As legal sports betting continues to expand across the United States, the UNLV Oral History Research Center is launching a new project to preserve the firsthand stories of the Nevada bookmakers who helped build the industry.
The initiative brings together Richard Schuetz, CEO of American Bettors' Voice, and David G. Schwartz, gaming historian, author, and ombuds at UNLV, to help identify 10 historically significant bookmakers whose stories will be preserved as part of the project.
Schuetz and Schwartz will assemble an advisory committee to identify participants whose interviews will become part of the permanent collection of the Oral History Research Center in the UNLV Libraries. The oral histories will be available to historians, researchers, and the public.
The project comes at a pivotal moment for the industry. Since the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision that paved the way for legalized sports betting beyond Nevada, sports betting has expanded rapidly across the country. The project aims to preserve the experiences of the individuals whose work helped establish Nevada as the birthplace of modern sports wagering before those stories are lost.
Longtime oddsmaker and Sports Gambling Hall of Fame inductee Roxy Roxborough has pledged a generous gift to fund the project.
“The people who built Nevada's sports betting industry have remarkable stories to tell, and now is the time to preserve them,” Schuetz said. "I'm thrilled to work alongside David Schwartz, Sarah Quigley, and the outstanding team at the UNLV Oral History Research Center to ensure these voices become part of the historical record. We're also grateful for Roxy Roxborough's generosity in making this project possible.”
Schwartz added, “Oral histories are a wonderful tool to help a community understand its culture and history, and the development and evolution of sports betting is an important chapter in the history of Las Vegas, Nevada, and the United States. As sports betting is exploding across the United States, it is important that we chronicle where it all started.”
The new collection is an example of UNLV Special Collections & Archives’ mission to preserve the stories that define Southern Nevada and industries, like gaming, that are part of its development, said Quigley, who is director of the archives.
“By capturing the voices of the bookmakers who helped shape Nevada's sports betting industry, we're ensuring future generations have access to firsthand accounts of a transformative period in our state’s history.”
The project was announced during BetBash, held Aug. 4-7 at Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. The annual conference brings together leaders from across the sports betting industry and is organized by Gadoon "Spanky" Kyrollos, founder of American Bettors' Voice, the Sports Gambling Hall of Fame, and BetBash.
