Mindy Greenstein looks back on the gambling that was a big part of life with her Holocaust refugee parents.
gambling
Posted inEditor's Pick, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction
The End of Poker Night
Mindy Greenstein looks back on the gambling that was a big part of life with her Holocaust refugee parents.
Posted inHighlight, Nonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes
A Pot of Gold At Age 18, Basically
Low financial literacy and big cash payouts for youth of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians can add up to problems.
Posted inHighlight, Quote Posts, Quotes, Sports
‘It was illegal. And it ruined him.’
As a child, Tom Junod was his dad’s tout. He studied the gambling tip sheets for the only acceptable offering he could give his father: a line on a win.
Posted inBooks, History, Nonfiction, Profiles & Interviews, Story
‘I Inherited Luck’: Bridgett M. Davis on Her Family’s Life in the Numbers
In a new memoir, novelist Bridgett M. Davis reveals that her mother was a Numbers operator in Detroit from the 1960s through the 1980s.
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How a Good Bookie Sets Odds
A good bookmaker will set up odds so they appear enticing to both sides of a bet: if Arsenal plays Stoke in the Premier League, the bookies want an equal amount of action on both clubs, the better to spread risk. (This isn’t how they make money, however. They do that by designing the odds so […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Why Las Vegas Doesn’t Have a Major League Sports Team
Leagues have historically avoided Las Vegas for two main reasons. Until recently, it wasn’t a particularly large metro area by population. Now, however, it ranks 30th — and is bigger than 12 areas (including Salt Lake City, Raleigh, and Buffalo) that do have pro teams. The other factor, though, has been the simple fact that Nevada law […]
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An author meets a full-time gambler at the racetracks, who later ends up becoming his roommate: The Scholar, the Human Computer, and I were interested in a horse named Keys to Astro. According to The Scholar’s speed figures, Keys to Astro was two or three lengths faster than the rest of the field. A horse […]
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Macau’s rise as the new global gambling capital leads to complications for the Las Vegas casinos that have flocked to China for a piece of the action. Its differences are illustrated in the God of Gamblers case, in which a former barber named Siu Yun Ping won $13 million, setting off a chain of events, […]
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How did a blackjack player manage to win $15 million from Atlantic City casinos over the course of several months? As Johnson remembers it, the $800,000 hand started with him betting $100,000 and being dealt two eights. If a player is dealt two of a kind, he can choose to “split” the hand, which means […]