The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 87

I iT I I TT 'I I' "I ti n' -i nn i ui 1w miiin i ANGELES TIMES FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1999 D15 SPECIAL REPORT SPORTS MONTHLY 1 ft' Wi tt 0r" NCAA Wants Its Games Off the Board and money restricts the free and open discussion of gambling issues." Bryan said Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) promised to introduce the NCAA bill, which would prohibit legalized betting on college sports. "The bottom line is we think it's unseemly to bet on teenagers and their games," Dixon said. "We want to make sure there's a clear message that this country does not tolerate in any form, betting on kids." William Saum, an NCAA representative, told the National Gambling Impact Study Commission in a November 1998 meeting here that students can easily find bookies on campus. "Why don't they focus on illegal gambling?" Sen.

Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said. year. She said the NCAA is prohibited from making campaign contributions. "We're just trying to evaluate whether the voice of a college president is louder than $6 million," she said Wednesday. Nevada's 138 legal sports books took in $2.3 billion in sports wagers in fiscal 1999, earning nearly $99 million, according to Brian Duffrin, a spokesman for the state Gaming Control Board.

The state does not break out percentages on college vs. professional sports betting. But Jason Been, an oddsmaker at Las Vegas Sports Consultants, estimated that 40 of the betting is on college sports. Dixon said the anti-gambling group at Tuesday's meeting included religious leaders and family organizations. She expressed concerns about the influence of special interests in Congress "and how their influence From Associated Press LAS VEGAS The NCAA is taking its case to Congress, hoping for a nationwide law banning gambling on college sports.

"I think this is a very troublesome issue for us," Sen. Richard Bryan (D-Nev.) said Wednesday. "If the NCAA rallies the college presidents, alumni associations and other academic groups, I think this could be a very difficult issue for us to deal with." An NCAA representative met Tuesday with anti-gambling interests to pitch a proposal that would ban college sports betting in the four states where it is now legal. Nevada is the only state operating legal sports books, which take bets on college and professional sports. Doris Dixon, director of federal relations for the NCAA, says casino interests contributed almost $6 million to federal campaigns last in Vegas is the Bellagio.

It's more upper class. I like the way it's formatted. I like the big leather chairs. The King: "Those chairs are so comfortable. I fell asleep in one of them." 3 Goldberg: "The Mirage is good-! too.

They have a California Pizza -i Kitchen right in the middle of the, sports book. You can watch your -games right there while you're eating pizza." Listening in from a few seats away, another player joins the -discussion. 1 "The Bellagio is weird," says Rick Barnette of Los Angeles. "Its a nice setup, but they have funny. cards.

"Stay away from the Circus Circus properties. They all have pretty poor books. You get the feeling they donU like to do it. The facilities are not ag, nice, the lines are tight." Barnette is in the middle of a Saturday afternoon bath. He is on his way to losing $400 on the Breeders' Cup, with a heavy slate, of college football games going against him as well.

'1 "I'm trying to figure why I like this so much," Barnette says. "It's an ego thing, I guess, but I also think it comes from me being so disillusioned with sports today. I don't watch games in person anymore. There's much money being thrown now, all these salaries are warped. You have teachers making only $40,000 or $50,000 and these jocks are making millions.

"So many of these athletes are making big money, I figure I might as well try to get in on it. I don't have any favorite teams or players. Only the ones that make me money." A cynical view, perhaps, but one that keeps many a Las Vegas sports book filled to the brim. "Even the colleges are getting warped," Barnette says. "Schools are making millions off these kidS And if you get an injury, you're tossed to the side.

"Everything's about money today. That's why I'm here. For the money." Barnette glances down at the note pad listing his wagers for the. day. "Except," he adds with a tired -laugh, "I'm giving it away today "Everybody was betting the yes, like this was a gimme.

The thing went to, like, $5 so instead of laying $15 to win $10 you had to lay $50 to win $10. So we really needed him not to complete all three. "So he had the first two, and everybody knew it, and we had two Super Bowl parties 800 people in one party, 600 in the other. When he went back to attempt that pass and cocked his arm, everybody in the room yelled, 'THROW IT! THROW It didn't matter if he completed it. All he had to do was throw it.

"But he tucked it under his arm and ran. Everybody booed and things were thrown, and that was it. That's as close as it got. "It was an unbelievable, great prop." Would Denver Bronco backup quarterback Bubby Brister have a rushing attempt in the 1999 Super Bowl? Kornegay: "Basically, the only thing that could happen was if he came in for John Elway at the end of the game and took a kneel-down. And we indicated that a kneel-down is an official rushing attempt, for minus-one yard.

"So, if you remember the Super Bowl last year, they really didn't show it on TV, because they showed Elway coming off the field with less than 30 seconds to go, but Brister did come in and he did kneel down. So he did have a rushing attempt. "One of our guests was very upset at that, because he bet the no, like a lot of other people bet the no. He accused me of calling the sidelines because I'm from Denver, see and calling Denver Coach Mike Shanahan and telling him to put in Brister for that prop. A direct line right to the headset: 'Hey, Mike, can you put in Brister, because we really need "It was great.

Everybody around this guy looked at him, like, 'Are you kidding me? Jay's got a lot of pull in this town, but I don't think he's got that Book Reviews The King is relaxing between races of the Breeders' Cup, girding for his next foray to the betting window, basking in the amenities all about him, extolling the virtues, as he sees them, of Las Vegas sports books. An over-the-phone bookmaker, he says, "will always know how you bet. He knows your habits 'This guy will always bet $100 on this kind of And he might add a half-point to the wrong side of the game because he knows that. "Here, you don't have to worry about a phone guy screwing you." Jason Goldberg, friend and weekend traveling companion of the King, nods. "Coming here," Goldberg says, "is a good escape for three days when they're paying for your room and the food is inexpensive.

"In my life, I have a lot of work. On Saturdays and Sundays, I like to relax for a few hours and watch a game or two. I find it pleasurable. Especially when I win." What separates a top sports book from the run-of-the-mill outposts now littering the Strip? "Space," the King says. "You want a place that has a lot of space.

And atmosphere. Definitely the atmosphere. You want a lot of TVs. And lighting is important. This place Caesars is dark some people ask to use my desk light because they say they can't see but I like it." Goldberg: "The best sports book Kri MONTHLY Continued from Page 14 less geographically desirable, are absorbing the brunt of the body blows.

According to statistics compiled by the Nevada Gaming Control Board, sports books on the Strip accounted for 59.6 of action handled in the state in 1998 a total of $1.4 billion. Downtown sports books, meanwhile, accounted for only 16 of the handle a little more than $381 million. The rapid rise of the Strip sports books "has hurt our business, no doubt about it," says Jonathan Jester, manager of the downtown Las Vegas Club sports book. "It's like having strike one or strike two against us. don't lose customers to the Mirage because of what we offer.

We lose customers because of location. Tourists have a preconceived notion of The Las Vegas Club has tried to fight back. Eighteen months ago, it built a new sports book, designing the book to look like an old-style baseball stadium, complete with green bleacher seats, a hot dog stand and murals of fans in 1920s bowlers and straw hats painted on the walls. Cute decor, however, won't cut it alone, so Jester runs weekly radio ads, has put up a Web site and 'offers what he calls "the highest football parlay odds in town. We stress that on the radio 'You can win more money on parlays than anywhere Most of Jester's customers are locals and regulars.

"I can go around this room," he says, "and know the name of half the 50 or 75 people here." As for attracting tourists, well, there's only so much a 415-room downtown hotel can do. "It's tough for us when places like Mandalay Bay and Excalibur have 4,000 rooms," Jester says. "I don't have that captive audience. And it's worse for the stand-alones. They've either been sucked up or bought out or closed down.

"It's very, very competitive, because every hotel now has a sports book. And a lot of hotels consider sports books I'm not going to say a 'necessary evil' as something they have to have in order to keep patrons in the casino. "Because if you don't have one, they're going to go next door." Parlay Floored Joe Mariano is a tourist. Seated among the denizens in the Mirage sports book, he is easy to spot: the designer track suit, the New England accent, the anguished contortions as the second leg of a two-game parlay goes against him. "Oh, no!" Mariano gasps as California fumbles near its goal line, Oregon State recovers and turns a three-point lead into 10.

"This is the worst thing that could've happened!" Mariano buries his head in his hands. California, his pick, is a 9V-point underdog. Moments later, on another big screen, Arizona State's J.R. Redmond scores against USC. Mariano sneaks a peak.

"Awright!" he exclaims as he sits up in his chair again. The front end of his parlay has taken a turn for the better. On the biggest big screen in the building, Tennessee is breaking a long run against Notre Dame. "GO BABY! GO BABY!" Mariano yells, pounding the table in front of him. His cover bet low-risk insurance in case the parlay falls apart is looking like a sure thing.

Good news, but in a sports book, bad news is often not far behind. California misses a chip-shot field goal. "Unbelievable," Mariano grouses. California gets the ball back, drjvejs deep into Oregon State territory, has a pass intercepted in the end zone. at that," Mariano says with a disgusted wave of his hand.

"He Jist' heaves it up there! What a bum." JThe inevitable is starting to sink fn with Mariano. "The parlay," Mariano says Soltly, shaking his head, scolding fiijnsrelf. "A sucker's bet." -Mariano knows better. He never 4. N.

v- "I hope she wins in the slots." That's usually where the couple parts ways whenever stepping into a casino Mariano heads for the sports book, his girlfriend beelines to the slots. Mariano has no patience for slot machines himself. "No control," he says. "Here, you have control over this. You can pick this team, that team.

You don't like the spread, you can bet the other way." Mariano is about to break even on this Saturday, Tennessee covering for the busted parlay. "I broke even for the day, I'm a happy man," Mariano says as he gets up to head to the cashier's window. "It's not a lot of money. But money never bought happiness, anyway. It's only paper." Besides, Saturday night in a Las Vegas sports book is merely halftime.

Still ahead is Sunday and a full slate of NFL games. "The best bet tomorrow is the Eagles," Mariano says, offering me a parting gift. "But, you know, nothing's guaranteed." So true, so true. The next day, the Eagles, five-point underdogs, lose to Carolina, 33-7. Getting Its Props Location, location, location.

The Imperial Palace has it in spades too much, in truth, for its own good. The 25-year-old hotel and casino sits in the shadow of the twin giants, Caesars and the Mirage, with Treasure Island's pirate skull glowering down the street and Paris' phony Eiffel Tower only a short walk away. (Yes, Paris does have a sports book. Except it is called Lei Rendez-Vous Race Sport, and it is phony too. An authentic French sports book would list soccer odds, no? Not here.

No over-under for St. Etienne at Paris Saint-Germain anywhere to be found.) The Imperial Palace sports book is up against it. Especially with a betting limit of $5,000 an NFL game, and less for other sports. "These guys come in here," says Jay Kornegay, manager of the Imperial Palace sports book, "and if I tell them that they can have $2,000 on the game, they go, 'Well. I could get more from my paper And I tell them, bet you "We have relatively small limits here.

And you have to bet those limits. Now, if I was the director over at the Mirage, I would have higher limits because I have clientele that are going to give me $5,000 a game. You do have house players. But when you have house 1 players that might give you $1,000 a game, you want to take $1 ,000." So, in order to compete, Kornegay and his staff must be creative. The Imperial Palace sports book offers a drive-thru window "Place Sports Bets From Your Car!" the hotel's neon message board exclaims and more exotic, or proposition, wagers than you can shake a complimentary hoagie at.

"The Imperial Palace is the prop capital of the world," Zugay says with admiration. Adds Jester: "It never ceases to amaze me. I think last year, when the Bulls were going really bad, the IP had this prop: Which would be higher a Phil Mickelson golf score or the Bulls' total points for a game? They do some crazy stuff over there." Other proposition bets the Imperial Palace has offered: Who would score more on a given Sunday Michael Jordan or the Dallas Cowboys? Kornegay: "You had to figure around 30 points each." Would Pittsburgh wide receiver Kordell Stewart catch a pass, have a rushing attempt and throw a pass all three must happen during the 1996 Super Bowl? Kornegay: "He caught a pass, he got back there and had a rushing attempt, so the only thing that he needed to do was attempt a pass. So he did relieve Neil O'Donnell that year and he came in at quarterback. And this line and we made a horrendous line on it was 'yes, all three would happen' at minus-150.

Meaning you would have to lay, based on $10, $15 to win $10. TX mM WiJiJlliJjjSiJSOJQa uihmmt 1 kk4Jh the top handicappers pick i Sunday: $500,000 Early Times Hollywood Derby $500,000 Matriarch Hollywood Close-Up This weekend the place to be is Hollywood Park! Friday: $200,000 Hollywood Turf Express $200,000 Miesque Saturday: $500,000 Citation $10,000 Daily Racing Form Handicapping Contest Finish in the top four and you're on your way to Las Vegas with a shot at $100,000 in the Handicapper of the Year contest. No fee to enter. Meet top trainers and jockeys every Sunday at Hollywood. This Sunday meet Bob Baffert and Alex Solis at 11:30 am.

bets.parlays at home, in Boston, with hi regular bookie. "I stay with single 2ctibn at home," he says. "But over hare'you're in Vegas, there's the HONeJty of it. It's tempting." visits Las Vegas two or fliree times a football season to hit a bit, but mainly to hang SuCin the sports books. Atlantic City has no sports bOoKs," he says.

"So you have to fly outif you like football." Another trait of the tourist: When wJt'West, they tend to do as Westerners do. With so much West Coast action at their disposal Pac-10 jimgs day and night, WAC games on ig screens everywhere they fjncj they can't resist. their better judgment, West Coast. -Pbviously, I know a lot more arjojui East Coast teams," Mariano don't know much about yvei Coast teams, but Cal has been good. My girlfriend wanted in on a parlay, so I mention Cal to her.

She said OK." Mariano laughs. wood urn i The Hollywood Handicappers A-List. arJo9 Downs Company (310) 419-1500 Great Western Forum Come out and hear i A Churchill www.hollywoodp8rk.com Located in Inglewood next to the stars for Saturday's card..