Olshan, sports betting guru, Gold Sheet publisher, dies

Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2003 | 10:58 a.m.

Mort Olshan, a lifelong sports fanatic who for more than a half century provided information to gamblers to encourage wise betting and who since 1957 has published "The Gold Sheet," died Thursday. He was 78.

He died in Beverly Hills, Calif., following a lengthy illness.

Olshan's tout sheet had considerable influence on Nevada's multimillion-dollar sports book and sports betting industry.

"Mort represented everything that was good about the sports betting industry," said Las Vegas gaming analyst Larry Grossman, a longtime friend.

"His integrity was beyond reproach. He was providing valuable information to sports bettors long before there were computers and national newspapers."

Margie Meadow is the current co-owner of The Gold Sheet, which an ailing Olshan sold to five of his longtime employees three years ago. She said Olshan dedicated his life to helping people gamble wisely.

"He was one of the first proponents of money management and he spent much of his later life battling against those in the industry who made outrageous and false claims about 90-percent-plus winning percentages," she said.

The Gold Sheet issued a challenge that any touts who provided the publication with their sports picks in advance and did better than 60 percent over the course of an entire season would receive $100,000. Many tried. No one ever collected, Meadow said.

Olshan was a strong proponent of intelligent and responsible gambling.

"Rather than criticizing young people for gambling, why not introduce educational courses that would teach them about risk-taking, encourage participation and make it a requirement in the college curriculum?" Olsham wrote in one of his "If Somebody Asked Me I'd Say ..." columns.

Among Olshan's advice were his seven things sports betters should avoid: not knowing what it takes to be a winner; being undisciplined in managing money; lacking patience; failing to set priorities; blindly following some groundless technical trend; betting with the heart instead of the head, and falling for tips and other nonsense.

Born April 6, 1925, in Buffalo, N.Y., Olshan, was a sports fan as long as he could remember. As a boy, he would go to the Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, where he would book nickel and dime action on Niagara -- his favorite team -- in basketball games against arch rivals Canisius and St. Bonaventure.

A Marine veteran of World War II, Olshan saw action in Okinawa.

After the war, Olshan moved to Minnesota and in 1947 went to work as a statistician for tout Leo Hirschfield, "The Wizard of Odds" and publisher of The Green Sheet.

In the 1950s, Olshan moved to Southern California and in 1957 founded The Gold Sheet, which became known as "the American sportsman's bible."

Olshan also wrote three books: "The Winning Theories of Sports Handicapping," "The Competitors Creed" and "The Best of The Gold Sheet."

Olshan is survived by his wife, Sylvia Olshan of Beverly Hills; a son, Gary Olshan, current president of The Gold Sheet and also a resident of Beverly Hills; a daughter, Debra Cooper of New York City; and three grandchildren.

Services will be Thursday in Los Angeles.