© USA Today
Two veteran oddsmakers have been named to the Sports Gambling Hall of Fame’s first class of inductees.
Charles McNeil, credited with popularizing the point spread, and Jack Franzi, a longtime Las Vegas oddsmaker and bettor, will be inducted during a ceremony Aug. 11 at Circa Resort in downtown Las Vegas. The event is scheduled to take place during the BetBash sports betting conference.
So far, seven of 10 inductees into the inaugural class have been named. The final three are expected to be named soon.
Among those who have been named so far is Chicago oddsmaker Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, a Mob associate who illegally operated four Argent Corp. casinos in Las Vegas, most notably the Stardust, for Midwestern crime families.
In the 1995 Las Vegas Mob movie “Casino,” Robert De Niro portrays a character based on Rosenthal.
The other inductees to date are Jackie Gaughan, Bob Martin, Billy Walters and Roxy Roxborough.
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McNeil Called ‘Best Handicapper’ Ever
McNeil, who held a master’s degree from the University of Chicago, was described by the school as a “certified genius,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times. In the 1920s, one of his math students at the Riverdale Country School in New York was future President John F. Kennedy.
McNeil was known for popularizing the point spread and being one of the early innovators in betting against the spread.
In investigative reporter Dan E. Moldea’s 1989 book “Interference: How Organized Crime Influences Professional Football,” oddsmaker Ed Curd calls McNeil “the best handicapper who ever lived.” Curd had been mobster Frank Costello’s personal bookmaker.
Some have given McNeil credit for inventing the point spread. However, there is uncertainty in the sport betting world about where that form of wagering began. Even so, handicapper Mort Olshan said in the book “Interference” that McNeil “might not have invented the point spread, but he certainly refined it.”
After experiencing a stroke in his final years, McNeil died in April 1981 at age 77, the Sun-Times reported.
Sports Bettors Sought Franzi For Advice
Known as “Pittsburgh Jack” and “Uncle Jack,” Franzi was regarded as “was one of the most influential oddsmakers in Las Vegas history,” according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Franzi was an oddsmaker from 1979 to 1997 at the Barbary Coast on the Las Vegas Strip (now the Cromwell) and the off-Strip Gold Coast hotel-casino.
Franzi’s nephew, Art Manteris, told the newspaper his uncle arrived in Las Vegas when sports betting was in its infancy “and really helped set the groundwork.”
“Jack was very old-school but his analytical ability internally, in my mind, was really second to none,” said Manteris, a retired Las Vegas bookmaker and casino executive.
Several bookmakers and executives who learned from Franzi are active in the industry throughout the Las Vegas Valley to this day.
Other handicappers often sought out Franzi, a prominent bettor, for wagering advice. Among those who turned to him for insight was bookmaker and TV analyst Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder. Years ago, Synder consulted with Franzi before airing weekly NFL betting picks on the “The NFL Today” show on CBS, the newspaper reported.
An FBI agent who secretly bugged Franzi’s telephone during an official investigation in Pittsburgh decades ago often placed his own bets based on what he heard the handicapped say over the phone.
Years later, the retired FBI agent saw Franzi at a Las Vegas restaurant, according to the Review-Journal.
“I was writing down the sides you were playing and calling my bookie when I got off work,” the former agent said. “It was the best two football seasons I ever had.”
Franzi died in 2019 of natural causes. He was 91.
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