Because my brain has been warped by more than a year of reading and writing and talking about prediction markets, I couldn’t help but think about them yet again when I got to Chapter 9 of Art Manteris’ recently released memoir, “The Bookie.”
The book is chock-full of great, heartfelt stories involving Manteris’ family, friends, colleagues, and rivals, including the famous gambler Billy Walters (with whom Manteris, as a bookmaker, often played a bit of cat-and-mouse game).
Those stories come from the decades Manteris spent working in and overseeing the sports betting action at iconic venues like Caesars Palace, the Las Vegas Hilton (now the Westgate), and for Station Casinos. It's a good book.
But when I got to Chapter 9 of “The Bookie,” my sick brain started thinking of prediction markets. I couldn’t shake it, and now I’m writing about it, and for that I apologize, particularly to Manteris, whom I interviewed this week and who humored my long-winded questions.
- Manteris’ memoir traces his decades running iconic Nevada sportsbooks, early efforts to expand legal betting nationwide.
- He reflects on how the modern post-PASPA betting world has given him concern, especially the close ties between sports leagues and sportsbooks.
- Alongside industry history, the book shares Super Bowl anecdotes and hard-earned lessons, including why bookmakers love parlays and bettors probably should not.
Anyway, it was the early 1990s, Manteris recalls in the book, and he, an already experienced veteran of the sports betting business, along with legendary oddsmaker Roxy Roxborough, had become something like traveling salesmen on behalf of Hilton Hotels.
(One quick detour here, to help explain the Roxy aura. I ran into Roxborough once during a party in Las Vegas. We talked for a bit, and I asked for his card. Instead, he handed me a pen, which still sits on my desk, that says “may the odds be with you.”)
Recent memoirs by the retired bookie Art Manteris and the storied gambler Billy Walters provide a glimpse of an industry in its fledgling form—and a preview of the DraftKings era to come. https://t.co/3OIlwXRupE
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) February 4, 2026
What Manteris and Roxborough were selling, though, was a vision of expanding legalized sports betting beyond Nevada using the federal Interstate Horseracing Act (IHA).
“We proposed turning the horse tracks into satellite sportsbooks run by my operation at the Hilton,” Manteris writes. “We were positioning ourselves to eventually become America’s bookmakers, not just Nevada’s. And our plan would save the racetracks.”
One of the cornerstones of their strategy was the IHA. They believed that federal law, Manteris writes, “at least provided the intent of legal wagering at racetracks, including wagering pools and odds distribution from one state to another.”
A passing resemblance
So, stop me if you’ve heard this one before: the use of a federal law to expand sports betting. It was pre-internet, sure, but it gave me some strong prediction market vibes. If you think I’m crazy, check out what Churchill Downs has been arguing in court recently, which involves the IHA. That sounds very prediction market-y to me, too.
What also gave me prediction market vibes was what Manteris noted came next: a legislative crackdown, which is something that prediction markets now face as well.
While the plan pitched by Manteris and Roxborough found some support, it was largely from the Laurel Park racetrack in Maryland, which, perhaps unfortunately, is located near Washington, D.C. Then came the pushback, from other racing industry officials and the major sports leagues who wanted to keep sports betting confined to Nevada.
That opposition caught the eye of Congress, and soon after, those federal lawmakers passed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act over the objections of Manteris and other casino operators, including the future President Donald Trump (whose, ahem, style might have rubbed some lawmakers the wrong way).
PASPA then became the law of the land. Any expansion of legalized sports betting would have to wait until the legislation was struck down in 2018 by the Supreme Court.
“We thought the law was unconstitutional,” Manteris writes, “but it was what the racetracks and, more important, the leagues wanted.”
Eventually, Manteris et al would be proven right. But decades after their IHA-related pitch, and almost eight years since the fall of PASPA, the sports betting industry that has emerged is different from the one Manteris had a hand in during the days of Nevada’s near-legal monopoly.
Enjoying Covers content? Add us as a preferred source on your Google account
Hindsight is -110
When I asked him this week if he would still support the striking down of PASPA, his answer was short and honest.
“I really don’t know,” Manteris said. “I can make arguments pretty strongly in both ways.”
A few things have driven Manteris toward this nuanced opinion. One of those factors, and perhaps one of the main takeaways of the book, is his strong feelings that there should be some distance between sportsbook operators and sports leagues. Instead, leagues like the NFL have official sportsbook partners, and those business ties have proven awkward when integrity-related scandals have arisen in recent years.
In a chapter titled “Epiphany,” Manteris remembers getting a tip that Manny Pacquiao was “not right” ahead of his huge boxing match in 2015 with Floyd Mayweather Jr. He moved the number at his book accordingly, and Pacquiao lost convincingly to Mayweather.
“We did well with the book that night, but without that information from my friend, we would have lost a significant amount of money,” Manteris writes. “Very significant.”
The “Epiphany” that Manteris arguably had after this experience was that if PASPA were to fall, “the leagues could not have any association of any kind with the gambling industry. Period.”
And yet, here we are, PASPA fallen, and the leagues and the gambling industry associated. The NHL has even gone so far as to form partnerships with the newest iteration of sports betting, federally regulated prediction market operators. Hence, Manteris’ concern about what has happened post-PASPA.
SUPER BOWL LX PROP SHEET ✍️
— Covers (@Covers) February 6, 2026
Track every prop result live during Super Bowl LX right here on X or on our live blog — updated in real time as the action unfolds.
🔗 https://t.co/39M1zngeHD pic.twitter.com/rVHphcP0cy
“The Bookie” is a great read, and I’d recommend it to anyone interested in the history of sports betting and some perspective on how things have gotten to where they are.
Manteris has been making the rounds following the release of his book, including a stop in San Francisco ahead of Super Bowl LX. Even with a lack of a Mahomes, or a Kelce, or a Swift, the game is expected to garner huge handle, and for Manteris, the Big Game was always a crucial day.
Famously, or perhaps infamously, it was on Manteris’ watch that Caesars offered a prop for Super Bowl XX in 1986 on whether William “Refrigerator” Perry would score a touchdown. Bettors jumped all over it, and, of course, the Fridge found the end zone. That single prop cost Caesars $250,000, Manteris writes, and he thought it might be enough to get him fired.
Big game, big sweats
Instead, the chair and CEO of Caesars called to congratulate Manteris for all the publicity the prop bet earned for his company. That loss wound up being Manteris’ gain, earning him the notice of many others in the industry, including Barron Hilton, chairman of Hilton Hotels and the future proprietor of the SuperBook, which Manteris would run.
But every Super Bowl felt like a Super Bowl for Manteris as well, he said. A lot of prep work went into the day, readying his team and ensuring guests got what they wanted. Then, of course, would come the game itself, and its significant financial consequences for sportsbook operators.
“All eyes were on the sportsbook department on Super Bowl Sunday,” Manteris said.
Some Super Bowl Sundays were particularly gruesome for the book, such as the 1994 drubbing of the Buffalo Bills by the Dallas Cowboys, the second year in a row that happened.
Another long day was the last time the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots met in the Super Bowl, in 2015. Seattle’s failure to punch in a touchdown on the last play of the game, from the one-yard line, was costly for Manteris.
The @AmericanGaming Association has released its annual estimate of Super Bowl wagering. This year's projection is that Americans will bet a new record of $1.76B legally (emphasis mine) on Super Bowl LX:https://t.co/bkSt3FevC4 pic.twitter.com/Vv7CHTRBql
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) January 30, 2026
Now, Manteris isn’t sweating Super Bowls anymore, as he retired from the business back in 2021. However, he's still watching the industry, and is well aware of the recent rise of prediction markets.
The real name of one of these purportedly “peer-to-peer” betting exchanges is a designated contract market. They operate under the federal oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), pursuant to the federal Commodity Exchange Act.
And, starting in late 2024, prediction markets have been facilitating wagering on sports all over the U.S., including on this weekend’s Super Bowl. While the legality of the sports event contracts being offered by prediction markets is being challenged in several courts, and state lawmakers have even proposed legislation to ban them outright in their jurisdictions, they'll be with us for the foreseeable future.
Funnily enough, Manteris told Covers this week that someone came to him with the prediction market idea somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 to 18 years ago.
"They had a white paper prepared and definitions and explanations and references,” Manteris said. “It was a very professional presentation.”
Manteris looked into the idea but ultimately passed. Now he’s watching the growing number of legal battles like the rest of us, with interest and perhaps a bit of what-could-have-been.
Manteris also looks at the industry today and sees fixes that could still be made, and he remains skeptical of any role for the federal government.
Using a horse racing term, he said the “past performance charts” of D.C. helping the gambling business aren’t great. For example, the federal Wire Act of 1961 is still the law of the land.
“Which is just ridiculously outdated,” Manteris said. “It was written long before laptops and mobile phones.”
A piece of (parlay-related) advice
“The Bookie” has a lot of Manteris’ thoughts about the industry. It’s also got plenty of entertaining anecdotes and a bit of guidance that bettors may want to keep in mind this Sunday.
One piece of advice Manteris imparted before hanging up this week was that bettors should be cautious about one type of bet that he was a huge fan of when he was behind the counter: the parlay.
“As a bookie,” Manteris writes, “I loved them.”
Which, for bettors, means you probably shouldn’t love them too much, because they lose much more frequently than straight bets.
That’s what Manteris suggested to Covers, anyway. It’s also what he suggested to one NHL legend during his time as a bookie; I won’t spoil who that player was entirely, but he played in Pittsburgh, where Manteris grew up.
“Every opportunity I have today, I tell people to make straight bets,” Manteris said. “I pushed parlays like crazy, [but] a player is not going to do well long-term if they're a parlay player. And that's almost a certainty.”
