With these words: “My job has taken all sources of adrenaline from me. I have to get it from somewhere,” The King of the Champions Club was crowned.
Firmly ensconced in his window-side throne in one of Busch Stadium’s enclosed dining areas, The King (as he shall be called) made it known to my traveling companion that he bet on the Cards/Dodgers game. He took the over on a line at 7 ½. Meaning, as long as the combined total of runs scored by both teams was greater than 7 ½, The King would be a winner.
Gambling Is Illegal At Busch
Gambling is not a topic I expected to cover on this trip. Yet MLB preposterously dredged up Pete Rose’s name and possible reinstatement earlier in the day. My sense was they tried to get the lead back from Sportscenter and the guy with the dogs (Vick), so I suppose it was inevitable. Shoulda bet on it.
Additionally, a <a href="“>front page article in the USA Today on this day discussed the topic more broadly about how states are seriously considering legalizing sports betting in order to support their failing economies. Delaware will legalize betting on football games for the upcoming season and all four of the major sports franchises are fighting them in court to stop. MLBAM President and COO Bob Dupuy refers to the 1919 Black Sox scandal and MLB’s desire to never have to deal with anything like that again as one of their reasons for the lawsuit. Yet the article and I cannot ignore the constant reminders at major league stadiums for fans to gamble once they leave the ballpark, such as at the Casino Queen, an advertiser for the St. Louis Cardinals.
I Never Slice
I never understood betting on baseball, and I know my way around a casino and sports book. The lines and odds are not presented in an intuitive way, and after The King explained it to me I was reminded why I don’t like it. He said if you see a “+130” on a team’s line that means you win $130 with a $100 bet.
At $100, you can barely get your family in the ballpark, why would you risk the cash this way?
Betting on baseball probably is not the staple it is in football for two reasons. First, ten times as many games per season as football means 100 times the risk (at least) from a dollars perspective. Second, even if you could… for argument’s sake… control who was playing at any given time – baseball is just not that easy to predict.
An admitted hockey fan, The King said that this game’s “over” was too good to pass up. I then decided to challenge him a tad by asking for which of the St. Louis teams (Blues, Rams, or Cardinals) whose tickets would he take every time – the no-hesitation answer was for the NHL’s Blues. I then asked him what one bet of all three of those teams he would make every time giving or taking points – he said he’d take the Rams to lose. EVERY TIME.
Interesting how baseball does not fit in either of those landscapes.
Juiced
Adrenaline is gambling’s sweet nectar and silent killer. Its most unfortunate part is the money attached to it. Or is it? Some like the juice from the competition aspect – beating the odds. That’s me. For some it is a career. For The King, it is an outlet.
The aforementioned outlet for The King developed as a result from some changes at work down at the tile factory. They instituted random drug testing. He is also recently married so he can’t chase the skirts as he once did. Some vice grips have closed and others seem to have opened for His Majesty; and today, on his birthday, he clamped down on a sure thing.
Once done with sports gambling theory, The King also expounded on stocks. We schussed down that slippery slope because he mentioned he hedged the over/under by betting the Cardinals to win. I told him that given my experience and training with stocks I hated derivative trading. You could get in trouble real fast if you got it wrong. Ask the Lehman Brothers.
He disagreed and said that the best buy over the short-term was GM (k.n.a. Motors Liquidation [Ticker: MTLQQ.PK]) and some covered calls. “It can only go up, “ he said.
“Unless it goes to zero,” I said. I have seen it happen.
In hearing The King’s strategies for betting the one sure thing is that he only bets his sure things. We all surely know there is no such thing.
One thing is for sure; however, and that is that something changed for him. It killed the king.
Long live The King!
Epilogue – Once the Cardinals started to pull away in the game it looked like The King was going to be in the money and for one evening in the right. The Dodgers put themselves in a position to score the 8th run of the game in the 8th inning, which would have ended up perfectly for The King. A Cardinal win and a cover would likely have provided jet fuel for another night rolling soft 10’s at the Illinois side’s Casino Queen. Just the fresh squeeze His Majesty ordered.
In other news – The Cardinals won 6-1.
You and I once sat in a Vegas lounge that overlooked the betting floor. I can vividly remember you explaining the business. Basketball – Hockey – Horse Races – Cricket – While I can’t remember all the sports that were in play, I can remember being glad this kind of activity was legally limited to spaces like this.
As we as America look at vice economies as ways to save our other economies, I have to ask if we’ve really thought this one through.
Do we really want Vegas to be everywhere? In the middle of the desert if fine with me. It’s already easy enough to ruin a perfectly good life with a bad habit. Putting it out in the middle of the desert at least provides some resistance.
Vegas will never be everywhere…legalized, sanctioned by the states.
Why?
According to Mikey F. on the FAN, bookies (organized crime) give credit.
Government sanctioned gambling does not and will not be in the business
of lending to gambler.
(Thank goodness).
Slight correction: State sanctioned Vegas style football, basketball and baseball gambling will never be ubiquitous and successful.. Vegas style sports books do not extend credit. Bookies thrive for that reason. Think Tony Soprano and the degenerate gambler who was in the process of losing the Ramsey Outdoor Store.
One day, we’ll be kings exchanging crip Washingtons over a cup of coffee and a game.
Vegas can’t be here, too many grapes.