Popular Bookmaker Is Remembered at Memorial Service: Sonny Reizner

[Dr. Jack]

Popular Bookmaker Is Remembered at Memorial Service: Sonny Reizner

Thursday, December 12, 2002

It was the first truly great ‘prop’ wager ever put up on a betting board.

In 1980, when sports books in Las Vegas were just emerging as respectable for everyday people, Sonny Reizner hung up odds on who shot evil oil baron J.R. on the top-rated show “Dallas.” Tom Landry and Roger Staubach were among the suspects Reizner listed on the ‘prop.’

People flocked into the Castaways to bet the ‘prop,’ and Reizner drew national and international publicity. State gaming officials didn’t have Sonny’s sense of humor, though. They made the Castaways take the line down, and refund all wagers. From then on, Nevada sports books could only take action on sports events.

That part of history was fondly recalled last Wednesday at Palm Mortuary’s King David Memorial Chapel when about 150 people paid their respects to Sonny, who passed away at 81 from Parkinson’s disease.

If there ever was a Camelot period in Las Vegas sports gaming it was when the Castaways sports book operated from 1976-1987, and Reizner was John F. Kennedy. Given free reign by astute Castaways president Bill Friedman, Reizner turned the Castaways into the now legendarily and fondly recalled “Hole-in-The-Wall” book.

The Castaways was a tiny book, hence the nickname, but was huge on innovations. Reizner and Friedman were the first to come up with large point spread football contests, they were the first to feature special Super Bowl and Monday night parlay cards and first to accommodate and cater to the media.

Sports books are much more glamorous today. But most lack personality and personalities. Many sports book directors won’t talk to the media unless permission is obtained from the company’s marketing department. Not Sonny. You could see and talk to him every time, and what a sense of humor the man had.

Once when asked about his military career in World War II, where he saw action in the Army Air Corps fighting in Italy, Reizner said, “When I went into the service, the Germans became an 8-to-5 favorite.”

Reizner, his wife Rolene, and family moved from a Boston suburb to Las Vegas in 1970. It wasn’t long before he was working for the late Bob Martin at Churchill Downs, a gambling haven for ‘wise’ guy bettors.

While working at Churchill Downs in the early ‘70s, Reizner changed a key number on a football game. The place immediately vacated with about 50 cigar-chomping guys trying to fit into three small phone booths that were just outside. An old woman was using one of the phones.

“Hey lady,” yelled one of the gamblers. “Is this an emergency? I need to use this phone right now.”

The lady told him she was calling 911 because she feared her husband might have suffered a heart attack.

“Get out of here lady,” the gambler yelled, muscling his way in. “I have a real emergency. Ohio State just dropped to three.”

One of the people closest to Sonny was radio personality and gaming analyst Larry Grossman.

“He was an amazing spirit,” Grossman said. “He really was one of those guys who had a twinkle in his eyes. It’s something that was very rare, especially in this town where people are always worried, or chasing a bet.

“He seemed to retain that twinkle in his spirit. He was always very generous with his laughter and time. Sports bettors would come in and even if they were naïve to the point they didn’t know what a baseball line was, he would stand there and give them what ever they needed until they understood the process.

“Anybody who knew him even casually, walked away with a good experience. Sonny was old school. He was inherently gracious.”

When the Castaways was torn down to build The Mirage, Las Vegas began to turn corporate. Sonny’s style was to hang around the sports book all day, talking with people and watching the games. But in this new corporate Las Vegas, sports book directors became more accountants than personalities. There were few bosses like Bill Friedmans around. Everything started to become micro-managed. Meetings with various bosses and departments began to take up a large part of a sports book director’s time.

After his stint at the Castaways, Reizner ran the sports book at the Frontier, Rio and Desert Inn before retiring in 1996. He was the Rio’s first sports book director when the hotel opened in 1989. The deli next to the sports book at the Rio was first called Sonny’s Deli in honor of Sonny. Reizner joked the deli was a good hedge because if his sports book position didn’t work out, he could always get a job at the deli making sandwiches.

A cross-section of people attended Sonny’s funeral. There, of course, were family and friends. But there also were Bookmakers, bettors, media and people from all walks of life who at one time or another had been touched by Sonny.

Can you imagine that, a Bookmaker who was loved. That was Sonny. It will never happen again in this town.

Stephen Nover is a Las Vegas columnist who writes for a number of publications including Rx.com and VegasInsider.com. He can be reached via email at scriber@lvcm.com