Little D--- from 1988-1990 i worked at Jim Feist sports....a legal "racket"....this was before 900 numbers and internet....we called ourselves sports agents but we were nothing but high pressure salesman...Feist was
worth back in 1990 over 500 million....dont even know if he is still alive...but he purchased names and phone numbers over 1 million active sports gamblers....and you start cold on one of the sheets until you build
a cliental ....but these people are addicted and just want to win enough to play the next game.....and no one in Vegas has any inside info....you only advertised you did...plus Jim Feist had a saturday morning TV
show talking how he knew who would most likely win the spread and put up an 800 number...so on saturdays each salesman get an extra 15-20 eager who wanted our service.....you pay money we tell you the game
to put your money down.....there were several of these businesses in Vegas because it was legal in Nevada back then...but i saw obituary notices of family members sending us their family member who killed
himself because we had a real bad week picking games...like 0-5.....Feist paid all the mathmaticians on probabilities when they make the line in Vegas.....and the boss in the room just wrote down the games
of the week.....once in a great while.....we would have a "Platinum"....hence Plats.....but overall no one knows anymore than anyone else...its a crap shoot...yes you can make educated guess that do include
real factors.....and the high pressure put on us was unreal.....they would ridicule you and shame you in some of the worst ways to see if they could get you to quit.....if you quit you were a loser.....and i was
young and had nothing else going on so i did not want to be a loser.....it was real hard to make it to the sales floor....but i had far worse things done to me in military "hazing" so i made it as one of 10
and every few minutes boss is smashing stuff because he is not seeing enough sales.....i chose to be an alcoholic and drug addict to cope.........its what i chose....i quit everything in
1992...but after two years of working in that insanity i had to quit......but Vegas does not have inside info on any games.....but you had to let the betters think you did without lying....lying was a crime in phone
sales....i never gambled cause i saw the destruction...that was one addiction i was fortunate not to get caught up in......but i put a double Plat Cowboys over Bucs....tired of Negativity..Go-Cowboys
I remember back in the mid 80's to early 90's. Before ESPN really exploded. CNN even had a 30 minute sports segment 4 times a day. And an hour pregame coverage on Sundays.
I also remember trying to get any Dallas Cowboys news. So late Saturday nights there were 3 different shows on, about sports betting. I do remember the Jim Feist name also, since you mentioned it.
So I stayed up watching them, or most of the time recorded them, then FF through commercials, or at time just to get to the Dallas game. Trying to get any tidbits. Not for a betting standpoint, just general info. Usually injuries and stuff like that as well.
Also USA Today had a decent sports section, and the West Palm Beach post, had a great sports section at that time. Especially the Sunday paper, they had great coverage on every game.
