There’s very little Billy Walters hasn’t done in gambling, from hustling golf games and winning millions at roulette to placing a $3.5 million bet on the Super Bowl. Now the mythic figure, once called the greatest and most controversial sports gambler ever by ESPN, is telling his story.
Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk , Walters’s autobiography written with journalist Armen Keteyian, will be published on Aug. 15, 2023, by the Simon & Schuster imprint, Avid Reader Press.
Born into poverty in rural Kentucky, Walters started hustling pool when he was nine years old. He worked as a used-car salesman and bookmaker before moving to Las Vegas, where he became a member of the Computer Group, a syndicate that applied sophisticated algorithms and data analysis to sports gambling.
Walters applied his data expertise to stock trading and built a business that included seven golf courses, 22 automobile dealerships, and other investments.
He was convicted of insider trading in the Southern District of New York in 2017 and served 31 months in federal prison. Phil Mickelson, with whom Walters had a gambling relationship and was part of the SDNY’s probe, refused to testify at the gambler’s trial. Walters shares his side of that incident in Gambler.
The book also covers Walters’s charitable endeavors, including his support of Opportunity Village, a home for intellectually challenged people in Nevada. All proceeds of Gambler will be donated to Opportunity Village and the Hope for Prisoners Billy Walters Center for Second Chances, which provides long-term support and services to formerly incarcerated people.
