Sports Betting Legend Billy Walters
Courtesy of: worldgolf.com
Lara Logan leads this "60 Minutes" profile of the most dangerous gambling man in Vegas. Billy Walters has never had a losing season in sports betting, somewhat of an amazing feat in the world gambling. In this piece, you see Billy Walters betting hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes millions, in a single weekend on professional and collegiate sports. Instead of dabbling into what he does and doesn't do, as the piece can do that for itself, I would like to look at this from a journalistic standpoint.
After seeing the story, the first thing I noticed was a full circle story. It starts by making a hero out of Billy Walters; he is winning money, all his historic feats are chronicled, and we see everything good that comes with this man who is making his money playing the odds. He is spending more money in a weekend (and putting it at complete chance at that) than most people make in their lifetimes. Yet somehow, in the beginning of the story, you find yourself in amazement and even rooting for this guy to succeed.
As every good journalistic story goes, there comes a sense of objectivity. You learn that Billy Walters has been indicted on felony charges four times, that he loses a lot, and he runs a pretty secretive operation that makes you uneasy. The Vegas casino owners come in to offer their point of views and describe Billy as "dangerous" and you find that most won't take his bets. He makes prop bets to get lines to go his way, and all of a sudden you can't seem to figure out what to make of this guy.
The way that the profile examines his entire background makes an audience feel secure; they know that the reporter has done their research and that they aren't picking and choosing information to make the story they want.
They have some great B-Roll of Vegas gamblers, nice cutaways in Billy's house, and they also get close enough to telling you how Billy does it, without stepping over the line and revealing his operation.
All in all, a great story.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7253011n&tag=contentMain;contentBody
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