For Gamblers Only

Here's something - a mistake Puzo made - which has bothered me from when I first read the book more than thirty years ago.

There's a scene where it is explained how Coach and Sally Rags, Carlo's two assistants in his bookmaking operation, always checked his work because early on he transposed the odds on a baseball game, creating "that dream of all gamblers, a middle".

What that means is this: Suppose the Yankees are playing Detroit, and the Yankees should be a 9 to 5 favorite (you have to risk $9 to win $5). By transposing the odds, Detroit becomes the 9 to 5 favorite. So a bettor can now bet with Carlo and get 9 to 5 on the Yankees, and then bet with another bookmaker, and get 9 to 5 on Detroit. So the bettor can't lose. He loses 5 with one bookie and wins 9 with the other whichever team wins the game.

Puzo then writes that because of this error, "the only one who could lose was Carlo's book".

But that statement is completely untrue. Because even though all his bettors were getting 9 to 5 odds instead of giving 9 to 5, the team everyone was betting on because the odds were wrong still could have lost the game, which would have resulted in a tremendous win for Carlo's book, rather than a loss.

first of all i'm in no way a gambler and i only came in here due to my initial surprise that a respected and valued member such as yourself ahd got NO replies!

nice observations! i found this part of the book rather confusing and another chance for Puzo to show off his knowledge that is somewhat irrelevant to teling the story.

i can in no way correct you on anything (i have not got a clue on how gambling works), but i'm sure your observation is right!

sorry for the blabbering in this post, just thought it'd be nice if you got a reply! (i hate it when it happens to me! )

mick

I didn't expect this post to break any records for replies since the subject matter is rather arcane, but there are a few gamblers here that I know of, and probably several more that I don't.

Anyway, Mick, thanks for the kind words. I appreciate your thoughtfulness.

I always wondered what they meant by that, thanks for clearing it up

I think what he was trying to say is that they lost money because all the bettors were smarter than Carlo. They knew how to bet.

Yeah, they knew it was a smart bet because the odds were backwards, but the team they were betting on still had to win for Carlo's book to lose.

Here's a recent example: Oakland was a 3 point favorite in the Super Bowl. Suppose dopey Carlo was still around, and he accidently made Tampa Bay a 3 point favorite. All the "smart" bettors (including myself) would have bet on Oakland with Carlo's book, and then bet on Tampa Bay somewhere else. So now we have the "gambler's dream, a middle).

But the way the game turned out, Carlo's book would have won all the money bet, instead of lost.

Nice to see new members reading old posts. Welcome.