WEBVTT - Episode 2: Values of the Game 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:15.796 Pushkin. 0:00:23.156 --> 0:00:27.036 His first afternoon at Lawrenceville, he began by shooting fourteen 0:00:27.076 --> 0:00:30.236 foot jump shots from the right side. 0:00:31.276 --> 0:00:35.276 That's John McPhee, now ninety three years old, the grand 0:00:35.356 --> 0:00:39.116 Master of literary nonfiction. He's reading for us from the 0:00:39.156 --> 0:00:42.116 first book he ever published, back in nineteen sixty five. 0:00:42.756 --> 0:00:45.436 He called the book A Sense of Where You Are. 0:00:46.196 --> 0:00:50.316 It was about a Princeton University basketball player named Bill Bradley. 0:00:51.516 --> 0:00:54.236 He got off to a bad start, and he kept 0:00:54.276 --> 0:00:58.276 missing them six in a row, hit the back rim 0:00:58.316 --> 0:01:00.596 of the basket and bounced out. 0:01:01.676 --> 0:01:04.076 The writer had talked the player into letting him watch 0:01:04.076 --> 0:01:06.956 his private workout. It was just the two of them 0:01:07.276 --> 0:01:09.356 alone in some high school gym that Bradley he had 0:01:09.396 --> 0:01:10.316 never been in before. 0:01:11.596 --> 0:01:15.556 He stopped looking discomfited and seemed to be making an 0:01:15.596 --> 0:01:18.796 adjustment in his mind. Then he went up for another 0:01:18.876 --> 0:01:22.356 jump shot from the same spot and hit it cleanly. 0:01:25.916 --> 0:01:28.516 I'm eleven years old when I read what John McPhee 0:01:28.516 --> 0:01:32.436 wrote about Bill Bradley. But I don't care about John McPhee. 0:01:33.316 --> 0:01:36.836 I only want to know more about Bill Bradley. At 0:01:36.836 --> 0:01:39.036 this point, he's in the NBA and I've set up 0:01:39.036 --> 0:01:41.876 a poop in my bedroom to create the upcoming nineteen 0:01:41.956 --> 0:01:45.716 seventy two finals, which I care about only because Bradley 0:01:45.756 --> 0:01:48.676 will be in them. I play out this entire two 0:01:48.756 --> 0:01:51.836 hour game. I also serve as the play by play 0:01:51.836 --> 0:01:56.236 announcer into a tape recorder I've set up on my desk. 0:01:56.836 --> 0:02:00.716 Nicks down by one, five seconds left, Bradley in heavy traffic, 0:02:00.796 --> 0:02:05.116 Bradley dribbles, left, Bradley shoots. It's good, Bradley got away 0:02:05.156 --> 0:02:10.876 from McMillan jack. I'm a little man with a private obsession. 0:02:11.196 --> 0:02:13.516 After each game, I sit down and listen to my 0:02:13.596 --> 0:02:17.596 two hours of take to create box scores, to see 0:02:17.596 --> 0:02:20.956 how well Bill Bradley did, even though I had just 0:02:21.036 --> 0:02:24.956 done it. This is how I really begin as a 0:02:24.996 --> 0:02:29.516 sports fan with emulation. I want to be like Bill Bradley, 0:02:30.516 --> 0:02:32.196 which is why I bother to find a whole book 0:02:32.196 --> 0:02:33.116 about him and read it. 0:02:34.396 --> 0:02:37.716 Four more shots went in without a miss, and then 0:02:37.756 --> 0:02:41.636 he paused and said, you want to know something, That 0:02:41.716 --> 0:02:44.476 basket is about an inch and a half low. 0:02:45.636 --> 0:02:47.716 The main thing I learned from the book is that 0:02:47.756 --> 0:02:50.076 if I want to be Bill Bradley, it won't just happen. 0:02:50.476 --> 0:02:54.236 It won't be easy. When Bradley was himself eleven years old. 0:02:54.276 --> 0:02:58.036 He shot baskets until his fingers bled. By the time 0:02:58.076 --> 0:03:00.796 he got to Princeton, he'd shot so many different basketballs 0:03:01.156 --> 0:03:03.996 on so many different hoops. Then when he missed, he 0:03:04.076 --> 0:03:06.676 knew that the problem wasn't him, it was the hoop. 0:03:07.836 --> 0:03:10.236 Some weeks later, I went back to Lawrenceville with a 0:03:10.276 --> 0:03:14.676 steel tape, borrowed a step ladder, and measured the height 0:03:14.796 --> 0:03:18.356 of the basket. It was nine feet ten and seven 0:03:18.476 --> 0:03:23.036 eighths inches above the floor, or one and one eight 0:03:23.396 --> 0:03:24.956 inches too low. 0:03:25.996 --> 0:03:28.436 Much later, I'd realize that all the time I thought 0:03:28.476 --> 0:03:30.556 I was learning how to be Bill Bradley, I was 0:03:30.596 --> 0:03:35.476 actually learning how to be John McPhee. But that's another story. Anyway, 0:03:35.756 --> 0:03:38.396 eleven year old me would never believe what I'm about 0:03:38.436 --> 0:03:41.516 to do. When you were a player, when did you 0:03:41.596 --> 0:03:44.996 first have the sense that kids were looking at you 0:03:45.956 --> 0:03:47.596 as an example of excellence? 0:03:48.436 --> 0:03:53.356 Thousands, literally thousands of fathers would bring their son or 0:03:53.636 --> 0:03:56.116 mothers or daughter and father bring a daughter or whatever 0:03:56.156 --> 0:03:59.156 to the game, and they'd always say, you know, you 0:03:59.236 --> 0:04:03.596 want to be like Bradley. Well, I always disagreed with that. 0:04:04.796 --> 0:04:07.516 I'm talking with Bill Bradley for real. 0:04:08.836 --> 0:04:10.636 No, do you want to be like the father? You 0:04:10.636 --> 0:04:12.676 don't want to be like Bradley, But do you want 0:04:12.716 --> 0:04:15.676 to be like Bradley in terms of the values that 0:04:15.836 --> 0:04:19.796 you see exemplified in the development of his game, Because 0:04:19.836 --> 0:04:21.676 that's what you want to do in your life, to 0:04:21.716 --> 0:04:24.876 develop your skills to their highest and best years. 0:04:33.876 --> 0:04:38.276 I'm Michael Lewis, and this is against the rules this season. 0:04:38.476 --> 0:04:42.156 I'm looking at what's happening to the American fan and 0:04:42.236 --> 0:04:45.196 in this episode, what happens when Bill Bradley's ideal of 0:04:45.236 --> 0:04:48.596 the game collides with the way other people think of it. 0:04:51.676 --> 0:04:55.396 Bill Bradley always seemed to have a plan Basketball was 0:04:55.436 --> 0:04:58.276 just a piece of it before he got to Princeton. 0:04:58.396 --> 0:05:01.276 During his senior year in high school, he actually signed 0:05:01.276 --> 0:05:04.676 with Duke, but then the summer before college he went 0:05:04.716 --> 0:05:06.076 on a trip to Europe. 0:05:06.796 --> 0:05:11.076 And on one of those days he toured Oxford and 0:05:11.116 --> 0:05:14.516 I walked into christ Church Quad and looked around and 0:05:14.556 --> 0:05:16.556 thought to myself, I got to figure some way to 0:05:16.556 --> 0:05:17.356 get back here. 0:05:19.116 --> 0:05:21.516 When he got home, he looked into it, learned about 0:05:21.596 --> 0:05:25.156 Rhodes scholars and that Princeton generated the most of them. 0:05:25.476 --> 0:05:28.116 So he wrote to Duke and told them he wasn't coming. 0:05:29.316 --> 0:05:32.796 Duke was pissed. Princeton scrambled to find him a bed. 0:05:33.636 --> 0:05:36.756 Bradley then nearly flunked out of the college. 0:05:37.076 --> 0:05:39.796 I came from a small town high school in ninety six. 0:05:40.276 --> 0:05:44.356 I had so called low college board scores, and I 0:05:44.556 --> 0:05:47.556 certainly had no reference for French or biology. 0:05:48.436 --> 0:05:49.716 The two of that gave me problems. 0:05:50.916 --> 0:05:53.316 Basketball had already taught him that the harder you work, 0:05:53.716 --> 0:05:57.116 the better you get. He proceeded to spend so many 0:05:57.116 --> 0:06:00.116 hours in the Princeton library that he would graduate with honors. 0:06:01.476 --> 0:06:04.636 Midway through his senior year, he was offered the Rhodes Scholarship. 0:06:05.436 --> 0:06:07.316 The New York Knicks then took him with the first 0:06:07.356 --> 0:06:11.476 pick of the entire nineteen sixty five draft. Bradley thanked 0:06:11.516 --> 0:06:14.876 them politely, then left for Oxford to study for years. 0:06:15.796 --> 0:06:18.156 Even back then, people who didn't know Bill Bradley would 0:06:18.156 --> 0:06:20.796 hear about him and say, oh, it must be an act. 0:06:21.756 --> 0:06:23.396 But if it is an act, it's an act He's 0:06:23.396 --> 0:06:27.476 going to play his entire life. He totally embodies the 0:06:27.556 --> 0:06:34.996 values he talks about, sacrifice, discipline, selflessness, resilience. He's never 0:06:35.076 --> 0:06:38.716 going to lose his Princeton advisor says about him, do 0:06:38.756 --> 0:06:41.116 you know just how hard it is to defeat a 0:06:41.156 --> 0:06:46.756 sixteenth century Puritan elate. In his second year as a 0:06:46.796 --> 0:06:50.436 Rhodes scholar, Bill Bradley realizes how much he misses basketball, 0:06:51.556 --> 0:06:53.516 and so he calls the Knicks and he tells them 0:06:53.996 --> 0:06:56.476 that after he's done with his scholarship and a stint 0:06:56.476 --> 0:06:58.996 in the Air Force, he's coming back to New York 0:06:59.036 --> 0:07:03.316 to play, and Knicks fans go crazy. But his first 0:07:03.396 --> 0:07:07.236 year on the team, he bombs he's really just no 0:07:07.356 --> 0:07:11.756 good a price For those two years in an Oxford library, 0:07:13.156 --> 0:07:15.556 for the first time in Bradley's life, the fans turn 0:07:15.596 --> 0:07:19.836 on him. They bow him, they holler insults. One day 0:07:19.836 --> 0:07:23.716 a fan actually spits on him, but because he's Bill Bradley, 0:07:23.796 --> 0:07:27.316 he turns the other cheek, works his ass off, and improves. 0:07:28.436 --> 0:07:30.196 Over the next six years, he helps the next win 0:07:30.196 --> 0:07:34.196 two NBA championships, and the fans love him all over again, 0:07:34.996 --> 0:07:42.596 now including me. When Bradley's done, they retire his jersey 0:07:42.676 --> 0:07:45.196 and hang it from the rafters of Madison Square Garden. 0:07:46.836 --> 0:07:50.156 Did fans in any way enter your imagination as a player, 0:07:50.596 --> 0:07:51.236 They entered. 0:07:51.036 --> 0:07:58.756 Your imagination by the noise I love the roar of 0:07:58.836 --> 0:08:03.076 the crowd, and it wasn't a fan, It was twenty 0:08:03.116 --> 0:08:07.476 thousand fans when your team came together and did something 0:08:07.516 --> 0:08:11.876 amazing and the garden roof almost came off. And so 0:08:11.916 --> 0:08:16.196 the fans were instrumental in the experience for me as 0:08:16.196 --> 0:08:21.516 a player, as a whole, not as individuals. 0:08:22.196 --> 0:08:25.556 The fans were the congregation recipients of a kind of 0:08:25.636 --> 0:08:30.116 moral instruction which Bradley always honestly tried to supply. He 0:08:30.156 --> 0:08:34.636 always carried himself with this superhuman dignity. Even at peak fame. 0:08:34.996 --> 0:08:38.956 He refused to endorse products. And then there was the 0:08:38.996 --> 0:08:42.396 sordid underbelly in sports, which he someone managed to avoid 0:08:42.476 --> 0:08:45.356 really noticing until well into his pro career. 0:08:46.716 --> 0:08:50.316 We were ahead by six points and there were just 0:08:50.396 --> 0:08:57.316 seconds left, and I shot and hit the shot, and 0:08:57.396 --> 0:09:01.396 some people in the crowd bowed, and I asked afterwards, 0:09:01.396 --> 0:09:03.516 I asked the trainer. 0:09:04.116 --> 0:09:05.036 Why were they buy? 0:09:05.876 --> 0:09:07.996 We won by eight points, not six points? 0:09:08.036 --> 0:09:08.556 That's good. 0:09:09.276 --> 0:09:12.236 Oh, well, those are people gambling on the game. And 0:09:12.356 --> 0:09:16.676 I thought, oh, that's sick, because for me, the game 0:09:16.796 --> 0:09:21.436 was always about values. The idea of gambling on sports 0:09:21.556 --> 0:09:25.596 was always something that was counter to the values of 0:09:25.636 --> 0:09:26.076 the sport. 0:09:28.396 --> 0:09:31.756 Bill Bradley retires from basketball in nineteen seventy seven to 0:09:31.836 --> 0:09:35.076 run for public office. He'd become one of New Jersey's 0:09:35.156 --> 0:09:39.036 US Senators for almost two decades, and in that time 0:09:39.076 --> 0:09:41.956 an argument would develop that no one really wanted to 0:09:41.996 --> 0:09:46.676 have between Bradley's ideas about sports and American life and 0:09:46.716 --> 0:10:02.116 what was actually going on in sports and American life. 0:10:03.956 --> 0:10:05.756 When did you make your first sports bets? 0:10:06.116 --> 0:10:09.716 Oh, my first sports bet was made. They're probably eighth, 0:10:09.796 --> 0:10:12.116 seventh or eighth grade and in through high school, you know, 0:10:12.236 --> 0:10:15.116 just betting the parley cards. A buddy of mine used 0:10:15.116 --> 0:10:18.196 to bring in these green parley sheets where you'd have 0:10:18.236 --> 0:10:20.436 to pick a three for three, four for four, five 0:10:20.476 --> 0:10:23.516 for five. You know, you bet five ten bucks. 0:10:23.956 --> 0:10:27.316 His real name is goadoon Kirollas, but he's always been 0:10:27.396 --> 0:10:30.956 known as Spanky, after a character from the TV show 0:10:30.996 --> 0:10:34.716 The Little Rascals, which his mom loved. Spanky grew up 0:10:34.716 --> 0:10:38.396 in Jersey City, born the year before Bill Bradley became 0:10:38.436 --> 0:10:39.276 the state senator. 0:10:40.036 --> 0:10:41.796 He'd have one kid in the class the night of 0:10:41.876 --> 0:10:44.076 one and you know, he'd win, like, you know, fifty 0:10:44.156 --> 0:10:47.236 sixty bucks whatever, but most people lost. And then I 0:10:47.276 --> 0:10:49.276 sort of realized. I'm like, hey, can I get in 0:10:49.316 --> 0:10:51.036 on this. The only thing I knew as a high 0:10:51.036 --> 0:10:53.356 school kid is the house always won, So I knew 0:10:53.396 --> 0:10:55.036 it was unfair because I never won. 0:10:56.836 --> 0:10:58.756 Spanky maybe had an edge over some of the other 0:10:58.836 --> 0:11:01.916 kids at school because at home he was basically raised 0:11:01.916 --> 0:11:04.436 on games of chance, just a. 0:11:04.356 --> 0:11:08.276 Part of life. Every holiday we'd get together Christmas, New Year's, 0:11:08.316 --> 0:11:10.156 you know, we'd sell it. We'd have dinner and then 0:11:10.276 --> 0:11:11.676 we'd whip out the cards. 0:11:11.396 --> 0:11:13.516 And we just play poker for actual money. 0:11:13.716 --> 0:11:15.036 Oh yeah, for actual money. 0:11:15.116 --> 0:11:17.596 And so if you lost to your mom, she made 0:11:17.596 --> 0:11:18.116 you pay up. 0:11:18.276 --> 0:11:20.116 Oh yeah, I would just by this is my allowance 0:11:20.156 --> 0:11:22.516 and everything. This is this is the real deal. There's 0:11:22.556 --> 0:11:24.836 you know, my mom, and she taught me, you know, 0:11:24.876 --> 0:11:27.436 a valuable lesson, don't gamble what you're not willing to lose. 0:11:28.596 --> 0:11:32.156 Spanky gamble didn't Spanky lost until Spanky started to gamble 0:11:32.356 --> 0:11:34.996 and win. By the time he entered high school, he 0:11:35.076 --> 0:11:39.156 was effectively running an illegal book of NFL parlays, not 0:11:39.236 --> 0:11:42.036 simple bets on which team wins and loses, but compound 0:11:42.116 --> 0:11:44.876 bets that give you like twenty to one odds if 0:11:44.916 --> 0:11:48.476 you say pick the winner of five different NFL games 0:11:48.876 --> 0:11:52.476 and pay you nothing if you only get four, right, Parley, 0:11:52.916 --> 0:11:54.036 they would have been illegal. 0:11:54.116 --> 0:11:56.076 Yeah, when you're in high school, one hundred percent. Yeah. 0:11:56.156 --> 0:11:59.756 And so there's an illegal bookie in Hoboken, absolutely yes. 0:12:00.236 --> 0:12:03.436 And so he is using what like some high school 0:12:03.516 --> 0:12:06.516 kid as a sort of a salesman as a runner exactly, 0:12:06.676 --> 0:12:09.396 as a as a runner and these things is you're 0:12:09.396 --> 0:12:13.676 getting distributed in your nobody, nobody stops it. 0:12:13.796 --> 0:12:16.116 Nobody. Not only does nobody stopping it, you know, you know, 0:12:16.236 --> 0:12:17.836 I'm not going to name names obviously, but you know 0:12:17.836 --> 0:12:19.516 there will be teachers that will fill out all day 0:12:19.596 --> 0:12:23.356 cards and handle it, you know, you know what I mean. 0:12:23.156 --> 0:12:25.676 And it was a great school, big sports school, you know, 0:12:25.796 --> 0:12:28.516 just a part of life gambling on sports, betting on sports, 0:12:28.556 --> 0:12:31.116 the football games and stuff. So you know, that's what's 0:12:31.196 --> 0:12:31.716 what we did. 0:12:31.836 --> 0:12:33.956 You're getting a different kind of education. 0:12:33.596 --> 0:12:37.196 And I absolutely from from from people that really weren't 0:12:37.236 --> 0:12:39.756 supposed to be teachers and stuff. But it just it's 0:12:39.796 --> 0:12:40.436 just part of it. 0:12:44.316 --> 0:12:46.876 We're laughing. But Spanky is learning something. He's learning why 0:12:46.876 --> 0:12:50.756 bookies exist. They always win. The kids all want to 0:12:50.756 --> 0:12:52.996 bet on the local teams and so the local bookies 0:12:53.036 --> 0:12:56.916 shift the odds against them. Spanky sees the bookies exploiting 0:12:56.956 --> 0:12:59.596 fan loyalty and decides he wants a piece of the action. 0:13:00.556 --> 0:13:03.316 He takes the parlay cards from the bookie and gives 0:13:03.356 --> 0:13:07.156 them to a barber. The barber passes them out to customers, 0:13:07.916 --> 0:13:11.116 and the customers bet. Spanky then collects all the bets 0:13:11.156 --> 0:13:13.636 from the barber, but instead of handing them all to 0:13:13.716 --> 0:13:17.756 the bookie, he keeps some for himself, which is to 0:13:17.796 --> 0:13:21.116 say that by high school Spanky was a bookie. He 0:13:21.236 --> 0:13:24.396 wasn't stealing the bookies money. He was stealing their business. 0:13:24.756 --> 0:13:26.156 I won't want to wake up in the morning and 0:13:26.196 --> 0:13:28.596 I can't wait to break the law today. But you know, 0:13:28.796 --> 0:13:31.756 the money's the money I figured with gambling and with 0:13:31.796 --> 0:13:34.276 book making, it's really not that bad. It's not like 0:13:34.276 --> 0:13:36.116 I'm putting it under somebody's head and saying you got 0:13:36.116 --> 0:13:37.716 a bet. You know, these are the ones that are 0:13:37.716 --> 0:13:39.156 asking me, hey, you got the sheets in it? The 0:13:39.196 --> 0:13:42.236 sheets ready this week? It was just, you know, like 0:13:42.476 --> 0:13:44.396 you're selling cracks to a crack at it. It's just 0:13:45.116 --> 0:13:46.196 it was just so easy. 0:13:47.276 --> 0:13:49.396 At the same time as Spanky's raking it in the 0:13:49.476 --> 0:13:53.156 high school cafeteria. New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley is rising 0:13:53.196 --> 0:13:56.996 to political prominence. He sponsored bills on healthcare and gun 0:13:57.036 --> 0:14:00.116 control in the environment, but there was one issue he 0:14:00.156 --> 0:14:04.196 hadn't really touched that was dear to his heart. What 0:14:04.396 --> 0:14:07.436 got you interested in taking up gambling as an issue 0:14:07.436 --> 0:14:08.316 when you were in the Senate. 0:14:09.756 --> 0:14:15.436 I'd never done anything on sports. In fact, I wouldn't 0:14:15.436 --> 0:14:18.556 even talk about sports when I became a senator. You know, 0:14:18.916 --> 0:14:22.676 I would never raise the issue of sports. Other senators 0:14:22.716 --> 0:14:25.756 would want to talk sometimes about but I never raised 0:14:25.796 --> 0:14:29.956 it because I wasn't trying to bring basketball into my 0:14:30.116 --> 0:14:32.116 senate life and have it affect that. 0:14:33.236 --> 0:14:36.676 But at some point Bradley couldn't resist. That point came 0:14:36.716 --> 0:14:38.916 when he decided to write a book about the moral 0:14:38.996 --> 0:14:42.316 influence of sports, values of the game he'd call it. 0:14:43.756 --> 0:14:48.756 I thought about how gambling really didn't celebrate those values 0:14:49.116 --> 0:14:53.596 to the contrary, and so I passed this little bill. 0:14:53.996 --> 0:14:56.276 It was not a big bill. 0:14:56.316 --> 0:15:00.636 It was a little bill that banned sports petting in 0:15:00.756 --> 0:15:03.596 the states that didn't have it, and it was the 0:15:03.676 --> 0:15:05.796 law of the land, and I felt good about it. 0:15:07.516 --> 0:15:09.796 At the time. A few states allowed better on sports, 0:15:09.836 --> 0:15:13.636 but most didn't. Bradley's bill, the Professional and Amateur Sports 0:15:13.636 --> 0:15:17.356 Protection Act, effectively banned it except in states where it 0:15:17.396 --> 0:15:22.236 already existed, like Nevada. It was a weird law because 0:15:22.236 --> 0:15:26.396 it didn't ban sports gambling directly. It banned states from 0:15:26.476 --> 0:15:31.236 regulating it. But it accomplished what Bradley wanted to prevent 0:15:31.276 --> 0:15:34.796 people from betting on sports. What were the values that 0:15:35.876 --> 0:15:39.556 were kind of threatened or challenged by gambling. 0:15:40.196 --> 0:15:43.676 I didn't want players to be Roulette chips. I wanted 0:15:43.676 --> 0:15:46.916 to protect the purity of the game, the values that 0:15:46.956 --> 0:15:51.796 were important to me, and gambling polluted that in a 0:15:51.876 --> 0:15:52.996 very fundamental way. 0:15:53.996 --> 0:15:56.556 How gambling did that was obvious to most of the Senate. 0:15:57.196 --> 0:16:00.836 It encouraged athletes to throw games or rig them. It 0:16:00.916 --> 0:16:03.756 encouraged fans to think about their bets rather than the game. 0:16:04.636 --> 0:16:07.876 It introduced money where money really didn't belong in sports. 0:16:08.396 --> 0:16:11.716 The Professional Amateur Sports Protection Act passes in nineteen ninety 0:16:11.756 --> 0:16:14.916 two with hardly a peep of protest or anything else. 0:16:15.636 --> 0:16:17.956 Once the Senators from Nevada are sure that they can 0:16:18.036 --> 0:16:19.996 keep doing whatever they want to do inside their state, 0:16:20.436 --> 0:16:24.796 opposition inside the US Senate totally vanishes. Outside of Nevada, 0:16:24.876 --> 0:16:27.356 it's illegal to be a bookie. It's okay to place 0:16:27.396 --> 0:16:29.036 a bet with a friend, but it's against the law 0:16:29.076 --> 0:16:32.156 to run a sports book. And America appears to be 0:16:32.236 --> 0:16:36.796 simply pleased to have Bill Bradley's values embedded in its laws. 0:16:38.236 --> 0:16:41.636 I thought this was very quiet. I mean, I thought, Okay, 0:16:41.796 --> 0:16:45.396 I passed the law. It's now illegal. That's the law land. 0:16:45.436 --> 0:16:49.516 A few New Jersey casino people were pissed, but there 0:16:49.516 --> 0:16:52.996 are a couple people Nobody came up to me, ever, 0:16:53.356 --> 0:16:55.196 I said, why did you pass that casino? 0:16:55.276 --> 0:16:55.476 Bill? 0:16:56.116 --> 0:17:01.396 Never, I want to pause for a moment to point 0:17:01.396 --> 0:17:05.516 out how volatile our country is. No other culture on 0:17:05.556 --> 0:17:08.956 the planet experiences the same violent swings between virtue and 0:17:10.396 --> 0:17:15.796 between freedom and repression, between fear and greed. Sports gambling 0:17:15.836 --> 0:17:16.836 is a good example of it. 0:17:17.996 --> 0:17:20.756 Gambling has always been a part of American history. George 0:17:20.836 --> 0:17:23.116 Washington bet on cockfights. 0:17:24.996 --> 0:17:28.636 David Hill's a writer who grew up in Arkansas, like Spankey, 0:17:28.756 --> 0:17:32.276 in a family of gamblers, so out of curiosity, he 0:17:32.316 --> 0:17:34.276 set out to write a book about the country's long 0:17:34.316 --> 0:17:36.476 relationship with this particular vice. 0:17:37.676 --> 0:17:41.516 Sports gambling really began with betting on foot races in 0:17:41.676 --> 0:17:44.996 early America, and that evolved into betting on the fights, 0:17:45.276 --> 0:17:47.836 you know, first bare knuckle fights and then more sort 0:17:47.836 --> 0:17:52.636 of sanctioned boxing matches which were really put on just 0:17:52.676 --> 0:17:54.076 so that people could gamble on them. 0:17:55.276 --> 0:17:59.516 We don't seem to have sports ever without gambling on sports, 0:18:00.076 --> 0:18:03.836 and Americans have always been fanatical gamblers. At the same time, 0:18:04.116 --> 0:18:08.076 Americans have always been extremely hostile to gambling. At the 0:18:08.076 --> 0:18:10.516 turn of the last century, anti gambling forces got the 0:18:10.596 --> 0:18:11.636 upper hand for a while. 0:18:12.436 --> 0:18:15.316 They shut down a lot of race tracks when they 0:18:15.316 --> 0:18:18.996 passed these anti gambling laws, and without any horses to 0:18:19.036 --> 0:18:22.356 bet on, the bookmakers who made their living booking bets 0:18:22.356 --> 0:18:24.556 on the horses went to the ballpark. 0:18:25.476 --> 0:18:27.796 In other words, when Americans were told they couldn't bet 0:18:27.796 --> 0:18:30.676 on horses anymore, they figured out a way to bet 0:18:30.716 --> 0:18:34.556 on people. In horse racing, the odds aren't fixed until 0:18:34.556 --> 0:18:37.196 the betting stops, and are driven by how much is 0:18:37.236 --> 0:18:40.836 bet on any given horse. If everyone bet on the 0:18:40.836 --> 0:18:43.476 same horse, they wouldn't bother to run the race. In 0:18:43.596 --> 0:18:47.116 baseball or really any other sport, that clearly wouldn't work. 0:18:47.756 --> 0:18:49.716 The book he needed a way to attract interest in 0:18:49.796 --> 0:18:52.676 both teams before the game, even if one team was 0:18:52.756 --> 0:18:57.236 obviously a lot better than the other. Enter an underrated 0:18:57.276 --> 0:19:00.756 American genius named Charles McNeil. 0:19:02.116 --> 0:19:06.276 He created this idea of the points spread, where you 0:19:06.276 --> 0:19:10.396 would give the favorite a certain number of points that 0:19:10.436 --> 0:19:13.756 they would have delay to the underdog, so that the 0:19:13.796 --> 0:19:16.716 proposition between these two teams is as close to an 0:19:16.756 --> 0:19:20.236 even money proposition as possible. Right, you're spotting the worst 0:19:20.236 --> 0:19:24.156 team a certain number of points. And McNeil was a 0:19:24.196 --> 0:19:24.996 pretty bright guy. 0:19:25.276 --> 0:19:26.356 Was he a Wall Street guy? 0:19:26.556 --> 0:19:26.916 He was? 0:19:27.036 --> 0:19:29.236 Yeah, he was a Wall Street guy and worked in 0:19:29.436 --> 0:19:33.236 finance as it was back then, right, and he saw 0:19:34.396 --> 0:19:37.036 sports and the ability to bet on sports is just 0:19:37.116 --> 0:19:37.836 another market. 0:19:38.916 --> 0:19:41.756 Once Americans learned to bet on people instead of horses, 0:19:41.796 --> 0:19:44.276 it wasn't long before people started to fix the games. 0:19:45.556 --> 0:19:50.116 Various point shaving and game fixing scandals plagued college basketball 0:19:50.236 --> 0:19:53.676 in the years before, enduring Bill Bradley's college career. They 0:19:53.716 --> 0:19:56.636 obviously had an effect on Bradley. His law that prevented 0:19:56.676 --> 0:20:00.156 states from legalizing sports gambling was to make just this 0:20:00.196 --> 0:20:03.236 sort of thing a lot less likely to happen. But 0:20:03.276 --> 0:20:06.476 one thing the law didn't accomplish to stop the betting, 0:20:07.316 --> 0:20:10.356 To stop spanky or like anyone else in New Jersey 0:20:10.396 --> 0:20:12.316 who operated any illegal markets. 0:20:13.836 --> 0:20:15.676 A bookmaker who needs to meet you on the corner 0:20:15.716 --> 0:20:17.916 of forty sixth and seventh and hand you a bag 0:20:17.956 --> 0:20:20.076 full of cash. And that's kind of what got my 0:20:20.116 --> 0:20:21.916 wife nervous, want my mom nervous. 0:20:21.916 --> 0:20:25.116 And you know, so this this literally happened. You actually 0:20:25.116 --> 0:20:25.876 got given. 0:20:25.676 --> 0:20:28.796 Cash, oh, all the time, all the time, got given cash, 0:20:28.876 --> 0:20:32.196 gave cash, received and gave cash all the time. 0:20:35.716 --> 0:20:49.956 More on that in just a moment. Spankey graduates from 0:20:50.036 --> 0:20:54.196 high school, goes to Rutgers, graduates summa cum laude in 0:20:54.316 --> 0:20:59.116 computer science and finance, all the while still betting on sports. 0:21:00.116 --> 0:21:03.636 After college, he takes a job on Wall Street. It's 0:21:03.676 --> 0:21:06.196 now two thousand and one, and he has computers and 0:21:06.236 --> 0:21:10.716 the Internet and access to illegal bookies across the country. 0:21:10.876 --> 0:21:13.796 He writes programs that allow him to in effect see 0:21:13.796 --> 0:21:17.836 the entire national sports betting market. No one else is 0:21:17.876 --> 0:21:20.516 doing this so far as he can tell. He alone 0:21:20.556 --> 0:21:23.036 can see that the booky in Pittsburgh has different lines 0:21:23.076 --> 0:21:26.276 on games than the bookie in South Florida, and that 0:21:26.436 --> 0:21:31.076 neither one agrees with the booky and Hoboken. Spankey realizes 0:21:31.156 --> 0:21:34.236 that he can exploit the different lines. Say, the New 0:21:34.316 --> 0:21:36.836 York Giants are playing the San Francisco forty nine Ers, 0:21:37.436 --> 0:21:40.596 and the Giants are favored, but the bookie in New 0:21:40.636 --> 0:21:43.916 York has them as seven point favorites and the bookie 0:21:43.916 --> 0:21:47.996 in San Francisco has them as four point favorites. Spanky 0:21:48.036 --> 0:21:50.116 can bet on the forty nine ers in San Francisco 0:21:50.596 --> 0:21:53.476 and bet on the Giants in New York. He's making 0:21:53.556 --> 0:21:57.316 riskless bets. Whoever wins the game, Spanky will win at 0:21:57.396 --> 0:21:59.956 least one of the bets. If the Giants win by 0:21:59.956 --> 0:22:03.796 either five or six points, he wins them both. He 0:22:03.836 --> 0:22:06.756 figures all this out while working on Wall Street. His 0:22:06.836 --> 0:22:10.996 employer has no idea, and neither, it seems, do the bookies. 0:22:12.556 --> 0:22:15.076 This is one of these things you start learning that 0:22:15.156 --> 0:22:17.996 there's a bias depending on the geographic region, and then 0:22:18.036 --> 0:22:20.356 you start picking up on these things and saying, my god, 0:22:20.596 --> 0:22:24.076 these discrepancies are real. Then you know it's just, you know, 0:22:24.276 --> 0:22:25.236 just snowballs from there. 0:22:25.276 --> 0:22:27.276 Which you're doing, in a funny way, is exploiting fan 0:22:27.316 --> 0:22:30.396 emotion that you got the fans in LA you want 0:22:30.396 --> 0:22:31.796 to bet on the Lakers, and the fans in New 0:22:31.836 --> 0:22:33.756 York I want to bet on the knicks, and they 0:22:33.796 --> 0:22:35.076 distort the odds. 0:22:35.076 --> 0:22:38.996 Exactly exactly, and the book maker knows that the majority 0:22:38.996 --> 0:22:41.556 of his customers are going to bet on that fan emotion, 0:22:42.036 --> 0:22:43.636 and that's when I come in and I just scoop 0:22:43.716 --> 0:22:44.716 up the value. On the other. 0:22:44.596 --> 0:22:49.076 Side, he's scooping up the values. And by two thousand 0:22:49.116 --> 0:22:52.196 and three, he's asking himself a question, why am I 0:22:52.276 --> 0:22:55.356 wasting my time on Wall Street? Why not just quit 0:22:55.396 --> 0:22:57.156 and become a full time sports gambler. 0:22:57.836 --> 0:23:00.436 I had my mother in law, my mother, my brother, 0:23:00.516 --> 0:23:04.156 and my wife's family all have individual conversations with me, 0:23:04.596 --> 0:23:06.796 asking me if I was sure of this, or are 0:23:06.836 --> 0:23:09.836