Monday, June 25, 2007 | 7:20 a.m.
"It's been my policy to view the Internet not as an 'information highway,' " a prescient Mike Royko once wrote, "but as an electronic asylum filled with babbling loonies."
It certainly seemed that way last week when Las Vegas professional gambler Fezzik shut down his eponymous sports betting Web site, citing his frustration with personal attacks on his online message board and a general preponderance of cyber-goofballs overrunning the site.
For more than three years, Fezzik's Place (fezziksplace.com) was a respected online gathering place for sports bettors and a daily habit for thousands of gambling enthusiasts.
Even before the passage of congressional legislation designed to crack down on online gambling left it without advertising, the site wasn't much of a revenue generator. Fezzik derives his income from gambling and spends most of his time researching and making bets.
As a result, he had little time or inclination to monitor the Fezzik's Place public message board or police the site for crackpots. Doing so would amount to nearly a full-time job, he said.
As the site's scope expanded and the babbling loonies multiplied, it was no longer worth the trouble, Fezzik said in explaining why he opted to bow out.
"I'm not a marketer at all," Fezzik said. "To use an analogy, I'm running the Willy Wonka factory here. I'm not very good at managing people. I'm not very good at paying attention to who's in all the different areas of my factory.
"I just know how to make good candy."
Fezzik's Place was affiliated with the Web site of Anthony Curtis' Las Vegas Advisor newsletter, but operated under Fezzik's auspices.
Curtis, owner of Las Vegas-based Huntington Press, said he'll keep a sports betting presence on his site for now, although Fezzik's name won't be attached to it.
It's uncertain whether Fezzik will contribute his free weekly football betting predictions this season - perhaps the site's most popular feature, and a welcome change from sports handicappers who peddle their picks in exchange for credit card numbers.
Before throwing in the towel, Fezzik and Curtis considered a subscription model in which bettors would pay about $20 a month for access to the site and sports picks.
"I thought it was a bargain," Fezzik said, noting the fee would have weeded out most of the wackos. "But all I heard was, 'You're a hypocrite, a fraud, a tout!' "
I first met Fezzik in the summer of 2001 at a gathering of blackjack card counters in Las Vegas.
Seeking some comments for a column on football betting, I began asking him questions about the upcoming season - which teams would be undervalued by the oddsmakers, that sort of thing.
But Fezzik, who took his one-name nom de gambling from Andre the Giant's character in "The Princess Bride" ("It's not my fault being the biggest and the strongest - I don't even exercise!"), wasn't the typical interview subject.
Instead, he started quizzing me with a series of pointed questions about baseball strategy and sports betting theory.
My answers must have been satisfactory, at least for a nonprofessional gambler, because we've stayed in touch since, at times exchanging information on sports betting or casino gambling ventures.
"Love him or hate him, the guy's a tremendous player," Curtis said.
At its best, Fezzik's site offered a glimpse of how real-world bettors working in gambling's trenches plied their trade.
That remained true until the end, even if sports bettors visiting the site did have to wade through an increasing amount of useless rambling written by anonymous Internet nitwits.
"I've never claimed to be the top handicapper in the world," Fezzik said. "I've never claimed to be the top sports bettor in the world. I've never even claimed to be in the top 50.
"But I was part of a fraternity, a group of players who are very sharp, who shared their ideas and did very well. We envisioned the growth of the site, but not the naysayers. It got to the point where I had to slam the factory doors shut."
So now Fezzik's Place is gone.
Score one for the babbling loonies.
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