Thursday, July 26, 2007 | 7:10 a.m.
He hasn't publicized his role until this week, but veteran sports book operator Art Manteris has served as a consultant to the NBA on a variety of issues regarding Las Vegas sports betting since 1998.
The link between Manteris and the league came to light after NBA Commissioner David Stern spoke to reporters about the federal investigation into allegations that referee Tim Donaghy bet on and fixed games in the past two seasons.
Manteris, who has 29 years of experience in the state's race and sports book industry, thinks an enhanced level of cooperation between Nevada and the major sports leagues, including the NCAA, could help avert potential scandals and ensure the games are kept as clean as possible.
"I don't see a downside to it," said Manteris, vice president of race and sports book operations for Station Casinos Inc. "Protecting the integrity of sports is vital to the Nevada gaming industry."
Throughout his career as a gaming executive, Manteris has preached that the interests of Nevada's sports book directors and oddsmakers are aligned with those of officials of the major sports leagues. For either side, any illicit manipulation of a sporting event's outcome, even a hint of impropriety, could have catastrophic results.
That's why Manteris empathized with Stern as the commissioner addressed the Donaghy situation on national TV from New York on Tuesday.
"The look on Stern's face said more to me than the words he was saying," Manteris said. "I felt a sickening feeling in my stomach.
"I knew this was almost a worst-case scenario for him. I cringe every time this type of subject comes up."
It's unfortunate that the message espoused by Manteris - open communication aids the leagues and their fans as well as the oddsmakers and bettors - has not entirely reached its intended audience. In the case of some anti-gambling politicians, it's as if they don't even want to be educated on the issue.
For instance, Manteris recalls the effort to work with NCAA officials several years ago, when a bill that would have outlawed betting on college sports in Nevada was still kicking around Congress.
Instead of embracing the opportunity to gather information from the state's legal sports books, NCAA leaders sought to distance themselves from Nevada.
"We did not have a good experience with the NCAA the last time around," Manteris said. "They cast us in a negative light. They looked at it as an adversarial relationship."
Later, Manteris got hold of what he called a "Dear Colleague" letter that had made the rounds among the nation's esteemed elected representatives that was filled with inaccuracies.
"There was such a level of misunderstanding," Manteris said, with an admirable amount of diplomacy. "It was very surprising."
The letter pointed fingers at the Nevada gaming industry, implying it was part of the problem of point-spread manipulation shenanigans.
"That's just the furthest thing from the truth," Manteris said.
Just as it's incumbent on the major sports leagues to cooperate with Nevada sports betting representatives to spot and stamp out potential fixes whenever possible, it's the responsibility of the gaming industry to embrace its unique role as a "sports watchdog."
In the past some Nevada bookmakers have intimated that they want nothing to do with being watchdogs. They just want to book games, collect money and be left alone. It's a backward-thinking, short-sighted position.
Like Manteris and others - including oddsmaker Ken White of Las Vegas Sports Consultants - the state's legal sports betting leaders should seek to step up and work with the major sports leagues. Both sides, that is, should let in a little sunlight.
Because of the nature of the investigation into the allegations against Donaghy, neither Stern nor Manteris would address any specific NBA games that might have been tainted by the referee or underworld gamblers. Stern said in his news conference that betting on any fixed games most likely did not go through Las Vegas.
Retrospective analyses in the sports media of Donaghy's games in the past two seasons have been all over the place. Some raise intriguing questions. Others show a lack of understanding of even the rudiments of sports gambling.
"Under the circumstances, it's probably best for the short term not to get into what we may or may not have come across," Manteris said.
Stern portrayed the scandal as an example of one rogue ref working alone rather than part of a larger conspiracy. Manteris also stressed the generally exemplary record of sports in America, considering the immense number of games played each year.
"Protecting the integrity of sports is something I've taken very seriously for a long time," Manteris said.
In fact, Manteris devoted part of a chapter in his 1991 book, "SuperBookie," to guarding against corruption in sports and sports gambling. He quoted a comment by influential oddsmaker Michael "Roxy" Roxborough on the integrity of sports that remains relevant today: "I would defy any industry from the turn of the century to have so little scandal."
Gaming leaders and sports officials such as Stern should do all they can to prove Roxy right.
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