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Las Vegas

Call them the odds couple

Two men set the standard for sports gambling by determining the betting line on a wide array of games.

By ROBERT N. JENKINS
Published November 6, 2005

LAS VEGAS - Odds are you've never heard of Robert Walker or Bob Scucci, though they may have delighted or depressed you numerous times with their opinions.

They are this city's foremost oddsmakers, daily setting the lines on which 20 Nevada casinos accept sports bets and which are studied by innumerable gamblers around the world.

The impact of the decisions by Walker and Scucci (pronounced SKOO-chee) can't be measured, but in Nevada last year, an estimated $2-billion was wagered legally on sports.

"That's probably only 2 percent of the betting," guesses Scucci, for 15 years the manager of the Race and Sports Book at the Stardust Resort & Casino. "The rest is "informal' - office pools, fantasy football leagues and offshore," which are betting operations outside the United States.

Gamblers use the Internet to place offshore bets in countries such as Costa Rica, Belize and Curacao, where no one is going to withhold the 25 percent required by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service on winnings of more than $5,000.

The offshore business is competition for the books of Las Vegas, but both Scucci and Walker, who is director of the book for MGM's 14 Nevada casinos, use the offshore odds in establishing their betting lines.

"I use those numbers as parameters and then usually add what I know," said Walker, his words rushing out.

Although Walker, who has headed the MGM operation for nine years, can rattle off the names of athletes and results at relatively obscure colleges, he downplayed any expertise.

"I went to college (in Washington state) for seven years, studying political science and business, but I never got a degree," said Walker, whose resemblance to actor Christopher Walken implies an intensity just beneath the surface.

"I kind of backdoored my way in here. I didn't know anything about oddsmaking - a lot of people say I still don't - but I have a passion for sports, less now than than I used to."

Like Walker, Scucci buys other oddsmakers' betting lines. For the Stardust and the five other casinos that post his figures, Scucci considers odds created by four individual handicappers plus a company that has its own five experts. Scucci monitors each oddsmakers' success.

"I don't care how good a handicapper is," said Scucci. "He can't be right 100 times out of 100. If he's wrong just five times out of 100, that's where we'll get hammered" by the bettors.

To create his odds, "I throw out the high and the low figures" from the other oddsmakers.

Before the first game of any season, Scucci explained, he assigns a fictional value to "every team, based on its offense, its defense, how it does at home and how it does on the road."

"For college basketball, the range of team values runs from 40 to 100," he said. "In football the range is much lower because fewer points are scored" in each game. He adjusts the team values as a season progresses.

Walker has access to one more set of numbers than does Scucci: the odds that Scucci creates and then posts before any other major onshore oddsmaker.

The Stardust boasts that it was the first casino to emphasize sports betting when it built an 8,000-square-foot, 400-seat book. It opened 30 years ago last month, with costumed showgirls and a racehorse in the casino marking the occasion.

The Stardust also raised the limit for a single bet to $100,000 - 20 times what was typically accepted in 1975 at Las Vegas' betting parlors.

And since its book opened, the Stardust has prided itself on being first with odds for upcoming events. That means that by 8:30 tonight and every Sunday during football season, Scucci will post the odds for next weekend's college games and the majority of pro games.

"We do it partly for the notoriety, to be known as the first ones posted," said Scucci, a small man dapper in a tailored gray suit with the faintest plaid in the fabric. "But it gives us a little more control over the numbers (odds) - we can see where the money is coming from and can change our numbers" if betting seems heavy against the favorite.

"Money moves the line," agreed Walker, standing at his desk a few blocks away. He works about 70 hours a week in the snug control room behind the Mirage's walls of LED screens and big TV monitors watched by the gamblers.

Walker and his subordinates scrutinize how much is being bet on whom, and they'll adjust their figures until the event starts. They pay particular attention to what the professional gamblers are doing.

Sometimes using other people to place bets or even donning disguises - sunglasses, baseball caps, sweatshirt hoods - the pros "window hop" among the casino workers who take the money and issue the tickets.

By betting amounts less than the maximum, at a variety of windows, the pros hope to capitalize on what they think is a good bet without wagering so much money that they decrease the odds.

Maximum bets taken at MGM's casinos from a single bettor are $50,000 on an NFL game, $5,000 on Major League Baseball, and $20,000 on college football.

Casinos may change the odds on an event between its halves or periods, taking into account both the competitive action and the money wagered so far.

The odds that are bought from other bookmakers are displayed on three computer screens at Walker's small desk. Behind him is a wall of 33 small TV monitors and five larger screens.

"People ask, "Who do you root for?' I root for whoever (the casino) needs to win" to make money on the day's betting . . . I usually only watch the two TVs showing games on which we have the least amount of money."

Walker puts in 13 hours in the book each football Saturday and Sunday. He said it takes him about 10 minutes on Monday mornings to set the odds on a typical Saturday's 80 football games. These numbers are posted almost instantaneously on the large boards facing the bettors.

Because Las Vegas is in the Pacific Time Zone, on football weekends the gamblers will arrive some time before 9 a.m. local time to place bets and grab seats before kickoff of the early games in the east.

Gamblers sit where they can view satellite images beamed to more than 20 plasma-screen TVs. Another 50 monitors are tuned to horse and dog tracks around North America.

In the Mirage's 372-seat book, there are several 6- by 9-foot monitors and a 20-square-foot screen showing a prime game. As bettors watch the images from up to eight concurrent games, shouts or groans can startle those watching a different event.

Scucci and Walker agreed that the most exciting four days at the sports books are the opening Thursday through Sunday weekends of the NCAA's basketball tournament. Famed as March Madness, 64 teams are whittled to 16, in the one-loss-and-out competition.

Some bettors show up at 5:30 a.m. that first Thursday. "There are usually four games showing at once," said Scucci, "with rooting, hooting, hollering, having a few drinks.

"Every bucket (score) changes things, and it is a lot more fun to watch a game if you have a little action on it. (Gambling) can be recreational; it doesn't have to be full-time, heavy duty."

Scucci said that if a sports book won "4 to 5 percent of all the money it took as bets, it would be a good return." He guessed that he has known just 15 to 20 professionals who make a living only from betting: "If a pro has a good year, he might win one-half percent of all he bet."

Walker said his only interest at the end of the day is whether the casinos have won or lost.

"I don't bet, because I don't know who is going to win," he confided. "Well, I always bet on the Kentucky Derby, but I've never cashed a ticket."

- Robert N. Jenkins can be reached at 727 893-8496 or jenkins@sptimes.com

[Last modified November 4, 2005, 10:41:03]