Do You Know a Bookie?

I've gotten my money from the offshore sites, but they do try to make it as difficult as possible to do so. Little annoying things, mostly, like always having to send one more piece of documentation. You eventually do get it, though. They just want you to give up.

 

I've known several as well. Some big timers, but most were bar bookies who wouldn't take action unless they'd known you for a bit.

In the late 80s, I knew one who took action on the local horse track. But he wasn't that smart about it. He thought the radio station that played races carried them live. They were actually on a 30 minute delay. So about once a month, a friend would go to the track, call me at the bar after a race with the winner and then I'd past post with him. We never took him for much. Given the action he was getting off a couple of my roommates, we might have been getting their monthly vig back.

 

In the old days, it was usually somebody in the print shop of the newspaper, back when papers had composing rooms. Once a week one of the printers would walk through the newsroom and stop and chat with a few people. Then the typical thing happened. The dude started booking the games himself, counting on bettors losing. He showed up one Monday after having the shit beat out of him. A guy hit a $1000 parlay card and this dude didn't have the money to pay him.

 

I've never personally used a real bookie, but from at least college onwards I could be set up with one after a single phone call if I chose to.

 

This is why my guys went in under their guy's umbrella. They can take pretty much any action that comes their way and they've got backing. They kick some of their profit up to him every week, but they're reasonably protected in the event they get slaughtered in a particular week and the bettors still get paid.

 

I imagine if you don't have a bookie, all you really have to do is go to any sports bar, talk about the lines and someone will pipe up about how much they have on such and such a game. From there, it's pretty easy.

 

haven't bet with a bookie in about 20 years, but have some friends who still bet.

 

Worked at a place where one of the guys in the warehouse took bets on pretty much anything. I'd bet some football, maybe some of the bigger races. My old man, a degenerate gambler, bet often with a bookie, my brother still placed bets with him up until a few years ago.

 

I'm with you. Not a clue.

But, rumor has it, the owner of a local barbecue restaurant used to be the go-to guy for stuff like this. And, for what it's worth, someone who was interested in buying his restaurant said that he had one cash register at the restaurant for ringing up the actual sales, and another cash register at home so he could generate receipts that he would show the IRS.

He's since retired and sold the place. So now I have no idea where one would go in this town to bet. I'm sure there are places, but I don't know.

 

One of my housemates up in Connecticut in the mid-'80s was a bookie and another dealt weed and blow. I never had to leave the damn couch!

 

Yep. So many hoops to jump through to get a check from a Canadian bank you've never heard of in a few weeks. They'll immediately accept your money, though.

 

I used to have an account with William Hill, the British bookie, but Canadian banks have made it extremely difficult to deposit using a Canadian bank credit card - even with one of the online books run by the natives in Quebec. That might have changed but I doubt it.