“I began to wonder if running off with a blackjack team…wasn’t my way of throwing down the gauntlet to my father…who had gambled all his life.”
gambling
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Art of the Pump
A closer look at PredictIt and political betting markets, where users trade shares on potential results of political events. Interestingly, this world of political gambling might be the last space in American politics where the truth actually matters. Since January 2021, Iabvek—in real life, a Catholic conservative from Arizona—has made, by his own account (one […]
Posted inNonfiction
Debt Demands a Body
“The future that debt chose for me — indeed the future it chooses for many people — included a lot of shame, confusion, and pain.”
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
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.
Posted inUncategorized
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 […]
Posted inUncategorized
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 […]