PR Life Got You Down Try Gambling Instead It’s More Honest
Last year on this website I wrote a column about why baseball has been very, very good to me. I neglected to mention that since baseball has aligned itself with gambling entities it has made me independently wealthy. Not so much football, (although I made a bundle betting against the New York Giants and New York Jets. Who hasn’t?). Basketball or hockey? I also have come out ahead betting on those sports, but since the great majority of my betting has been on baseball – particularly betting against the New York Mets – I can truthfully say that baseball has been very, very good to me.
During my two careers, first as a journalist and then for the majority of my days working for a PR entity before I decided to become an independent PR consultant and became a much followed pundit and professional gambler, (who was good enough to break the banks at Monte Carlo and Venice, where I never let people know that I was an American), I was always considered a maverick.
When assigned to cover an event as a free lance journalist, instead of following the 5 Ws of conventional journalism, I always looked for what I considered the “LFSD” of the craft -- Look For Something Different. It was my “LFSD” approach as a steady free lancer for several years that caught the attention of top editors at a New York City daily and resulted in my being hired as a staff member, which immediately reduced my income, because I could only work for that newspaper and had to discontinue rewriting the same story for three other papers and one wire service, thus cutting my income per free lance assignments by 110%.
Based on my experiences as a journalist, as a PR practitioner I disregarded the rules that were crafted during the days when the founders of public relations walked beside the dinosaurs, many of which are still practiced. Instead, as Frank Sinatra sang “I did it my way.”
As a reporter, I was occasionally assigned to cover the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. As luck had it, when I jumped the fence from journalism to the propaganda business – known as public relations – I was assigned to an account that annually participated in the CES. That’s why I was so disheartened when I read an article in last year’s April 2 New York Times (NYT) that the famous Tropicana resort in Sin City would soon be history. The CES was not held at the Tropicana, but I spent so much time at its gambling tables that it was a home away from home for me. It was blasted to death by 2200 pounds of explosives on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, at 2:37 a.m. God rest its rubble.
Being a betting person I would always hop a Boeing that safely transported me to the gambling capital of the U.S. a week ahead of the opening of the electronics show. During that time I spent my mornings, days and nights at the Tropicana’s black jack and poker tables. It was because I won so much money that I decided to leave a steady job that provided me with a nice income and set up my own PR consultancy, – also a gamble – giving me the opportunity to make certain that I could visit Las Vegas for a week each month and on Feb. 29, Leap Day.
The NYT story said that my beloved Tropicana was being torn down and would be replaced by the future home of Oakland A’s, which makes perfect sense to me because of Major Leagues Baseball’s (MLB) partnership with gambling entities. Nothing can be more appropriate. It’s like a marriage made by the devil.
Much to my surprise, I received a telephone call from a representative of MLB (he requested that his name not be revealed because he is not authorized to speak publicly) that I had known during my days as a PR staffer, when I managed and/ or played key roles in national and international sporting mega events and nonsports corporate accounts. Mr. X, (no it was not Elon Musk) contacted me and asked if I would take on an assignment to see if ballpark vendors were properly doing their jobs, and how many could be cut in order to find favor with President Trump and Mr. Musk, because revenue from those sales had declined precipitously since the advent of legalized gambling, even though the price of a ballpark hotdog, small bag of peanuts and a beer or soft drink had risen more than a dinner at Sublimotion, the restaurant located in Ibiza's Hard Rock Hotel in Ibiza, Spain, often cited as the most expensive restaurant in the world. Actually, I’ve dined in others that are a few dollars less expensive that are as good.
“It will be a three year assignment,” I was told. “During that time you have to visit each ballpark, but you can choose which ones you want too visit each season.”
Because I had already committed to several other consultant assignments – not to mention my seven planned trips to my beloved Tropicana – I said I would accept the assignment, but would have to limit my 2024 trips to ballparks in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington and Chicago. I chose Chicago because it was only about a three hour flight from there to Las Vegas, where I had to find another home away from home because the Tropicana was being demolished. Again my gambling instincts proved correct. My Boeing flights transported me safely, and I even sat near a door and took of my seat belt occasionally.
Here’s what I learned: Taking the lead from team owners and the league itself, instead of hawking their wares, the vendors were making more money by becoming specialized bookies – taking only prop bets. They made so much money doing so that they were annoyed when a person would actually order a hot dog or beer, purposely giving them a cold dog or warm beer, which would discourage attendees from ordering the snacks in the future.
Below are a few excerpts from my preliminary report:
At Citi Field (N.Y. Mets) – There were two popular prop bets. One on how long the Met starting pitcher would last, the other on how many times during an inning Mets play-by-play announcer Gary Cohen would describe an everyday defensive play as an outstanding one.
At Yankee Stadium (N.Y. Yankees) – The vendors were giving away their wares free to anyone who would make two prop bets in a half inning. The most popular bet concerned the Yankees lifting its ban on facial hair for the 2025 season. It is whether a player with a moustache or beard would be the first to get on base in each inning. The other bet was conditional, with a money back guarantee if it didn’t happen. It depended if the Yankees made the World Series. Odds were given whether the cold winds and spray from the Harlem River in late October would coat beards and mustaches with ice and in which inning. Because there was no guarantee that the Yankees would reach the World Series, vendors gave betters hotdogs and beer or money back vouchers that could be used next year. Of course, you had to bet whether the vendors who gave you the vouchers would be there the following season to redeem them.
At Nationals Parks (Washington Nationals) – Spectators at the park actually didn’t care about the game. Instead they were placing prop bets with the vendors about the inning Mr. Trump would make his next inflammatory statement or sign an executive order. Season ticket holders would be allowed to bet in what inning it would be before a judge placed another injunction on an executive order. Another popular prop bet was in what inning President Trump would tell his next lie or whether it would be in the top or bottom of an inning. Bets on a lie told between innings will be permitted after the All Star break. Bets on whether Mr. Trump can finish a sentence that doesn’t contain a lie before the top half of the first inning is over are being considered for next season.
At Wrigley Field. (Chicago Cubs). – Spectators at the game actually cared about the wares being hawked by the bookie vendors. But instead of purchasing them to eat or drink, bets were about if a bag of peanuts tossed by a vendor to a fan would be blown away by the Windy City's famous blustery weather, or because of the chilling wind, how long a hotdog would remain hot.
While I still have many ballparks to visit, I told my client what MLB and owners of teams in other leagues already know, that betting on a game is more popular than the game itself. The prudent thing would be for team owners, I said, is to put the vendors on a salary plus commission based on the number of bets they book during a game. That way the team owners can reap some of the money that now is entirely pocketed by vendors.
As for the left over hotdogs, peanuts, beer and other junk foods, teams should donate them to food banks, thus enabling the teams to claim a charitable tax write-off. It would be a win-win for the owners, regardless if their teams never make the playoffs or if another hotdog is never sold. They can bet on it, I told them.
Even though I made a fortune betting on sports, I’m not encouraging people in our business to gamble. I’m just giving them an option that would prevent PR practitioners from becoming alcoholics because of spending years trying to convince journalists that a # 10 pencil is better than a # 9 one, while living in fear of being terminated because a new communications school graduate was willing to work for a dollar less a week. But it’s a fact that only a few practitioners in our business really get rich. That’s because the high turnover rate in our business precludes only a favorite few to reach even the high middle income level and those that do will be the first to be terminated when cost-cutting is necessary.
Since the Supreme Court has said that it’s legal to wager on anything that a person can think of, I am completely free of guilt for giving people in our business another option to consider while being harassed by often less capable supervisors and being blamed when an account jumps ship, even though the reason for the accounts departure was because of the supervisors’ inability to help or inefficiency.
The truth is that legalized betting has been a staple of the American experience forever, starting with the Revolutionary War, when many people thought a sure bet was that the Americans wouldn’t defeat the British. Wall Street has been encouraging people to bet on stocks since before all of us were born. Only they call it “investing.”
In my opinion, the advantage of prop betting is that you know in minutes, sometime seconds, if you are a winner or loser. With stocks, you might have to wait for decades to learn that you bet on the wrong company.
There’s an old gambling maxim that says “the house always wins.” And I believe that’s true, but there are always exceptions, like me. So my advice to PR practitioners is that if you bet, bet responsibly. And if you take to drinking because you always lose, (or can’t convince a journalist that a # 10 pencil is better than a number # 9) drink responsibly.
For those of you who are considering betting for the first time, below are three sure winning public relations bets:
Your good work will not assure job security.
Your supervisor will claim credit for your good ideas, and
Supervisors and management will make promises that they have no intention of keeping.
In closing, here’s my sure winning bet for the day: Today is April Fool’s Day. But the way PR employees are treated by managemebnt is not a joke. You can bet on it.
