Review of SuperBookie: Inside Las Vegas Sports Gambling

Title:

SuperBookie: Inside Las Vegas Sports Gambling

Author:

Art Manteris with Rick Talley

Publisher:

Contemporary Books

Date:

1991

ISBN:

0-8092-3845-4

Pages:

234

Price:

Out of Print

Reviewed by Nick Christenson, npc@lvrevealed.com

April 20, 2005

Even though sports betting parlors emerged in Las Vegas in the 50s, it wasn't until the mid 70s that it became legal for casinos to offer this service, after which the industry grew rapidly. As the new casinos that opened in the 80s and 90s were larger and more extravagant than their predecessors, the concept of the "SuperBook" came into existence. SuperBookie represents the musings of the state of the industry at about this time by the director at that time of the Las Vegas Hilton's superbook, Art Manteris.

SuperBookie covers a lot of ground, but most of Manteris' musings concern two general themes: (1) the history and operation of Las Vegas sports betting, (2) colorful stories about the characters and events in Las Vegas sports betting. As a long-time insider and industry maven, Manteris has the background to be able to address both of these topics.

Manteris does a pretty good job of providing a view of "the other side of the desk". A reader who doesn't have a solid understanding of how a Nevada sports book operates will likely learn a great deal. At times, SuperBookie reads a bit like an advertisement for the sports betting industry in general and the Las Vegas Hilton in particular, but I can forgive taking a certain amount of pride in what the industry has accomplished.

Through his years of service in the business and his contacts with many of the industry's most colorful characters, Manteris is able to spin quite a few entertaining yarns about various sporting events and the people who bet on them. A number of these tales I hadn't heard before and these stories were fun to read. I do get the impression that Manteris is selecting his topics such that his industry appears in the best light, though. For example, I don't recall a single mention of sports betting innovator "Lefty" Rosenthal in the book, and Manteris goes to great lengths to promote the integrity of the sports betting industry and sports in general. This is not to say that SuperBookie is disingenuous, because I don't believe it is. It's just that the book is designed to be a positive look at the business Manteris loves.

While the reader is likely to come away from this book with a better appreciation for how a Nevada sports book operates, there isn't much here help one become a long-term winner. That's just fine as the book doesn't pretend to fulfill this function. SuperBookie is, however, well-written, entertaining, and informative about the industry. It amply fulfills its authors' purposes.

Of course significant time has passed between the publication of this book and the present, and it's interesting to see how well the prognostications in this book have held up. Of course, the stories have a timeless quality that makes them eternally relevant as well as fun. It's likely that most of what Manteris has to say about sports book operations is still relevant, although we'd expect that contemporary books will make even more use of computer systems and networks than they did at the time SuperBookie was written. In some ways since the book was published Nevada sports betting has been in decline as more business goes to off-shore operations, and, of course, these developments aren't mentioned in these pages. Manteris also makes several predictions in this book that we can now evaluate. Although much of what he forecasts likely seemed quite reasonable at the time, many if not most of what he envisions looks rather quaint with the unfair advantage of hindsight.

Still, even with the passage of time SuperBookie remains both entertaining and informative. This won't help sports betters gain much of an advantage over the house, but there is some peripheral information that may be of interest, and it is fun to read. As a consequence, I recommend this book to those who are looking for a book about sports betting that's fun to read. It is fairly easy to find this out-of-print book on the used market, and those interested in sports betting will probably find it worth the effort.

Capsule:

Art Manteris was the director of Las Vegas' first "SuperBook" at the Las Vegas Hilton. SuperBookie is an entertaining and well-written look at the operation of a Las Vegas sports book and contains some amusing stories of the interesting events and colorful characters that have shaped this industry. As time has passed much in SuperBookie has become dated, but that doesn't detract from the entertainment value or much of Manteris'' description of sports book operations. This book won't be of much help in becoming a winning sports better but it's fun enough to be worth reading as entertainment.