Billy Walters, a Legendary Gambler

Life of Billy Walters

Billy Walters was born on July 15, 1946, in a small town called Munfordville, an hour's drive from Fort Knox, a military base where the United States's gold reserves were stored.

He grew up in a family where gambling was a way of life. His father and uncle were avid poker players. His father died early, when Billy was 1.5 years, and his mother then ran away from home, so his grandmother and uncle raised him. His uncle had a private billiard room, and at the age of 4 years, Billy managed to play billiards. At 9, he made his first wager, staking all his money (75 dollars) on his favorite team, the New York Yankees, against the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1955 World Series. The boy lost but was hooked.

When Billy was 13 years old, his grandmother died, and he moved to Louisville with his mother. At 16, he had a daughter and was forced to marry. This marriage lasted one year. In the morning, Billy used to work at the bakery; at night, he worked at a gas station; and in the afternoon, he studied. In addition, he delivered newspapers, worked in the tobacco fields, was a painter, sold cars, and worked as a real estate broker. However, according to him, these were just avocations. His primary occupation was gambling. He played anything: pool, rummy, poker, blackjack, roulette, golf, horse racing. And he drank, he drank really a lot.

After high school, Walters engaged in the sale of cars and married again. He had two sons in this marriage. His elder son died at the age of 5 years, and his younger son was ill with brain cancer. Billy had to make a terrible choice: to allow his son to die or to have surgery and remove the part of the brain, but then his son would be mentally retarded forever.

They told him he had 30 days left to live - says Billy Walters. - He had a tumor behind his left eye. After radiation therapy, they told us that he could die any day. I was drunk all that time. I was 26 years old. It was the only thing in my life, which I was not able to cope. I gave up my business and family and was always drunk. Just nine months later, I returned to business management.

Three years later, Billy divorced and married a third time.

In the late 1970s, Walters became a bookmaker and began to accept bets illegally. He had mixed success. Besides, Billy enjoyed drinking. He also had gambling addiction. He says, "I could put all my money on the coin toss." Walters made a periodical raid in Las Vegas, where he played blackjack, baccarat, poker, and golf at the famous Horseshoe. He was used to doing all that till 1982, when he was arrested for illegal bookmaking. Paying a $1,000 fine, Billy decided to change his way of life radically and finally moved to Las Vegas.

Billy was an outstanding gambler, but he did not even know how to play professionally. After arriving in Las Vegas, Walters contacted the people who helped him turn his passion for gambling into his professional occupation.

In 1980, Ivan Mindlin and Michael Kent created the legendary Computer Group, which pioneered the use of computer algorithms for sports betting. In the early 1980s, the Computer Group became the first national network of sports betting, making bets on hundreds of thousands of dollars per day. The team of players, handicappers, and investors started earning millions. Billy Walters became a member of exactly this group in 1983. He married a second time to stop drinking and became a member of the influential elite of Las Vegas.

In 1985, the Computer Group came into the sight of the FBI, and Billy had problems. The FBI believed that the Computer Group did not make bets but accepted them, i.e., it was engaged in illegal bookmaking. The whole story lasted several years. Eventually, Walters was accused of "participation in the conspiracy to make bets." A trial took place, and the jury just laughed at the absurd accusation. Billy Walters was acquitted, and the case against him was closed.

Walters earned his first millions in 1986: he won $3.8 million playing roulette, using a strategy of gambling on the old equipment, $3.5 million he won staking in the Super Bowl, and about $ 400,000 he got from golf. Then, the casino started resisting Billy's gambling, and he switched to sports betting. Since then, he has not had a single unsuccessful season: he earned 15 to 60 million dollars betting every year. Even now, when Walters has more than $300 million, he continues to work hard at the age of 69 years. Jack Sheehan, who wrote his biography, speaks of him in the following way:

I can tell you that no one has ever had such approach to sports betting with stubborn analysis and without use of technical possibilities for this. And he has work ethics, it's just ridiculous. If you and I would have $300 million, we could play golf five days a week. Or relax on the beach with three girls in bikinis. And Billy is working as hard as he did when he was a seller of used cars in Kentucky".

Billy Walters and Gambling

Such large bets as Walters made are undesirable in many bookmakers in Las Vegas, so he organized his network of runners, whose task was to bet without any hint that they were working for someone else. Bookmakers of Las Vegas are afraid of big players, so many set limits of $10,000 - 20,000. In addition, the accounts of too successful gamblers are in danger of being closed for some far-fetched reasons. Therefore, each runner bets less than the limit permits, but the total amount from Walters often exceeds the bet of the runner dozens of times.

Of course, runners are tempted to use Walters' information and stake not only his money but also their own. However, Billy is not a fool, and such attempts are blocked. Some of his bets are intentionally lost, and this is done not only for protection from unfair runners who can spoil the whole system of gambling because of their greed.

Sometimes, these deliberately losing bets are made to manipulate the betting line. Let us assume that Team 1 and Team 2 are playing against each other.

1. Walters can stake $50,000 on the first team with 3-1 odds.
2. Such a large bet influences the line, and the odds will drop to 2.5-1.
3. Next, he wagers $75,000 on the same team, and the bookmaker again responds to the bet by decreasing the odds to 2-1.
4. Accordingly, the odds for team 2 grow after these manipulations, and then a runner receives instructions to immediately make a bet that exceeds the limit, perhaps $250,000, on the second team.
5. Thus, Walters remains in the black in any case. If the first team loses, the $125,000 bet on it will be lost, but $250,000 on the other side would be enough to make a profit. (The Numbers are taken randomly to illustrate the scheme.)

Walters uses this method in several games, managing millions of dollars every weekend. The essence is to organize the delta, i.e., a situation where the player will win despite the match's outcome. This method is well-known among gamblers on Betfair, and it began with the time of the Computer Group. The more significant is the spread, the more money the gambler wins. This type of manipulation is nothing illegal; in unpopular matches, the line can be moved even by a small bet of $1,000. The Walters' strategy is more complex and uses more people and more information, and, of course, Billy's bets are much higher, and many bookmakers immediately place them.

Incident with Rubalcada

And to finish with runners, we will tell the story of one of them with an unpronounceable name, Ezekiel Rubalcada. When Walters offered him a job, Rubalcada saw a chance to earn much money. Eventually, he duplicated Billy's bets from his own resources without knowing all the underpinnings. As a result, he lost so much that he started stealing Walters' funds, and finally, his debt reached half a million dollars. To make up for a deficiency, Ezekiel Rubalcada organized the theft of his car, where ostensibly was the money. He reported to the police. His misfortune was that the robbery was recorded on a video camera, so a trial did not last long.

Rubalcada eventually pleaded guilty to two counts, was sentenced to three years of probation, and was ordered to pay $360,000. It was obliged to return the money because, after Rubalcada's arrest, one of Walters' lawyers came to the prosecutor and provided him with documents that proved that the financial transactions were conducted lawfully through a limited liability corporation. This again shows that all of Walters' operations are legal.

Work on the bet begins long before the match. Handicappers of the NFL and NBA, who are working on him, provide Walters with quantitative estimates of the teams by color codes and letter grades. The Walters' network also includes scouts who carefully study local newspapers, websites, blogs, and Twitter to reveal information about the moods and scandals in teams, injuries of players, etc. This information is saved into the computer along with other statistical data - the state of the field where the match will occur to changes in match officials. Billy appears Only after that; his goal is to find an underestimated team. After making a final decision, he forms a scheme on how, where, and when it is necessary to stake and informs authorized persons, and they, in turn, inform runners about his decision.

Even the greatest player of all time does not always win, but he should not do it. In sports betting, winning 52.38 percent of all bets is sufficient to be in black. Any additional victory is a net profit, and when bets on millions of dollars are made, you can imagine one percent of the profit from gambling. On average, Walters receives an extra two percentage points above the break-even point, sometimes even more. His top profit was in 1985 when he was still a Computer Group member. This syndicate won a stunning 60.3 percent of American football at that time. After leaving the Computer Group, Walters's best result was in 2002, when he finished the season by winning 58 percent of bets.

There is a myth that all Walters' bets are made in Las Vegas, but it is untrue. Making bets outside of Nevada is considered a gray area, so Walters refuses to discuss it. However, some credible sources believe that only a few Walters' bets are in Las Vegas. According to them, other bets are made either on offshore gambling sites or, to a lesser extent, through a network of betting offices, many of which have been operating with Walters for decades.

It has been reported that the recent Walters' operations become more active in the offshore bookmakers in Europe and in the developing Asian market. So, more than 40 phone numbers in his office were found during a raid of the FBI in 1996. Over 12,000 long-distance calls to Canada, Central America, and the Caribbean have been made to them in the last month. In addition, documents on wire transfers totaling $970,000 were found. This money was transferred to Walters' account through Montreal, London, and New York banks.

Walters was three times accused of money laundering and illegal gambling winnings, but he was exculpated before trial. According to sources, the Walters' international consortium's head office is outside the United States. The last known location was in Panama before he had offices in London, the Bahamas, and Tijuana, Mexico.

One such source is John Mastronardo, who worked as his trustee from 2000 to 2005. He called his former boss a genius but claimed to have witnessed his dark side, i.e., Walters could be tricky and cruel. According to him, Walters is good and evil, charming and cunning. They met in 1980, and for a long time, Walters tested him, giving him large sums of money without a signed contract relying on his honesty. Only when John proved his honesty did Walters make him his assistant.

He is a genius for me, - says Mastronardo. - First of all, no one knows where he places bets. Some of them he makes in casinos. Other bets he makes on different sites. Thus, he uses the entire market. But his art is that he can wager on a game a lot of money and no one will know about it.

Mastronardo states that Walters could also be ruthless and tells his life story. One day, he flew to Las Vegas with over 2,000,000 dollars in cash. It was Walters' money intended for runners. At the airport, he was stopped by federal agents. They ransacked his luggage and found money. He was accused of having illegal money and arrested. Mastronardo succeeded in sending a message to Walters in the hope that he would pull him out of prison, but in return, he received just three words: "John, good luck." After several hours of interrogation, the agents found out that he was a professional gambler, and he was allowed to get away with the money. When Walters' runners got the money and told him about it the following day, he called Mastronardo and warned him: "Johnny, you know the rules. It's my money. If I do not get it, you are hooked."

Here's a story of success. The poor boy from Kentucky is a wealthy man with an estimated capital of over $300 million. His assets include three golf courses in Las Vegas, a few dealerships to sell cars, a four-bedroom house in Henderson, Nevada, a home for $10 million in Carlsbad, and an estate worth $8.5 million in Santa Fe. He is a recognized philanthropist and founder of a charitable organization in Las Vegas that helps people with disabilities. And all this is thanks to sports betting and hard work.