Category: Uncategorized (Page 5 of 6)

In her last dispatch as a New York Times book critic, Jennifer Senior fittingly focuses on the acknowledgments sections of books. Sometimes we think of writing as a solitary pursuit, and largely it is. But when you get to the end and need to write the acknowledgments section, you realize how many people helped you along the way. I always thought that only nerds like me bothered to read acknowledgments, but I’ve received a surprising amount of positive feedback on what I wrote for my book. Maybe it connects because people know it comes from the heart.

Book blogger Marshal Zeringue asked me to cast a movie version of my book. It was a fun mental exercise, and here’s what I wrote:

My nonfiction book, Gangsters to Governors: The New Bosses of Gambling in America, explores how and why states have encouraged and promoted the expansion of legalized gambling in America. The book, published by Rutgers University Press, touches on the evolution and expansion of lotteries, tribal gaming, commercial casinos, sports gambling, daily fantasy, racetrack betting, and much more.

My six years of research and writing led me to a rogue’s gallery of colorful characters, from John “Old Smoke” Morrissey, the Irish-born gangster who built Saratoga into a gambling haven in the nineteenth century, to Bugsy Siegel, the gangster who completed the Flamingo hotel-casino in Las Vegas only to be assassinated months later. Daniel Day-Lewis would be outstanding as Morrissey because he portrayed his arch-rival Bill the Butcher Poole in the film Gangs of New York. For Siegel, Tom Hiddleston would be able pull off the lean athleticism and charm leavened with the necessary streak of menace.

Other key roles and the actors who would fill them:

Howard Hughes: Leonardo DiCaprio, who captured his paranoia in The Aviator

Benny Binion: Woody Harrelson, who would convey the Texan’s good-ole-boy roughness

Steve Wynn: Michael Douglas, who has that appealing bad-boy charisma

Donald Trump: Well, who else but Alec Baldwin?

https://mybookthemovie.blogspot.com/2017/12/david-clarys-gangsters-to-governors.html

www.rutgersuniversitypress.org

Today the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on New Jersey’s challenge of the federal ban on sports gambling, and legal experts believe that the justices seem to be siding with the state. A decision will come in June.

The law at issue is the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which grandfathered in four states that already had legal sports betting — Delaware, Montana, Nevada, Oregon — and barred other states from doing it. Of the four, only Nevada has single-game sports betting.

Since 2009, the same year Chris Christie was first elected New Jersey  governor, the state has challenged PASPA in the courts. New Jersey voters approved a 2011 referendum permitting sports gambling at casinos and racetracks, and Christie signed a bill approving such betting by the fall of 2012. The NCAA, NBA, NFL, NBA and NHL collectively sued New Jersey in federal court for trying to circumvent the 1992 ban. New Jersey lost in a lower court and appealed to the Supreme Court, which in June 2014 allowed the ban to remain.

San Diego author’s book serves as reference about US gambling

I’ve had the pleasure of being interviewed by about a dozen media outlets about the book. Most recently, I appeared on the “Give and Take” podcast hosted by Scott Jones. He’s an engaging conversationalist and brings on an eclectic roster of guests — everyone from a senior editor at the National Review to a former Obama speechwriter. We talked about the rise and fall of Atlantic City, my struggles with a Betty White-branded slot machine, journalism in the Trump era, and the taboo against legalized sports betting.

Here’s the link:

https://giveandtake.fireside.fm/64

On Sunday afternoon, Nov. 5, I was lucky to have an event at Laguna Beach Books, a lovely independent bookstore right on the PCH!

One of the things that I’ve learned in the promotion phase of getting a book published is the importance of independent bookstores to our communities. They were without exception wonderful to deal with in terms of being willing to host events for me or order my books if having an event wasn’t feasible. They are champions of local authors and vigorously promote events through social media and in their stores. The folks that work at the stores are avid readers and recommend books that might otherwise get overlooked. So if you’re looking for a place to drop some coin this holiday season, please consider doing so at your local independent bookstore!

My publisher has hired an outside PR firm that has worked hard to help get the word out about “Gangsters to Governors.” I did my first-ever radio interview on Monday with WBZ NewsRadio, a CBS-owned station in Boston. It’s one of those hard-boiled “weather on the 9’s” kind of stations, so the interview was brisk to say the least. I’ll be on a gambling-focused radio show, KPBS Midday Edition in San Diego, a thoughtful religion and politics podcast called “Give and Take,” and Wisconsin Public Radio’s morning show. An eclectic lineup to say the least!

The New York Times posted a conversation between Lin-Manuel Miranda and Stephen Sondheim that contains sage advice for writers of any kind.

Here’s Sondheim, talking about what makes a good collaborator:

You’ve got to have somebody who’ll surprise you and, you know, it’s the old lesson, you’ve got to work on something dangerous. You have to work on something that makes you uncertain. Something that makes you doubt yourself.

You shouldn’t feel safe. You should feel, “I don’t know if I can write this.” That’s what I mean by dangerous, and I think that’s a good thing to do. Sacrifice something safe.