We pause today from our usual examination of Things That Matter (or at least sometimes seem to) and turn our focus to something that actually really does matter, something that matters profoundly, and to more people than we can probably imagine: football. Although our feeble, cannabis-influenced brain can’t properly formulate a satisfying answer to the...
Reliable sources report that there’s some sort of governmental event going on this week in Washington, D.C. But anyone who has cable TV knows that the really big news is that the NFL Divisional Finalists have been set, and either the Pittsburgh Steelers or Arizona Cardinals will win the upcoming Super Bowl. Lest you scoff,...
ESPN, the cable TV empire, covers all things sports-related. Except sports betting. Apparently the wry, hip, knowing, ironic, slick, and authoritative on-air broadcasters may discuss anything and everything about the sports and athletes they cover provided there’s no mention of the pointspread line or the underlying odds that swirl around virtually every event that ESPN...
Work commitments take me to Las Vegas frequently, where, like millions of other visitors, the excess of it all, the unashamed pursuit of pleasure disconnected from meaning or what passes for reality in more responsible precincts awes me. Behind the seductive veil of the casino come-on, though, is an unpleasant fact I’ve written about in...
Since the publication of my book “The Smart Money: How the World’s Best Sports Bettors Beat the Bookies out of Millions,” numerous reporters and radio hosts have contacted me asking for a prediction on the Super Bowl. I can’t say what the result will be. Nobody can. I can, however, tell you which side is...
Sprinkled among the reviews for my book “The Smart Money” like so many dog droppings upon an emerald lawn, several notices emanating from Las Vegas — where much of the book’s action take place — have claimed profound disappointment with my use of nicknames for some of the characters. These dismayed critics seem to think...
Betting on the stock market is not illegal. Indeed, it’s a venerated pastime, and those who are good at it are celebrated on magazine covers and given honorary doctorates. What these luminaries do, though, is essentially what good sports bettors do: Find an undervalued team (in this case, a company) and bet on it with...
Last night I appeared on GSN’s premiere episode of “World Series of Blackjack,” in which 25 of the world’s top players compete in 30-hand, five-person tournament matches. Each week’s winner gets $10,000, and the ultimate winner earns $100,000. (I finished second in my heat and qualified for a “wild card” episode that airs later this...
Recently a man in North Dakota was found guilty of placing sports bets over the Internet, in violation of state (and possibly federal) law. He was fined a nominal amount of money and made an example to the hundreds of thousands – millions? – of people who use their computers to make wagers on football...
Hope RekindledThis past week has given us more hope for our diseased republic than any other time in 50+ years of paying attention. Observing and participating in a long-overdue peaceful uprising, occupying the streets, feeling the righteous energy of people of all ages, colors, faiths, and wealth (or lack thereof), has…
Clarinetist Glenn Dickson, master of klezmer, has made a solo recording, “Wider Than the Sky,” that’s been on perpetual repeat at our home office. Using over-dubs and electronic digital effects, Dickson fills the aural soundscape with a rich melange of chordal textures supporting the melody. His celebrated virtuosity is subsumed here to long, elegiac musical...
