Longtime sports book owner Dark dies at 82

Thursday, April 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

William "Bill" Dark, longtime owner and operator of the old Del Mar Race and Sports Book in North Las Vegas and the innovator of over-and-under baseball bets, has died. He was 82.

Services at Davis Paradise Valley Funeral Home were private for Dark, a 31-year Las Vegas resident who died Monday.

Dark's sports book, located in a free-standing building -- now a vacant structure -- in the northwest corner of the Silver Nugget parking lot, was popular among local bettors who favored a more intimate betting atmosphere than what is commonly found in larger hotel bookmaking operations.

While free-standing sports books were more popular in Las Vegas in the 1960s and '70s, when Dark's establishment was in operation, just one, Leroy's Race and Sports Book downtown, exists in Southern Nevada today.

Dark's book was one of the first major independents to close in the early 1980s because of hotel-casinos entering the lucrative sports book industry in the mid-to-late 1970s.

Independents like the Rose Bowl, Santa Anita and others followed suit, unable to compete with the vast resources of the larger businesses.

"It was the beginning of the end for the independents when Bill's place closed," said longtime friend and competitor Vic Salerno, owner of Leroy's, which, in addition to its downtown operation, has spread to 42 hotel-casinos statewide.

"Bill was from the old school and believed that once you stopped learning in this business, it was over. We often would run ideas by each other. He was an innovator who got along with everyone."

Dark instituted over-and-under betting on baseball, where bettors would wager on whether two teams in a single game would score more or less than a run total established by the oddsmaker. For instance, if the line was set at 7 1/2 runs and the final score was 4-3, those who bet on the under would win.

It has grown into one of the more popular forms of sports wagering.

Born Sept. 23, 1914, in Cairo, Ill., Dark came to Southern Nevada in 1966.

He prided himself on his ability to judge all sides of an issue -- a trait especially helpful when determining whether to move a line based on betting trends -- before rendering a judgment.

"One has to do this because there are always two sides to every situation," Dark said in a SUN Street Talk column that ran in the Jan. 24, 1966, edition. "You can't form an unbiased opinion unless you do put yourself in the other fellow's shoes and understand the problem.

"I like to keep an open mind at all times."

Dark is survived by a son, Michael Dark, of San Rafael, Calif.; two daughters, Patricia Dark of Las Vegas and Dawn Gruninger of Henderson; a brother, Ralph Dark of Los Angeles; a sister, Mary Joseph of St. Louis, and two grandchildren.