LAS VEGAS — Someone knew someone who knew a well-positioned somebody who knew something supposedly golden, putting me in a unique and uncomfortable position.
Within the last 10 years, an impeccable source zipped me an unsolicited note about Team X selecting defensive lineman Jon Doe Jr. (an alias) in the upcoming NFL Draft. Do with that, the source said, what you like.
I beheld tomorrow’s newspaper today.
Maybe.
I thought of the fantastic 1989 film ‘‘Let It Ride,’’ in which Trotter, the Richard Dreyfuss character, approaches two guys by the paddocks of a racetrack.
Trotter presents to them a cassette tape on which the two are heard chatting about a sure-thing horse in a certain race. Relieved it wasn’t a shakedown, the men relax and recommend another sure bet to Trotter.
One gives Trotter his necktie and a pass to the ritzy Jockey Club to enjoy the sport of kings in style.
‘‘Hey, I thought we had it won,’’ the guy tells Trotter. ‘‘But you never know.’’
‘‘I agree,’’ Trotter says. ‘‘Even when you know, you never know.’’
‘‘I know,’’ the insider says.
How can anyone ever really know?
‘The worst’
That first note arrived three weeks before the draft. Another, with a week to go, confirmed that Jon Doe Jr. looked solid. With two days left, another green light, although the owner allegedly pined for flash and sizzle.
At a sportsbook kiosk, I don’t recall if I slipped in a tenner or a $20 bill. The odds that Team X would pick a defensive lineman in the first round were approximately plus-300 (risk $100 to win $300).
I took a position, albeit a meager trial balloon, because you never know.
The draft begins on a Thursday. Nevada books, according to state Gaming Control Board law, remove NFL Draft props Wednesday night. No draft betting on draft day.
Dave Sharapan, the co-host of the popular “The Bostonian vs. The Book” podcast with Matt Perrault, has worked on the other side of the counter at nearly every sportsbook in Las Vegas. He once pleaded with M Resort bosses not to post NFL Draft props.
‘‘I was the guy in the risk room who said: ‘We don’t need to book this EVER. We’re going to lose,’ ’’ Sharapan said. ‘‘Breaking even, for us, was like winning $100,000.
‘‘With the NFL Draft, the book has no shot. When the market goes a certain way, most of the time they’re right. The worst. I couldn’t stand it.’’
Many books in Las Vegas don’t offer NFL Draft propositions, from the Golden Nugget to the Westgate SuperBook to the South Point, where book director Chris Andrews concentrates on booking actual games.
‘‘Where Oklahoma City is trying to win and the Lakers are trying to win,’’ he said. ‘‘But [the draft] isn’t a game. Somebody knows something. It isn’t like you out-handicapped me; that’s part of the game, and I understand that.
‘‘But you knew something before I did.’’
Handicapping or …
Vinny Magliulo, the Gaughan Gaming sportsbook director and Andrews’ lieutenant at the South Point, called the NFL Draft, which begins Thursday in Green Bay, an information battle royale.
‘‘Chris doesn’t book it because somebody does have the information,’’ Magliulo said. ‘‘Are you handicapping, or are you getting inside information? There’s a big difference.’’
He elaborated.
‘‘If the individual you’re describing said, ‘I’ve got this on good authority,’ well, they’ve got somebody on the inside . . . violating company policy because the NFL has very strict guidelines on that proprietary information. It’s concerning. And if everybody had tomorrow’s newspaper, there’d be no bookmakers.’’
It plopped into my lap. Total happenstance. With 31 other teams, that’s many front-office personnel, myriad tentacles via which information can flow.
‘‘Absolutely,’’ Magliulo said. ‘‘There’s somebody out there betting more than the [scant bucks] that Rob Miech bet. What’s our protection? One, you don’t have to take [a bet]. Two, you don’t have high limits.’’
Circa Sports, for example, posts NFL Draft props for less than a week with $300 limits.
On that particular draft day, Team X did draft Jon Doe Jr. in the first round.
‘‘Clearly, here is someone who is saying they got it,’’ Magliulo said. ‘‘Now, did they really? Well, the proof seems to be in the pudding in that it came true.’’
The racket
Andrews provided a pragmatic picture of his industry, which includes few altar boys.
‘‘You’ve been around this racket,’’ he told me. ‘‘None of us would be in the 12 apostles. That’s not our life. We all got a little larceny in our hearts.’’
He laughed.
‘‘Know what I mean? That’s just the racket.’’
Sharapan shared that lens.
‘‘If the book would have gotten the information, it probably would have shaded the line to make it less appealing,’’ he said. ‘‘I get it. Books will tell you: ‘That’s [BS]. That guy’s taking a shot. He talked to the right person.’
‘‘Well, why didn’t you talk to that right person? You put [odds] up, take bets and live and learn. Sometimes they get you, sometimes they don’t.’’
I took the slim profits and tiny principle from the ill-gotten gains and slipped it into a church’s deposit box, surrounded by candles.
Magliulo, who received a strict Catholic education through high school and actually was an altar boy, grinned and said, ‘‘Bless you, my son.’’
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