Then One Day

40 Years of Bookmaking in Nevada

Under the watchful eye of his Uncle Jack Franzi, a pioneer in the sports-betting business, author Chris Andrews started booking parlay cards in the fifth grade. He followed Uncle Jack to Las Vegas shortly after graduating from college in the mid-’70s and landed his first job in the sports book at the Stardust during the wildcat early years of legal sports betting in Nevada.

At age 25, after a stint behind the counter at the Barbary Coast, Chris became the youngest sports book director in the business at the Club Cal Neva in Reno. There, he started to make his mark on the industry, inventing the pleaser card, 10-point teaser cards, and introducing Super Bowl-style prop bets for Monday Night Football games.

Packed with classic stories from both sides of the counter, Then One Day offers a unique look at how a sports book director talks, thinks, and makes book—both in the “good-old-days” and today. 238 Pages

• By Chris Andrews