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Authors: Dan E. Moldea
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commissioner, Bert Bell began the process of calling cooperative bookmakers and gamblers, particularly those associated with the Minneapolis line, during the week before NFL games were played. His intent was to discover if there were any unusual fluctuations in the betting line.
âHe took to the grave with him the names of his contacts in the underworld,â Bellâs son Upton told me. âMy father had three phones. One was for regular use. Another was for the players who could call him at any time. And there was a third phone that he used for the gamblers and the people who were feeding him information about the odds or about a playerâs behavior. All of these guys had a code name. And Bert Bell was the only one who had these names.
âThere was a certain honor among them. They wanted the games on the up-and-up because if they placed a bet they wantedto know that some guy down the line wasnât fixing the game. They knew if they told Bert Bell, they could get to the bottom of it. If he saw any great fluctuations from Monday right up to game time on Sunday, he was right on the phone to the team involved.â
Among other bookmakers Bell kept in touch with were those controlled by Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, and the then-boss of the New Orleans Mafia, Sylvester Carolla. The three syndicate figures had agreed in 1947 to create âa national communications center in New Orleans to transmit financial information. Such a clearinghouse would, for instance, make it possible for the bookmaking syndicate in New York to know instantly if a horse, ball team, or what have you was being heavily wagered elsewhere in the nation. Any break in the betting patterns would indicate a fix or an attempt to swindle the syndicate.â 3
Ed Curd, Costelloâs personal bookmaker, set a major national line on sporting events during the late 1940s that rivaled that published by The Green Sheet . Curd told me that he had met Costello in 1946. âCostello said that he could handicap his own horses and his baseball games, but he wanted me to give him a football team or two. What was I going to say? No? He told me that if I ever needed anything in New York, that I shouldnât hesitate to call on him.
âThere wasnât anything he wouldnât do for me. And we did business together for several years. Later on, he wanted me to go to Vegas, and he would see that I was taken care of. But I turned him down. I always thought that staying in the middle of the road was best for me. I wanted to do my own thing. I didnât want any partners.â 4
Operating with two Teletype machines, three telephones strictly for long-distance business, and four secretaries, Curd ran his line out of Kentucky and distributed it across the country. He also was responsible for a new innovation in gambling: 11-10, the bookmakerâs standard 10 percent vigorish on all losing bets.
âWe had so much business on football that we had two ways of dealing,â Curd recalls. âWe had nine to ten odds for up to fourteen points, thatâs ninety cents on the dollar. And we had six to five for fourteen and over. And then we had an outcome price on every gameâsometimes as ridiculous as one to twenty and fifteen to one. We had a price on every game. Well, we had control of the business. But it was getting awkward handling everything.
âSo one Monday morning, just before we sent out the line, I said, âWeâre going to change things, and see if we can get away with it.â What I wanted to do was get rid of the outcome prices. I wanted to eliminate them altogether. But they were being dealt all over the country. So I knew I had to give the operators around the country something better to work with, more money. So I made up my mind that regardless whether there was a bet on a four-point game or a twenty-point game, Iâd put it right on the spot. Let them lay eleven to ten [put up $11 to make $10], and that
âHe took to the grave with him the names of his contacts in the underworld,â Bellâs son Upton told me. âMy father had three phones. One was for regular use. Another was for the players who could call him at any time. And there was a third phone that he used for the gamblers and the people who were feeding him information about the odds or about a playerâs behavior. All of these guys had a code name. And Bert Bell was the only one who had these names.
âThere was a certain honor among them. They wanted the games on the up-and-up because if they placed a bet they wantedto know that some guy down the line wasnât fixing the game. They knew if they told Bert Bell, they could get to the bottom of it. If he saw any great fluctuations from Monday right up to game time on Sunday, he was right on the phone to the team involved.â
Among other bookmakers Bell kept in touch with were those controlled by Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, and the then-boss of the New Orleans Mafia, Sylvester Carolla. The three syndicate figures had agreed in 1947 to create âa national communications center in New Orleans to transmit financial information. Such a clearinghouse would, for instance, make it possible for the bookmaking syndicate in New York to know instantly if a horse, ball team, or what have you was being heavily wagered elsewhere in the nation. Any break in the betting patterns would indicate a fix or an attempt to swindle the syndicate.â 3
Ed Curd, Costelloâs personal bookmaker, set a major national line on sporting events during the late 1940s that rivaled that published by The Green Sheet . Curd told me that he had met Costello in 1946. âCostello said that he could handicap his own horses and his baseball games, but he wanted me to give him a football team or two. What was I going to say? No? He told me that if I ever needed anything in New York, that I shouldnât hesitate to call on him.
âThere wasnât anything he wouldnât do for me. And we did business together for several years. Later on, he wanted me to go to Vegas, and he would see that I was taken care of. But I turned him down. I always thought that staying in the middle of the road was best for me. I wanted to do my own thing. I didnât want any partners.â 4
Operating with two Teletype machines, three telephones strictly for long-distance business, and four secretaries, Curd ran his line out of Kentucky and distributed it across the country. He also was responsible for a new innovation in gambling: 11-10, the bookmakerâs standard 10 percent vigorish on all losing bets.
âWe had so much business on football that we had two ways of dealing,â Curd recalls. âWe had nine to ten odds for up to fourteen points, thatâs ninety cents on the dollar. And we had six to five for fourteen and over. And then we had an outcome price on every gameâsometimes as ridiculous as one to twenty and fifteen to one. We had a price on every game. Well, we had control of the business. But it was getting awkward handling everything.
âSo one Monday morning, just before we sent out the line, I said, âWeâre going to change things, and see if we can get away with it.â What I wanted to do was get rid of the outcome prices. I wanted to eliminate them altogether. But they were being dealt all over the country. So I knew I had to give the operators around the country something better to work with, more money. So I made up my mind that regardless whether there was a bet on a four-point game or a twenty-point game, Iâd put it right on the spot. Let them lay eleven to ten [put up $11 to make $10], and that
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