{"title":"Games \u0026 Activities--Gambling--Sports","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"the-bookie-how-i-bet-it-all-on-sports-gambling-and-watched-an-industry-explode","title":"The Bookie: How I Bet It All on Sports Gambling and Watched an Industry Explode","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA Legend in Bookmaking Tells the Story of an Industry and His Career\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMore 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. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSports 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Bookie\u003c\/em\u003e 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, \u003cem\u003eThe Bookie\u003c\/em\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eManteris'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, \u003cem\u003eThe Bookie\u003c\/em\u003e will be a primer on the art and science of sports gambling, and entertaining enough to compel any reader who loves a great story. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0063423650\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780063423657\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Manteris, Art, Birkbeck, Matt\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Dey Street Books\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Dey Street Books","offers":[{"title":"HardCover (Jan 2026)","offer_id":45937238311109,"sku":"9780063423657","price":30.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780063423657.jpg?v=1772856539"},{"product_id":"losing-big-americas-reckless-bet-on-sports-gambling","title":"Losing Big: America's Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling","description":"\u003cb\u003eInside America's preventable sports-gambling debacle\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 2018, the United States Supreme Court opened the floodgates for states to legalize betting on sports. Eager for revenue, almost forty states have done so. The result is the explosive growth of an industry dominated by companies like FanDuel and DraftKings. One out of every five American adults gambled on sports in 2023, amounting to $121 billion, more than they spent on movies and video games combined. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe rise of online sports gambling--the immediacy of betting with your phone, the ability of the companies to target users, the dynamic pricing and offers based on how good or bad of a gambler you are--has produced a public health crisis marked by addiction and far too many people, particularly young men, gambling more than they can afford to lose. Under intense lobbying from the gaming industry, states have created a system built around profit for sportsbooks, not the well-being of players. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eLosing Big\u003c\/i\u003e, historian Jonathan D. Cohen lays out the astonishing emergence of online sports gambling, from sportsbook executives drafting legislation to an addicted gambler confessing their $300,000 losses. Sports gambling is here to stay, and the stakes could not be higher. Losing Big explains how this brewing crisis came to be, and how it can be addressed before new generations get hooked. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eLosing Big\u003c\/i\u003e demonstrates how legalized sports betting became a gigantic business, a ceaselessly annoying marketing presence, and a genuine danger to hundreds of thousands of people.\" --Daniel Okrent, author and inventor of Rotisserie League Baseball\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-13: 9798987053706\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Cohen, Jonathan D.\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Columbia Global Reports\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Columbia Global Reports","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Apr 2025)","offer_id":46080229605573,"sku":"9798987053706","price":17.1,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9798987053706.jpg?v=1776035548"},{"product_id":"everybody-loses-the-tumultuous-rise-of-american-sports-gambling","title":"Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling","description":"\u003cb\u003eThis jaw-dropping book pulls back the curtain on the alluring yet perilous world of American sports gambling.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eBuilt 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.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eEverybody Loses\u003c\/i\u003e 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: \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e- Former sportsbook executives who cop to misleading customers, with one admitting they're \"selling that you can win, but you can't.\"\u003cbr\u003e - VIP \"hosts\" at the gambling companies who divulge the extravagant perks they offer their biggest losers to keep them hooked.\u003cbr\u003e - 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.\u003cbr\u003e - Lobbyists who detail how they converted skeptical politicians into gambling industry cheerleaders. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis riveting narrative will captivate sports fans, concerned parents, and anyone intrigued by the intersection of money and morals. \u003ci\u003eEverybody Loses \u003c\/i\u003eis 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.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 166806202X\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781668062029\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Funt, Danny\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Gallery Books\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Gallery Books","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Jan 2026)","offer_id":46080877887685,"sku":"9781668062029","price":28.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781668062029.jpg?v=1776041380"},{"product_id":"over-under-an-unexpected-history-of-sports-betting","title":"Over\/Under: An Unexpected History of Sports Betting","description":"\u003cb\u003eNamed one of the most anticipated nonfiction books of 2026 by \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe definitive, colorful history of American sports betting that challenges the dialogue around one of our country's fastest growing (and most controversial) industries.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTaking readers on a rollicking journey through the history of American sports betting, \u003ci\u003eOver\/Under\u003c\/i\u003e proposes a fascinating and unexpected theory: What if sports betting isn't just a result of the multibillion-dollar American sports industry, but rather the primary reason for it? An essential catalyst for nearly two hundred years of sports fandom and obsession? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe narrative starts in mid-nineteenth-century New York City, as a new sport called baseball lures bettors out of shadowy gambling halls and into the fresh air. The story then heads to Churchill Downs and Augusta National Golf Club where sports betting dresses up in fancy outfits, to Chicago and Minneapolis where sports betting meets the Mafia and gets some structure, and to Las Vegas and the Caribbean where sports betting makes some people very rich. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAlong the way, the story rolls out a cast of colorful characters: hustlers, wise guys, moguls, opportunists, grifters, touts. A parade of personalities, year after year, all trying to make a quick buck. Because isn't that the whole point? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWritten for those eager to explore the history of a recently-legalized industry--one that's been described both as a financial bonanza and an impending disaster--\u003ci\u003eOver\/Under\u003c\/i\u003e is poised to become the definitive history of a controversial industry in the midst of incredible, yet uncertain, growth.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-13: 9798897101139\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Bockino, David\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Pegasus Books\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Pegasus Books","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Jun 2026)","offer_id":46100311605445,"sku":"9798897101139","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9798897101139.jpg?v=1776648907"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.inveni.store\/collections\/games-activities-gambling-sports.oembed","provider":"Inveni","version":"1.0","type":"link"}