The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 12

I EDITOR: JAMES DEAN, 369-1812 HE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER SUNDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1987 D-1 EditoriaIsD-2 Gephardt on lawmakers' termsD-2 Blake on Christmastime nevsD-3 Readers' viewsD-4 Week in review In the big time, it's more than a lucky hunch Saturday "A TRISTATE: School I officials back down from a challenge as to whether Norwood High School student John Fenton really lives in Norwood. He'll get his wish: to be valedictorian of his class. ELSEWHERE: Congressional leaders and Reagan administration officials reach tentative agreement regarding aid to the Nicaraguan Contra rebels, opening the way for passage of a $598 billion spending bill needed to keep the government running. BY DAVID LAMB The Los Angeles Times LAS VEGAS, Nev. On a quiet residential street a few miles from the glitzy Strip, in a Spanish-style home with a white Mercedes 500SL parked out front and two satellite dishes next to the swimming pool, Lem Banker sat at the kitchen table that serves as his desk, looking hard for winners.

Like a Wall Street financial analyst, he had assembled a portfolio of statistics on each potential investment, although his variables Sheet, a Los Angeles-based weekly digest of team ratings that is to gamblers what the Bible is to priests. He shuffled some numbers on his calculator and punched into his computerized phone the code for the Stardust Casino, one of half a dozen places around town where he maintains accounts. The phone there rang once. "Hey, pal. It's Lem.

Yeah, what's that basketball game tonight? You got the Bulls by a point, huh? OK. Thanks, pal, call you back." Then he dialed another bookmaker, looking for an extra half point, a margin that can mean Sunday were not price-earnings ratios, morale and past thousands of dollars to a "wise cuy" but injuries, weather, team performances. The United Press International sportswire chattered on the counter next to the sink, and he got up to check it for late news. He sifted through the local papers and the Gold (professional gambler), who year in and year out earns a six-figure income beating the odds and (Please see GAMBLING, Page D-6) TRISTATE: Poor All Bengals. The home portion of a hideous football season comes to a close with a 41-24 rout by the New Orleans Saints.

ELSEWHERE: The White House and congressional leaders reach final agreement on a compromise that would give $8.1 million in non-military to the Nicaraguan rebels. Presidenl Reagan signs an emergency bill to prevent a government shutdown. Monday -g TRISTATE: Ohio Gov. I Richard Celeste orders a one-month delay in auto emissions testing in the Cincinnati and Cleveland areas. Reason: Not enough service stations signed up to perform the tests.

ELSEWHERE: The long-delayed deficit reduction package clears its first large congressional hurdle as the House approves a $17.6 billion tax and entitlement bill. The Senate follows suit shortly after midnight. Tuesday TRISTATE: Bank-F holding companies shop for Christmas: First National Cincinnati Corp. announces its intent to buy First National Bancorp of Miamisburg. Central Bancorp.

Inc. of Cincinnati says an affiliate hopes to acquire three branches of TransOhio Savings Bank of Cleveland. ELSEWHERE: In the wee hours of the day, the House and Senate approve a $598 billion measure that provides government funds and mandates a reduction in the deficit. President Reagan signs the deficit reduction package. Wednesday TRISTATE: A settlement was reached Cincinnati bets but on a smaller scale Illustrated.

Chicago is 10 times the size of Cincinnati, so if bookies there gross 10 times the amount of money as Cincinnati, that still means $200 million a year is being handled by Tristate bookies. "Cincinnati has notoriously had a reputation for being a good betting town," Schoch said. "We have a closeness to our southern neighbors, and betting has always been pretty large across the river. A lot of that has crossed back and forth." Some bookies arrested by the vice squad in the past two years were BY JOHN ERARDI The Cincinnati Enquirer Cincinnati is no Cleveland and certainly no Chicago when it comes to sports gambling. But it holds its own, says police Capt.

Ted Schoch of the Cincinnati vice squad. "There's no reason to believe that betting here isn't as big (per capita) as it is in those places," Schoch said. Bookies in the Chicago area handle about $2 billion in bets annually, according to a "special report" about gambling published last year by Sports handling a week in bets, records show. In a raid on a Ft. Thomas, location where phone bets were being forwarded from a Hyde Park home to try to confuse authorities police took $17,000 worth of bets in one hour on the telephone.

The receipts of one Cincinnati bookie showed he was grossing a week. Even at 5, that's a profit of a week $150,000 a year. "He was doing that out of his home," Schoch said. "That was his full-time job. He didn't live like a king.

It looked like he was living a rather normal life in terms of his possessions." Schoch said bookies "feel comfortable" if they are operating on a 10 profit. But the 10 figure seems high. Two small-tinie bookies in Cincinnati said their profit mnrgin is more like 5. "You're laying 1 1-10 on the game," said a bookie, "so if a guy bets $1 00 one way and another bets $100 the other way, you're paying out $100, but you're (Please see BOOKIES, Page D-5) Jim Borgman's World between the city of Cincinnati and Warner Cable. Warner agrees to spend up to $8 million to improve its system.

ELSEWHERE: Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, serving a life sentence for the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford, escapes from the Alderson (W.Va.) Federal Prison for Women. Thursday A TRISTATE: Brent JUL Hammergren, a 1 7-month-old boy from Evendale, continues to do well after rare surgery, and his parents are optimistic. Brent had almost half of his brain removed to stop life-threatening seizures in operations last December and April. His doctor says he is the only child to have lived so long and thrived so well. ELSEWHERE: On his third Christmas Eve as a hostage, American journalist Terry Anderson tells his family that he is well and asks his government to do what it can to free him.

Anderson, the longest held foreign captive in Lebanon, spoke on a videotape released by Moslem extremists. Friday 25 CHRISTMAS: A holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. nra I.