Question of the Day - 23 March 2024

Amazingly enough, for a story that ended decades ago, we still get the occasional question about Gary Austin. And interestingly enough, no, he was never prosecuted for leaving Las Vegas abruptly, but perhaps in a case of karma being karma, another prosecution against him has just been completed. Read on.  

Austin was a self-proclaimed wise guy who started making sports bets in his mid-20s, around 1966, while working as a sales rep, then manager, for Continental Can in southern California. He was, reportedly, so adept at statistics and sports that within two years, he was making his living as a sports bettor. After he was arrested in California for the crime of “placing a bet” with an illegal bookie, he moved to Las Vegas in 1977 at age 36.

A year later, he won the first Castaways Pro Football Handicappers Championship, beating 55 other players who put up $1,000, by winning 62% of his picks. According to an online biography, the next season, “Dozens of gamblers walked into the Castaways each hour for two reasons: to get their NFL props and to see who Gary Austin had picked.”

With a salesman’s instinct for self-promotion, Austin took out full-page ads publicizing his win, then launched a tout service, the Austin Edge. He became so well-known that in 1980, Sports Illustrated wrote a long feature on him and he appeared on “The Today Show with Tom Brokaw.” He also had his own weekly show on ESPN in the cable channel's first year of existence, on which he handicapped NFL games.

A year later, he opened Gary Austin’s Sportsbook across the Strip from Caesars Palace.

No doubt the book had its ups and downs over the next few years, but the big action transpired during the 1985 World Series. Apparently, Austin took a major position on the St. Louis Cardinals winning Game 6. They lost 2-1 in the ninth inning to the Kansas City Royals due to a bad call at first base and an error. Austin took a major beating.

A couple of mornings later, sports bettors showed up at Austin’s book as usual, only to find a handwritten notice on the door, stating that due to an armed robbery the day before, the place was now permanently closed. All the winning tickets, plus more than $1 million in telephone-wagering accounts, were gone.

According to an online source, “No police report was ever filed about the [so-called robbery], no suspects were ever questioned, no one was ever arrested, and none of the 'stolen' money was ever recovered.”

Scotty Schettler, director of the Stardust sports book at the time, wrote in a 2015 story in Gaming Today, “It was impossible to find one living human who believed [the armed-robber story]. Everyone got stiffed, except a few bettors with muscle behind them."

Rumors also surfaced that Austin was being ripped off by his own ticket writers. 

Austin soon surfaced in Costa Rica. Reportedly, he and Calvin Ayre, the Canadian entrepreneur who founded Bodog, set up shop in the Central American country. In 2002, Austin married a Costa Rican model, Lynda Diaz, and lived in an $8 million mansion. He wasn't shy about his livelihood and riches and supermodel wife and often appeared in public and in the media.   

At some unknown time, Austin moved back to the U.S.

In July 2021, his mansion in Plantation, Florida, was raided by federal agents, who seized nearly $5 million in cash, several dozen gold bars, five luxury automobiles, and other valuables. It was reported that Austin also owned houses in Hollywood and Weston, both in Florida. The feds charged Austin with transmission of wagering information, running an illegal gambling business, money laundering, and conspiracy.

There was a fair amount of media coverage at that time, but then the case went radio silent. It required a search through the federal court records to learn that the proceedings moved slowly through the legal system and Austin and the government entered into a plea bargain on a reduced count. His sentencing was scheduled, coincidentally, for earlier this week: "60 months probation that includes a period of home detention for 6 months, a fine of $5,000, and a special assessment of $100." Again, we couldn't find any media reports on the sentencing or disposition of the case.

We also couldn't  find out what happened to the property that was seized in 2021, but we assume that it was forfeited.