionally, you will quickly find that most of this book is too dated to be relevant in terms of how it relates to today's online world. In a way, though, the book is foreshadowing everything that the old guard of sports betting was afraid of. Obviously the information age didn't kill sports betting, but it did kill the old ways. And that's what you get here. The three people profiled are a perfect mix, representing the mindset of sports bettors, and how nuts we can be at times. And, as the title suggests, it's also a swan song for the way it used to be. The fact that the Stardust is the featured sports book in this story tells you everything right there. Old Vegas was dying when this was written. If you've been out there anytime recently, you know just how dead old Vegas is now. At this point in time, it's more appropriate to call this book a retrospective. But a good one if you like to lay a wager or two on the games.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book actually does not dissaude me from professional gambling. It, however, does not make me want to move to Las Vegas and become a lonely gambler. The authors follows two gamblers and a few bookmakers through an entire season of college basketball. During the season, the gamblers experience crazy winning streaks and agonizing slumps. Whether they're winning or losing, they're always stressed out, and their obsessive habits deter them from having any sort of meaningful relationship. And the bookmakers are even more stressed out, because they're constantly trying to outsmart the wiseguys. Okay, so that part is bad, but how rad would it be to make a living this way? Or at least supplement your income? Unfortunately, the Vegas and offshore sportsbooks are very good at what they do: setting lines that fool most people and taking their money.

[Zach Ebben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Focused around three gamblers immersed in the Las Vegas betting scene as it existed around the turn of the century, this book offers an interesting perspective on sports betting prior to, and during, the explosion of offshore betting sites in the early 2000s. The authors storytelling creates an image of the degenerate gambler which is both fantasized and frightening, leaving any casual betting reader equal parts envious and horrified.

[Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely well-written living history of both sides of the counter (bookmakers and gamblers) at the precipitous turn of the century. What a lot of writing about gambling struggles with is not glorifying addiction while also not presenting it as a heavy-handed morality play. This narrative is expertly crafted to thread that needle. A classic in the "everything is falling apart in real time" genre. None of the three protagonists are good, and yet you can't help but root for them, either. But you're never really sure if you want them to win or lose.

[Max Cuomo · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

For what it is, I enjoyed this book.

[Jim Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me a while to get through it, but this was a fun read as self proclaimed degenerate gambler myself.

[Ivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though the book is written towards the start of online gambling and mostly during the transition period, I really enjoyed reading about the wiseguys and their lifestyle. Part history, part education and part narrative, it is an a good book that immersed me into that side of Vegas and helped me understand the influence of gambling on sport and society.

[Charles MacDwyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay. I was hoping for more, to be honest. I might have thought it was better if I'd read it when it came out in the early 2000s. But as others have mentioned a lot has changed since then. A couple of the characters are thoroughly boring, like the younger dude who moves from Indiana to become a gambler. Found myself skimming through a few sections, which I usually don't do.

[Slavo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sad book about sad lifes of three gambling addicts during an end of an era. It was quite repetitive in the middle part - the same story over and over again - but overall it was a good read. It took me a while to get used to US style of sports betting that is quite different to ours. While the characters were throwing numbers right and left I was always confused who is winning and who is losing.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad at all. Loved the parts where they talked about actual bets made and the outcomes. Sweating games and the emotional roller coaster that entails. This book went into that more than the average book about gambling I would say.

[nick Parisi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book looking into the lives of different vegas personalities and profiles. Really hammers home that these people are wired differently than you're average joe, always on the clock and looking for the next score

[Kayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was an interesting account of the evolution of sports betting, although I think a lot has happened in the last 17 years since the time this was published.

[Jake Beeber · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Peter Knox · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Chad N on ESPN and appreciate his insight on the BS Report Podcast. I also enjoy sports, and the gambling possibilities that come with it. This book seems a little dated (circa 2000) with the clear popularity of offshore online betting, but I enjoyed living vicariously through the characters he follows in Vegas. Yet, none were fully rounded or compelling enough to make me truly care for them. It gets you close to the sports betting world, but you clearly remain on the outside, with all your judgements in tact. Fun to read for a Vegas trip if it keeps you from thinking you're ever smarter than the books or wise guys.

[Kurt · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was something I chose to read because I was mildly interested in the culture of professional sports gambling. Other than being an insight into why no one should be interested in becoming a professional sports gambler, this was not a very interesting book to me. It drags a little in the middle: I get it, they're degenerates and can't help themselves. Not super bad, just less interesting than I thought the subject matter would be.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent compliation of 3 professional sports gamblers and they collective experiences in Vegas. One is a seasoned pro who is one of the few who can make a living out of it, one is a young novice who's convinced he's got it all figured out and one is an insider with the now defunct Stardust casino. This is a fast paced and interesting book...

[M. R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting read about three different lives in and the around the world of sports gambling in Las Vegas. In the day and age of internet gaming, this is almost becoming a throwback as much as it's a look at a current and changing industy.

[Matt Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty interesting inside look at the professional sports betting scene in Vegas right at a time when the industry was going through transformation due to new off shore casinos and internet gambling. I enjoyed it, as I think most people who wager on sports would.

[Carnevale8705 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title says it all.

[Tal Hirshberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book for Football and College Basketball Season.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining but nothing great if you know anything about this stuff already. Fortunes formula much better read.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of information that I didn't know about sports gambling in Vegas

[Travis Baker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I learned from this that in gambling, even when you win, you're still a loser.