On August 10, the University of Nevada-Las Vegas announced an oral-history project profiling 10 Nevada bookmakers, still to be named. The interviews will be conducted by gaming historian David G. Schwartz and veteran casino executive and regulator Richard Schuetz.
The impetus for the project was Schuetz’s. “The essence and history of traditional sports betting, we’d better get it captured soon,” he said. “A lot of these guys are getting older, including me.”
Schuetz’s recent return to Nevada after many years away put a spark to the match. “When I came back, I looked around and not much had been done” to document the Silver State’s history of sports betting. “I thought, ‘I’m going to help fill that gap.’
“Then I wanted to associate with the smartest guy on the planet in gambling,” who happened to be Schwartz, biographer of Jay Sarno. The two had known each other for over 20 years and “it’s awesome to work with David,” Schuetz said, “a dream come true.”
The duo took the profile idea to UNLV’s Oral History Research Center, which proved receptive, even allowing Schuetz and Schwartz to do the extensive interviews themselves. Otherwise, “it would be really difficult to capture the essence of the bettors,” Schuetz explained to CDC Gaming.
The former Stratosphere president dates his interest in oral history back to his graduate-school days at the University of Nevada-Reno. There, Glen Atkinson, Bill Eadington, and Mary Ellen Glass pointed him toward the reminiscences of Ed Olsen, former Associated Press correspondent and Nevada Gaming Control Board chairman under Gov. Grant Sawyer from 1960 to 1966.
Schuetz found himself fascinated by Olsen’s halcyon tales of Mob involvement with Nevada casinos.
“You can’t get a Sunday school teacher to run a casino,” the former Stardust and Frontier executive remarked. Olsen found that the FBI was tapping not only Mob-connected figures on their phones, but even in their bedrooms. He also learned of two clandestine FBI probes by dint of collecting the G-men’s trash and reading it.
“I learned stuff from the oral histories that you could never learn from just the newspapers,” said Schuetz, who became personally close to former NGCB chairman Olsen. The latter “was in declining health and could not leave his small apartment. He could not get ice cream delivered, so I took him ice cream and he would eat it, drink plenty of vodka, chain-smoke, and talk Nevada gaming.”
Fast-forward from 1977 to 2026 and Schuetz is still an oral-history junkie. “I just find the bookies fascinating, especially today where it’s changing dramatically. So much of it is automated now,” he lamented, bemoaning what he called the current “ban or bankrupt” mentality in online sports betting. “I appreciated the old model.”
Schwartz concurred, saying in a press release, “Oral histories are a wonderful tool to help a community understand its culture and history, and the development and evolution of sports betting is an important chapter in the history of Las Vegas. … As sports betting is exploding across the United States, it is important that we chronicle where it all started.”
Schuetz’s interest is more than academic. While at the Stardust, he dealt with numerous oddsmakers. He likes to tell the story of the Stardust’s 11 pay phones, always jammed with bookies. “They were the highest revenue-producing pay phones in the world!”
While Schwartz and Schuetz will choose the 10 bookmakers to be included in the survey, they will be aided in their thought process by an advisory committee, as yet unnamed. The project is being underwritten by veteran oddsmaker Michael “Roxy” Roxborough, whom Schuetz met while setting up the sportsbook at the old Frontier in 1986. “A real gentleman,” according to Schuetz, Roxborough helped the Frontier set its betting lines. From 1982 to 1999, Roxborough also supplied odds to an overwhelming majority of Silver State casinos through his Las Vegas Sports Consultants service.
Asked why he and Schwartz are taking the oral-history approach over writing a book, Schuetz guffawed, “I’m not about to write 10 books!” He added that he felt oral histories were more candid and that memoirs tended to be self-serving. Even so, the bookmakers being profiled will have an opportunity to vet their copy beforehand and hold back certain information from dissemination.
Once the interviews are taped, UNLV will have them transcribed. They will then be globally available through the university’s website. They’ll be released one at a time, as they’re compiled.
Schultz joked that his his ideal timeline would be “before I die.” However, he and Schwartz hope to make public the 10 discussions (probably culled from multiple interviews with each subject) within a year.
If Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal were still alive, would the infamous bookie and casino skimmer be included? Schuetz didn’t hesitate. “Without question.”
