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Bookmaker Jimmy Vaccaro 👋

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Legendary Las Vegas bookmaker retires: ‘It’s been a great ride’​

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Jimmy Vaccaro has retired after 50 years as a Las Vegas bookmaker.

The Sports Gambling Hall of Famer, who will turn 80 on Oct. 5, left his role as South Point oddsmaker in July and moved back to his native Trafford, Pennsylvania.

“It’s been a great ride, but we all get old,” he said. “It was time. Fifty years is enough. I want to spend some time just doing nothing.”

That said, Vaccaro, who spent a short stint at Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh in 2019, hedged his bets on a possible return to Las Vegas.

“Everything can change in a minute,” he said. “Who the hell knows what’s going to happen tomorrow. I might do something now and then (for a sportsbook). I’m sure I’ll be back in Las Vegas. But it’s going to take me a while.

“This is one thing I’m sure of, I’m not a normal person. Buying a house and getting a car, that’s way over my head when I have to do it on my own. It will take me a while to get the house and car and everything. … I can’t even turn the light on.”

Vaccaro helped keep the lights shining bright in Las Vegas starting in 1975, when he began working as a blackjack dealer at the Royal Inn. Owner Michael Gaughan let him attend his dealer school with the agreement that Vaccaro would pay back the $250 fee when he had the money.

Gaughan later asked Vaccaro to help him open a sportsbook at the Royal Inn.

“He said, ‘Do you know how to run a sportsbook?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Good. Neither do I,’” Vaccaro said.

They opened the Barbary Coast sportsbook together on the Strip in 1979, and Vaccaro went on to run books in the 1980s at the original MGM Grand and the Golden Nugget before opening The Mirage sportsbook for owner Steve Wynn in 1989.

42 to 1

Vaccaro became nationally known at The Mirage, where, unlike most books, he offered odds on Mike Tyson’s fight against Buster Douglas on Feb. 11, 1990.

Tyson, then the undefeated world heavyweight champion, closed as a 42-1 favorite, meaning bettors had to wager $4,200 to win $100 on him to win. Douglas knocked out Tyson in what is considered one of the biggest upsets in sports history. Vaccaro was later immortalized in ESPN’s “30 for 30” documentary titled “42 to 1.”

“When The Mirage opened, it was a new era. We got a new type of person coming to The Mirage and sportsbooks in general. One of them used to bet a lot of money on boxing,” Vaccaro said. “This is insane but it’s the truth. He bet $420,000 to win $10,000. He laid 42-1.

“When I saw him the next day after he lost, he was smiling. I said, ‘Are you crazy?’ He said, ‘Jimmy, I thought I was going to win $10,000 very easy.’”

Vaccaro was inundated with interview requests from around the world when Wynn called him into his office.

“He said, ‘What the hell did you do?’” Vaccaro said. “Then he said, ‘Whatever you did, keep doing it.’”

Who shot Mr. Burns?


Vaccaro starred as a live-action human character on the 1995 TV special, “Springfield’s Most Wanted,” a spin-off of the popular animated series “The Simpsons.” He broke down the hypothetical betting odds on “Who shot Mr. Burns?”

“I was the first human on that show,” Vaccaro said. “The best part about that was the royalty checks (for $600 a month). Then I took a $5,000 buyout right after some other outfit bought the show. It was great.

“I was fortunate because I was running the joint for people who felt marketing was very important for the casino. That was Steve Wynn’s mantra, with the waterfalls out front and the fish in the back and everything else he did.”

Vaccaro isn’t the only member of his family with experience in show business.

His older brother Sonny was portrayed by Matt Damon in the movie “Air,” which chronicles Sonny Vaccaro’s quest to convince NBA great Michael Jordan to sign a shoe deal with Nike.

How ‘bout them Cowboys?

Vaccaro created season win totals in 1989, when high-stakes gambler Jack Keller asked him how many games he thought the Cowboys would win in their first season under coach Jimmy Johnson and owner Jerry Jones.

“He says, ‘How ‘bout you put a number up there and maybe we can do some business?’” Vaccaro said. “One of the things I enjoy more than anything is stuff like this. It was creative.

“It took me about five minutes to think about it.”

Vaccaro made the over-under 5½ and Keller and his wife pounced on the over.

“She turned over her purse and out popped $38,500,” Vaccaro said.

The wager quickly spread via word of mouth during a big fight weekend in Las Vegas.

“Every newspaper in the country called me up and said, ‘What about the Bears?’ ‘What about the Steelers?’” Vaccaro said. “It was incredible. To this day, that’s a big thing in every sport.”

Dallas went 1-15 that season before developing into a dynasty that won three Super Bowls in four years from 1993 to 1996.

Vaccaro went on to work for Leroy’s and William Hill sportsbooks in Las Vegas before rejoining Gaughan at the South Point in 2013.

“I was very, very fortunate to have Michael Gaughan give me a chance to do this,” Vaccaro said. “Then I was hired by Kirk Kerkorian and Steve Wynn. It was a great ride.”
 
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