Will Billy Walters Bet on Sports Again?
Who Is Billy Walters?
Though Walters made his name by crushing Las Vegas casinos, he grew up in a small town called Munfordville in Kentucky. His dad was an auto mechanic who sadly died when Billy was just 18 months old. His mother was an alcoholic who upped and left soon after the father died. Billy and his two sisters were raised by their grandmother. They were dirt poor, with no running water or indoor plumbing. But she did instill in him an amazing work ethic. She was working multiple cleaning jobs and it there that Billy learned the power of hard work.
Billy Walters: Ever The Hustler
At around the age of 7, Billy started to hustle, just like his grandmother. He got a loan of $40 from her, bought a mower and started mowing neighborhood lawns. By the age of 9, he had his own paper route. Then by 13 he took a morning job at a bakery, whilst working an evening shift at the local gas station. On turning from boy to man, he started selling cars in Louisville. He took to the job like a duck to water. But more than that, he worked so much harder than the other salesmen. He would send out mailers and would go visiting door to door on cold calls. But it all paid off in heaps. He was selling around 30 cars each month. He was making around $50,000 each year in commissions (around $400,000 today!).
Own Car Dealership
In 1967, Billy Walters became the sales manager of the whole dealership. Using this experience, he launched his own dealership in 1972. It was around this time that he discovered sports betting. He even managed to get into trouble with local law enforcement after running his own unofficial sportsbook. It was this that finally convinced Billy to leave the small town environment and move lock, stock, and barrel to Las Vegas in 1981.
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Why Is Billy Walters Such a Big Deal in Sports Betting?
As soon as he arrived, he hit the ground running. He joined the “Computer Group”. This was really the very first betting syndicate that used computers to help predict scores and be able to beat the bookies. They spent a lot of time crunching data. But boy did it pay off! Billy spent the next 30 years straight, making massive profits. Some of his most famous wins include $3.5 million betting on the Super Bowl XLIV and the $2.2 million he won on the USC football team. It’s thought that he earned around $60 million in a good year. His team didn’t just deal with sports betting. On one occasion they hit Atlantic City and scored over $4 million on roulette.
Here they watched and recorded every spin of the wheel and through this, discovered that the wheel was slightly off kneeled. One of the casino’s wheels was “bias” and so favored certain pockets. Using this information, Billy and his crew managed to win over $3.8 million from the Atlantic Club Casino. It’s also worth mentioning that Billy was also an astute poker player, having reached and won the Super Bowl of Poker (Lake Tahoe) in 1986 and taking home $175,000 in prize money.
Insider Trading Conviction & Prison Time
Though he enjoyed spectacular success with gambling, Billy Walters was also trading shares on the stock market. From this activity, he probably saw around $500 million. But then greed got the better of him. Being a constant winner can come at a price. The fear of losing. He was engaging in insider dealing with the chairman of a large conglomerate, Thomas C. Davis. Thanks to this advice he made around $32 million in profits from the period of 2008 to 2014. He also managed to avoid some serious losses as the shares took a dive thanks to a market downturn.
Billy Walters: All Good Things Must End
It all ended in incarceration until 2022. But he’s on home release, meaning that he can enjoy all the freedoms….but only at home. To that end, he is also free to take up gambling again. But back when he was playing the casinos and sportsbooks, no one would accept his bets, so he had to resort to using “runner” in order to hide his identity. He also has problems placing online bets, as these companies are all afraid of his considerable reputation. Unfortunately for him, the ability to actually place bets continues to be difficult.
Time To Really Retire
The other point is that it’s not as if Billy is short of money. He owns a golf course in Vegas, numerous other properties, and a string of car dealerships. He’s now 73 years of age. If he never placed another sport bet it wouldn’t be the end of the world. We can imagine him retiring from betting altogether. After all, there’s nothing left to win!
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