A Legend in Bookmaking Tells the Story of an Industry and His Career More than fifty-million people in the U.S. now bet on sports, and the many apps now available have put the excitement of this world at fans’ fingertips. But before FanDuel and Draft King, Las Vegas was where fortunes were won and lost. For more than forty years, Art Manteris was at the center of the action. Sports betting is in Art Manteris’s blood. From his childhood in Pittsburgh, spent taking bets and collecting debts, first for his uncle Jack and then for his older brother, to his quick rise through the ranks at the biggest and most famous casinos in Las Vegas. Manteris spent his illustrious forty-year career running the largest Las Vegas sportsbooks in the Stardust, Caesars, and the Hilton. He took bets from crazed gangsters, icons of industry, Hollywood celebrities, and sports legends, as well as some of the most duplicitous and criminal figures in sports gaming history. If Billy Walters was the gambler, Art Manteris was the regulator. The Bookie is a lively tale from inside the sportsbook from someone who has seen the highs and lows of this fast-paced world. Full of marquee names like Donald Trump, Phil Mickelson, Don King, Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson, Manny Pacquiao, The Bookie takes readers from the 1970s when Art’s job included handling wads of money stuffed in paper bags for his bosses at the mafia-run sportsbook to his role setting the legal odds for every major professional sports event in the U.S.—Super Bowls, World Series, NBA Championships, Triple Crowns, Prizefights, and Stanley Cups, to the times his sharp instincts knew the fix was in, his many run-ins with the infamous Billy Walters, and the moment when his integrity was brought under scrutiny by the Vegas Gaming Control Board. Manteris’s job was to make his book big money while also keeping patrons entertained enough to keep coming back. Rife with never-before-told stories, The Bookie will be a primer on the art and science of sports gambling, and entertaining enough to compel any reader who loves a great story.

This jaw-dropping book pulls back the curtain on the alluring yet perilous world of American sports gambling. Built around explosive interviews with the power players of the betting boom at FanDuel, DraftKings, and beyond, it reveals the troubling methods that are being used to bleed gamblers dry.Everybody Loses is the first major investigation into America’s sports gambling industry. Journalist Danny Funt has obtained wild stories and stunning admissions from the people trying to transform our nation of sports fans into a nation of sports gamblers, including: • Former sportsbook executives who cop to misleading customers, with one admitting they’re “selling that you can win, but you can’t.” • VIP “hosts” at the gambling companies who divulge the extravagant perks they offer their biggest losers to keep them hooked. • Insiders who recall secret meetings where NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB executives learned how much money their leagues stood to make if they abandoned their opposition to gambling. • Lobbyists who detail how they converted skeptical politicians into gambling industry cheerleaders. This riveting narrative will captivate sports fans, concerned parents, and anyone intrigued by the intersection of money and morals. Everybody Loses is the crucial book for understanding why sports gambling is suddenly everywhere—and why the odds are so great that the problems it’s creating will soon spiral out of control.