Sports-gambling glossary
From "Interference: How Organized Crime Influences Professional Football"
The following is the glossary of traditional sports-gambling terms that appeared in my 1989 book, updated in 2014, Interference: How Organized Crime Influences Professional Football.
Admonition: Bet what you can painlessly afford to lose with a friend, not with an illegal bookmaker, because when you bet with an illegal bookmaker, especially one who lays off, a piece of your losing bet could wind up in the pocket of some Mafia guy.
Legalized sports gambling always leads to a proliferation of illegal sports gambling and organized-crime activities.
Action: Betting.
Bagman: An intermediary who picks up and delivers money.
Bank: The financial backer of a gambling operation.
Beard: A proxy bettor, a front man.
Betting cards: A system of betting in which gamblers must pick between three to twenty winners from a list of upcoming games.
Betting line: The posted list of upcoming games and their point spreads.
"Black Book": The list of undesirable people who are forbidden to enter any casino in Nevada.
Blue box: A device used by some bookmakers to make illegal long distance calls.
Bookmaker: A broker who accepts wagers from gamblers, usually taking a commission on losing bets booked.
Bottom sheet: A bookmaker's accounting of gambling debts.
Circled game: A contest in which only limited action is accepted.
Closing line: The final list of point spreads offered before game time.
Covering the spread: Beating the posted point spread.
Edge: An advantage that one believes might improve one's ability to predict the outcome of a game.
11-10: The traditional bet with a bookmaker in which the gambler puts up $11 to win $10.
Fall guy: A guilty or innocent person who accepts the full blame for a crime in order to protect others.
Favorite: The predicted winning team in a particular contest.
Fixed game: A game in which one or more participants willfully manipulate the final outcome of a game.
Flip: To turn state's evidence.
Front man: One who has a facade of legitimacy but secretly represents the interests of his underworld backers.
Grease: A bribe.
Hack: A sportswriter who provides extraordinary loyalty to a particular team or sport in order to maintain his access and sources.
Handicapper: One who determines the conditions and sets the odds that will equalize two teams in an upcoming game.
Handle: The total amount of money bet on a particular game or series of contests.
Hedge: The covering of a bet with a second bet; a layoff.
High roller: A high-stakes gambler.
House: The operator of any gambling business.
Injury report: A description of the status of an injured player, which is frequently used as a variable in betting equations.
Inside information: The data obtained on a particular team or its players and/or staff that may impact upon the final outcome of a game.
Juice: The money owed to a bookmaker or a loan shark.
Juice collector: One who collects the juice.
Lay: To bet.
Layoff: A bookmaker's bet with another bookmaker made in order to help equalize the excess action he has accepted from his customers.
Line: The posted list of games and their point spreads.
Loan shark: One, usually mob-connected, who loans money at a high weekly interest rate.
Lock: A sure winner.
Man-to-man betting: Gambling without either party taking a commission for the bet made.
Marker: An IOU.
Middling: Betting on both teams in a game at different point spreads, in the hope that the final score comes in between so that both bets can be won.
Moving the line: Making alterations in the line based on the volume of betting or other factors, such as injuries.
Odds: The ratio of money that may be won versus the amount of money bet.
Oddsmaker: A person who sets the line.
Off the boards: A situation in which bookmakers will accept no further action.
Opening line: The initial list of point spreads for upcoming games.
Outlaw line: The early, private line set by professional gamblers, which is financed, distributed, and enforced by the organized crime syndicate.
Over/under the total: Betting that the combined score of two teams in a particular game will be over/under a predicted number.
Pari-mutuel: A betting system in which the amount of money paid out to winners is based upon the total pool of bets.
Parlay: Betting on a combination of two or more games.
Pen register: A device attached to a telephone line that maintains a record of each number dialed.
Pigeon: An uneducated, naive, or unsophisticated gambler.
Player: A gambler.
Point spread: A form of handicapping in which oddsmakers predict how many points one team needs against another in order to even out the public betting on a particular game.
Power rating: A number created by a handicapper on the basis of the strength of a particular team.
Press: To increase one's bet.
Price: Point spread.
Pricemaker: An oddsmaker.
Push: A bet that falls right on the point spread; a tie in terms of a money decision.
Runner: A messenger.
Scalping: Selling tickets to a contest at a price above their face value.
Shaving points: The act of one or more participants in a contest manipulating the outcome of a game so that the final score does not cover the spread.
Skim: The cash siphoned off from an operation before it is reported.
Spike mike: An illegal electronic surveillance device.
Sports book: A legal sports bookmaking business.
Stand off a bet: To tie or push.
Straw-man: A front man.
Taking a lead: An early bet with a favorable price in anticipation of a subsequent movement in the line.
Title III: The section of the 1968 Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, that permits court-authorized electronic surveillance if certain conditions are met.
Tote board: A device that posts teams, contests, and either the odds or the line.
Tout: An individual of questionable credentials who sells his predictions of the outcomes of games.
Thrown game: A game lost intentionally by a participant.
Underdog: The predicted losing team in a particular contest.
Unnatural money: Large wagers that suddenly appear against the conventional wisdom of the oddsmakers and handicappers.
Vigorish: The bookmaker's commission.
Wagering stamp: A federal occupational tax for gamblers.
Welch: To refuse to pay off a bet already made and lost.