The Bookie: How I Bet It All on Sports Gambling and Watched an Industry Explode

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, f...