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The Odds: One Season, Three Gamblers, and the Death of Their Las Vegas | 
 enlarge | Author: Chad Millman
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy Used: $0.27
You Save: $15.73 (98%)
New (21) Used (39) from $0.27
Avg. Customer Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 55235
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0306811561
Dewey Decimal Number: 796
EAN: 9780306811562
ASIN: 0306811561
Publication Date: March 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More.
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Amazon.com Review
For sports gamblers in Las Vegas, nobody cares who wins; it's by how much that matters. In The Odds, Chad Millman follows three professional gamblers through a year of college basketball, where meticulous research, betting discipline, and instinct clash with addiction, and no one relaxes until they've lost it all. The three colorful gamblers Millman expertly portrays are a high-rolling career "wiseguy," a slacker wannabe, and a bookmaker who sets the lines on games (for example, Iowa over Indiana by 4-1/2 points, meaning if you bet on Iowa, you win only if Iowa wins by five points or more). The idea behind the betting line is to lure bets (hopefully, losing ones) and make a profit for his casino from the action, but more importantly to stay ahead of those who pounce on a weak line like hungry wolves. Millman provides the answer to what makes these wiseguys tick: "While the casual bettor weighs common sense and financial realities with every bet, the wiseguy pushes those aside... [his] battle isn't with what makes sense; his battle is with anyone who gets in the way of making his bet a euphoric experience." Along with lurid details of what these gamblers do to feed their frenzy, Millman enriches us on gambling's history and sobering statistics, on Vegas's decline and the rise of offshore casinos, and on the effects of media coverage and politics on sports and gambling. While you won't learn how to get rich off the next office pool, you will get an inside look at those who make or lose money on some kid's buzzer-beater or a garbage-time lay-up. --Michael Ferch
Product Description
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 book: "Superb."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 worse than stupid September 11, 2007
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
betting football is neither less nor more "euphoric" than winning at chess, ping-pong, or the stock market: euphoria is absolutely tangential to bringing home the bacon.
as a winning NFL and NCAA football bettor, i can say emphatically, books which emphasize the "inevitability" of losing at the game only promote the mentality of losing to an elevation akin to destiny, or worse, fate.
the fault is not in our stars but ourselves, that we lose thus or thus.
i have known other winning players; i AM a winning player; you, however, are probably not a winner, and the author of this book is CERTAINLY NOT a winning player.
tlt.
 Not much meat July 10, 2007
I love to read books about gambling and gamblers. A well written book allows me to really get into the heads of the "characters" and somewhat vicariously experience their highs and lows. This book was a disappointment in that regard.
Millman spent far too much time on the "basics" of gambling and gambling history. This may have been informative to the uninitiated, and perhaps he was hoping for broad-based readership and a best seller, but if you're looking to read the book in 2007 chances are you're already familiar with the basics of sports betting.
Millman focuses on two gamblers and the bookmaker for the Stardust casino. We never really get to "know" these three. We get a glimpse into the mind of Allen Boston, a "professional" gambler, but know virtually nothing about the other two. There is not enough detail of the decision-making process that the gamblers go through in deciding on their bets.
After reading Michael Konik's latest book which really DID give me a good view of gamblers and the gambling world, I was disappointed in this one.
 The Odds leaves a bitter taste; wiser but sadder February 4, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
After tracing the history of sports wagering, and examining the sports wagerer, this book leaves the reader bewildered, disgusted and bereft of the innocence once had when first encountering sports and athletic events. The gambler is exposed as socio-pathic and lost, but worst of all, aware of their own situation. Unlike narcotic addictions, there is little escape or euphoria, but instead self loathing is reinforced by immediate recognition of folly. It reads quickly and well, but is devastating to the illusion of the glamour of betting.
The Odds on Favorite November 28, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a good/great book for everyone. This is a very well balanced book that deals with both "Action" sports betting as well as the lives of the men who risk it all on the bounce of a ball. The author does a good job of presenting the reader a voyeuristic look into the lives of these three men. You can almost feel your heart pound as you read about the games coming to a close with a one point difference meaning winning or losing tens of thousands of dollars.
Great read for the beach or to keep yourself entertained this winter.
One Season, Three Gamblers, and the Death of Their Las Vegas November 16, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This quick read about what makes the world of sports betting tick from the perspective of the gambler and the casino reads like an extended magazine article (not surprising as the author is a former Sports Illustrated writer and now a contributor to ESPN The Magazine). What I found most enlightening was the world of the sports book managers of the casino's. The devotion to setting the proper line was facinating and speaks to the business of sports book - the odds are set by a person everyday and the books profits or losses are determined by how well the line is drawn. Also of real interest is how the on-line books have taken the major gambling action away from Vegas and is the death of old Vegas. Its not about action its about profits as Vegas has become a corporate entity. Interesting in the end but I would have enjoyed a little more analysis of the structure of what has brought about these shifts in the way money drives sports.
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