I think playing without a Player's Card is stupid.

[redietz]

Here's one reason to play WITHOUT a card if you are a sports bettor. It's also a reason to bet sports WITH a card if you are a CET addict. Bear with me if that seems contradictory. CET uses a complex, not-really-analyzable system for rating players for sports limits. Now it may be changing soon with the Eldorado takeover, but as it stands--

The amount you can bet on a game can be affected by your CET rating. If you are an established idiot, say Seven Stars, you will be able to plunk down more per game than a non-idiot with a basic card. So establishing that you are a property-wide loser with your Seven Stars will liberalize how much you can bet. However, if you happen to win long term betting sports, as few do, that will then be in their data base and can be data-mined. It will also then have the interesting feedback effect of reducing how much you can bet per game.

These are not rules you are likely to find on a brochure. When I did my book survey about 10 years ago, however, some managers were more forthcoming with the reality of what they do than I suspect CET would have liked.

So I’m curios, I know nothing at all about sports betting, but I keep reading about good sports bettors getting barred or having their limits taken way down and I keep wondering, other than tax implications why dont they just have other people place their bets? Is that illegal? Feels like Im missing something big on this.

Yeah, it's become more or less illegal to have someone else place your bets. This is a recent development, due in part to Billy Walters having folks running around for him. Back in the day, 30 years ago, "runners" filled Las Vegas sports books. In fact, there's a really bad movie that I love, The Runner, with John Goodman playing the Billy Walters role. Anyway, the runners would generally be carrying six digits in cash, usually armed, and scouting numbers for big bettors. Even though I was generally carrying 30K and up all the time in those days, and once in awhile closer to six digits, I was nothing compared to the runners, so I was never much concerned with robbery attempts or even being noticed in the books. Small fish, big pond

The runners have been technically outlawed. I say technically because the books don't give a damn about civilians placing hundred dollar bets for their cousins. They just want to limit the simultaneous coordination of players like Billy Walters. So no, you are technically not supposed to be betting for other people, and if they catch you, they will occasionally hold your money. And then debates begin.

So "Singer" last year reporting on this, a public forum, the specific amounts of bets he had other people place for him in Las Vegas -- not smart. Demonstrated a real lack of knowledge.