Here's a long NYT Magazine article by James Vlahos, "The Super Bowl of Sports Gambling," profiling a dozen or so competitors in a giant Las Vegas contest to see who can beat the point spread the most over the 2013 NFL season, picking at least five games per week. The winner was a Chicago yuppie who beat the point spread more than two-thirds of the time.
The article cites some opinion polls showing a surprisingly high degree of sports gambling among American women, but I have to imagine that's mostly office pools and other social betting. None of the intense football bettors in the article are women. If you go to a casino, you see plenty of older women hitting the slot machines hard, but having a serious sports gambling habit, whether betting against the point spread or playing fantasy football seriously for money, strikes me as about as all male of a phenomenon as anything in American life. But perhaps I'm wrong.
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In my sleepy cotton town, the bookie joint was like an Elk's Lodge. Situated in the alley behind the row of cotton factors and brokers, you could walk in and hang out all day long, have a coke, crack open some whiskey, make a bet, read the paper, watch sports, talk shit.
My father enjoyed taking me there just to see the characters drawl on. They were an assortment of cotton factors, farmers, cops, lawyers, and two-bit county politicians. There was a stove, a counter, four tables, and a coke machine. The whole room was no more than 30' x 30'. The mayor of the village nearby would drop by and make deer sausage with cheese grits.
Stacey, the bookie, would be updating the point spread as the day went on, and joke around with the characters. You could bet on anything ten dollars and up, straight bets, teasers, round robins. I watched a card game once when I was in there with my father- I was maybe twelve- where a fellow lost a hundred acres of prime land on a single hand. I've never been tempted to gamble.
You are correct Steve. All serious gamblers are male. I travel in those circles and have never met a female sharp
Dan in DC
Floyd Meriweather bet 10 mil and lost.
These roundeyes win more often but the big bets are made by nonroundeyes.
Do you forget about Mrs. Wayne Gretzky?
I have a co-worker whose wife makes pretty good money in a NFL pick 'em league (where you pick teams against the line with some nuances). I'm not sure what makes her different except her whole family is really into Boston sports.
"Do you forget about Mrs. Wayne Gretzky?"
I know a smart black guy.
I used to spend a good deal of time in a Reno book, now defunct, called The Turf Club. Hardly any women. I once saw an Asian guy bet $3,300 (the limit) on an NBA game.
The Mrs Gretzky thing was a BS thing the NHL went along with when WG got caught betting heavy on hockey. If only Pete Rose had thought of that
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