Never Bet On A Horse Named Joe
Capital Thinking • Issue #171 • View online
Veteran gamblers know you can’t beat the horses. There are too many variables and too many possible outcomes.
Front-runners break a leg. Jockeys fall. Champion thoroughbreds decide, for no apparent reason, that they’re simply not in the mood.
The American sportswriter Roger Kahn once called the sport “animated roulette.” Play for long enough, and failure isn’t just likely but inevitable—so the wisdom goes.
“If you bet on horses, you will lose,” says Warwick Bartlett, who runs Global Betting & Gaming Consultants and has spent years studying the industry.
What if that wasn’t true?
What if there was one person who masterminded a system that guaranteed a profit? One person who’d made almost a billion dollars, and who’d never told his story—until now?
Unless, you’re this guy.
The Gambler Who Cracked the Horse-Racing Code
From Bloomberg Businessweek by Kit Chellel:
“Benter, 61, walks with a slight stoop. He looks like a university professor, his wavy hair and beard streaked with gray, and speaks in a soft, slightly Kermit-y voice.
He told me he’d been driven only partly by money—and I believed him. With his intelligence, he could have gotten richer faster working in finance.
Benter wanted to conquer horse betting not because it was hard, but because it was said to be impossible. When he cracked it, he actively avoided acclaim, outside the secretive band of geeks and outcasts who occupy his chosen field.
Some of what follows relies on his recollections, but in every case where it’s been possible to corroborate events and figures, they’ve checked out in interviews with dozens of individuals, as well as in books, court records, and other documents.
Only one thing Benter ever told me turned out to be untrue.
It was at the outset of our conversations, when he said he didn’t think I’d find anything interesting to write about in his career.”
And For Those Who Just Can't Get Enough Math
*Featured post photo by Jeff Griffith on Unsplash