It’s a short flight from Portland, Oregon, to Las Vegas, Nevada. But sitting in the subterranean off-track betting parlor at the Rose City’s Rialto Poolroom a few years ago, my friend Tom and I were a world away from the palatial sports betting environs of a SuperBook or Circa.
While it’s located in a ragtag sector of downtown Portland that’s rife with sidewalk denizens, the Rialto, which makes space for poker and live jazz alongside its corner pockets, is presentable enough. But back before they moved the operation upstairs and replaced human tellers with a pair of horse betting machines, the OTB was obscured from plain view, requiring a trip down a narrow staircase to a windowless basement area that felt about as big as a studio apartment.
