Lemondrop

You might think that Beth Raymer's upbringing prepared her for the gambling business. At age 7, she'd accompany her dad to the dog track (where she'd pick out the skinniest girl pooches). Before she was even a teenager, she'd sit beside her father playing blackjack and sipping beer at Bahamian casinos. But as she reveals in her memoir "Lay the Favorite" (out June 22), professional sports gambling is a very, very different world.

When she found herself in Las Vegas -- having moved there with a boyfriend, then splitting with said boyfriend -- she broke out of cocktail waitressing and into working at Dink, Inc., owned and operated by Hebrew-schooled Queens native "Dink" Heimowitz, a gambler who made a living wagering on just about anything athletic.

"He bet on the NBA, NFL, PGA, NCAA basketball, NCAA football, tennis, WNBA, the Little League World Series, Miss America pageant, the National Spelling Bee and the Coney Island hot dog–eating contest," Raymer writes. (The hot dog–eating contest?!) "He specialized in horses, hockey, baseball, and also dabbled in poker."

Soon she's throwing around lingo like "Canadian line" and "Grand Salami" and betting thousands of her boss's dollars on a daily basis. Raymer has long since cashed in her chips, trading her pro-gambling career for Columbia grad school. But she looks back fondly on her high-rolling days.

Lemondrop grilled her for any hot tips you can use at your next poker game.

Lemondrop: Before I read your book I had no idea that professional gamblers had employees or offices. Or pet hamsters.
Beth Raymer: It surprises a lot of people. I probably had a similar outlook -- I thought of bookmakers and I would think of how they're portrayed on films: smoking a cigarette in some messy office in a basement somewhere.

Did you ever envision yourself in that world?
Never. Being a dealer at a casino or anything like that certainly never appealed to me. When I was little, it was certainly very glamorous -- being around money, the cocktail waitresses, staying up late drinking. When I entered the sports-betting underworld, it was only glamorous in that there was a lot of money being thrown around. There weren't a lot of sparkly, fancy cars. There was just a bunch of men who worked very hard and didn't take care of themselves very well.

Yeah, speaking of which, did you ever find out what the deal was with Dink's tongue? Why it turned green?
[Laughs] That's the mystery component of the book.

You did it for quite a while, between working for Dink, then later for Bernard, helping him set up shop in Curaçao. Then you even did a little booking yourself. There must have been a lot you liked about the job.
I really liked not having to go into an office. It was so free. It was just like being on summer vacation for five years. There were some down and dark periods. But overall it was so much fun, and I could really be myself. Every day was a mini-adventure -- going on pay-and-collects, meeting all the people in the world ... The hours were good, the pay was good.

On pay-and-collects, were you nervous carrying all that money?
I was nervous in the beginning. I was convinced I was either going to lose it or make a wrong bet and not realize it until it was too late.

If I were delivering $80,000 to a stranger at a roulette table, I'd be afraid of being robbed at gunpoint.
I never thought I was going to be held up at gunpoint. There is a lot of that kind of crime but I never envisioned something that dramatic happening to me. Maybe that was a false sense of security.

What didn't you like about the job?
Really, it had no future. There's only so high you can go in that world. Not that I had a lot of professional ambition at that time, but I did have enough to realize that I couldn't be there forever. It was really just a day-to-day job. So you get a feeling that you're ready to move on. Dink is an exception that he's so successful and he's his own boss and he's been able to do it for 30 years. You see a lot of them who aren't nearly as successful. I had tremendous good fortune in that both of my bosses were tremendously brilliant and successful.

And they also seemed like genuinely nice guys.
They were so nice, so generous, and really fun to be around. They made sure their employees were happy. I really have never had a real job, but certainly I have friends who have, and they were always so envious of that.

So did you just never see yourself at a desk in an office, doing the corporate thing?
I knew I could never do that, and I don't know how people do, and I hope to never have to do it. I think that's my life goal.

What did you see yourself doing?
I don't think I saw myself doing anything. I never had a plan -- ever. That's something I often talk about with my psychologist now. [Laughs] Like, "Beth, that's impossible, you must have had something going on!" I've had glimpses of things. But I was so ill-equipped to even fill out applications. And my grades were so poor. I definitely wasn't a school kind of person. But I wanted to make money. I think that's all I really knew. And I didn't want a 9-to-5 job. So I had these lucrative but questionable kinds of jobs.

Such as working as an "in-home stripper"? How long were you at Nightmoves?
Like a year.

I know you were upfront with at least your dad about working for Dink; did your parents know about that job?
They still don't, so you'll have to tell me when this interview is going to be posted. [Laughs] I might not prepare them. I might just say, "Read the book, talk to me about anything that's going to make you uncomfortable." I really can't anticipate -- I don't have kids, I don't know what they're going to think. They might be embarrassed. But that's all I can imagine. I was just experimenting with my sexuality -- I'll put it that way. They're Catholic. That might make them quiet.

Stripping, dancing for guys -- it doesn't seem like that big of a deal. I didn't think it was anything too shocking.
It certainly didn't seem shocking to me at the time, or when I was sitting in my little Brooklyn apartment writing about it. But something about preparing my parents kind of illuminates the seediness of it.

The book is filled with male characters -- with the exception of Dink's wife, Tulip, and the odd woman here and there, often you're the only woman in the room. What was it like working in such a male-dominated profession?
Gosh, it was challenging at times. Sometimes I certainly craved female companionship, someone to even roll my eyes with, and I just never had it. I think my personality became much stronger, because I really had to stick up for myself a lot. Not that they were mean, but because I was the only woman they picked on me or kind of tested me. Do you watch "Mad Men"?

Sure.
Peggy Olson, it took her to the second season to say, "No, get your own coffee!" Sometimes I would want to go get the breakfast just to get out of the office. Sometimes I just had to push up against them. And they had strong personalities. So I grew up a lot.

You never really gambled, even though you were surrounded by gamblers, often habitual ones. And there was definitely easy access to drugs -- particularly when you were in the Caribbean. How did you avoid getting sucked into all of that?
I've never really been attracted to drugs. I'm a healthy person. And gambling my own money -- I didn't have to because many times I was invested in what Dink needed. If he won, I would get a piece. It was great; I was getting all of the benefits without losing financially. But I did get caught up in the lifestyle in other ways. Just the day-to-day outlook, not thinking about your future at all. I got very lucky that I got accepted to Columbia. I was very lucky that I met Jeremy, my boyfriend in the book, and that I got accepted into grad school.

Was he a big part of your decision to become a writer?
He was instrumental. I was writing him letters all the time, and I was concerned [what I would do] if I left gambling. He's a journalist, and he's like, "You're a great writer, you could get into graduate school, it would be a great transition for you." He basically filled out my application; he had gone to Columbia journalism school. I owe him a lot.

I'm also fascinated by your amateur boxing career. How did you get into boxing?
There was a gym near my house. And I also had a girlfriend who had boxed. She would be like, I went to that gym and I jumped rope and I think I lost five pounds in an afternoon! So then when I get fired in the book I had nothing to do and I ended up boxing for almost two years. It really was a life-changing experience. But I stopped when I went to Columbia; I didn't have the time. Now I do Bikram yoga.

And now you're working on your second book?
I'm in the very early stages. I think it's a novel. But I'm approaching it like I did this one -- lots of interviews and spending time with people, so it's going to take a while. I know that the main character is going to be based on my sister, and it's going to take place in Florida and Ohio in the '80s. I think it may have coming-of-age themes.

Is that where you grew up?
Ohio, and then I moved to West Palm Beach when I was 5 or 6.

Do you still talk to Dink and Bernard?
All the time. They're eagerly awaiting the release of the book. They've read galleys, so they were all prepared for what I've exposed about them.

They both come off very well -- like really great people. Albeit really great people with many idiosyncrasies and ailments, like possible tongue fungus.
And you know what? They were great sports. I'm really proud of how they handled it. I think there were a couple winces at some sentences, but that's it. But those details reflect the culture. I wasn't just picking on them or finding something gross. It really, for me, went with the theme of the book. It was a reflection of the culture -- a lot of anxiety, a lot of money, a lot of risk-taking.

Melissa Rose Bernardo has never bet on any sporting events, unless you count the family Super Bowl pool her dad organized in February. She won $3. Her 94-year-old grandma won double that.


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