Dangerous Odds: My Secret Life Inside an Illegal Billion Dollar Sports Betting Operation
Lankester, the freewheeling daughter of a diplomat, thought it might be fun to work part-time for a California bookmaker (an illegal operation). She quickly impressed Ron Sacco, the bookmaker, and started climbing the ladder within his organization, winding up near the top. Soon she was the target of FBI investigators, who wanted to nail Sacco for illegal sports gambling, and eventually she wound up in the Dominican Republic, running a legal gambling operation for Sacco. This fascinating memoir approaches the story from two perspectives: there’s the behind-the-scenes angle, of course, as Lankester takes us deep inside Sacco’s sports-betting operation, but there’s also the personal angle: Lankester was a woman in a man’s world, the only female to hold a position of authority in a sports-betting organization. Her perspective is unique; you will find other books about sports betting, but it’s unlikely you’ll find one that tells the story as insightfully and from as fascinating a vantage point as this one. --David Pitt