Before he became a “Jeopardy!” phenomena, Las Vegas resident James Holzhauer made his mark in sports gambling.
Next week, at the 17th International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking, Holzhauer will discuss his success in both fields.
The UNLV International Gaming Institute, which is producing the four-day conference at Caesars Palace, said Tuesday it added Holzhauer to the speaker line-up. He will participate in a panel discussion on Thursday, May 30 with Andy Bloch, a professional poker player.
Bloch, who also lives in Las Vegas, was part of the MIT card-counting team in the 1990s, made famous in the book, “Bringing Down the House.”
Holzhauer who has won 23 straight matches and more than $1.7 million going into Tuesday’s ‘Jeopardy!” show, will discuss how he attributes much of his game show success to sports betting.
According to the Washington Post, Holzhauer’s emergence, bracketed around the first anniversary of the Supreme Court decision allowing widespread sports gambling outside Nevada, has given a face to the American professional sports bettor. “That face happens to be clean-shaven and accompanied by tasteful button-down shirts and a math degree from the University of Illinois.”
The panel will focus on the real-world applications of research and how experiences and knowledge in sports, sports betting, “Jeopardy!”, poker, and blackjack overlap with each other and with the world outside of gaming.
Additional noteworthy sessions during the conference include presentations from, Las Vegas Strip entertainer Penn Jillette, Former Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairwoman Becky Harris, a presentation from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and researchers from Harvard, Yale, UNLV, and more than 30 countries.
Topics include eSports and video games, legal marijuana and gambling policy, sports betting, artificial intelligence for casinos, potential impacts of the Wire Act reversal, and women in gaming in the era of #MeToo.
The conference, which is held every three years, drew more than 600 attendees from more than 30 countries in 2016.
The full conference schedule is available online.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgamingreports.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
