If being a bookie is illegal, then why have I known so many and they never went to ja

[biteme]

It's an art. And you have to have someone in other cities to lay off your bets with. Unless you find someone in your city to work with. That's not likely though because it's highly competitive and usually mob controlled.
If you are taking bets in a city, let's say Chicago, and the Bears are playing Lions, you will have a different spread in Chicago than Detroit. Being in Chicago you will have more people betting Chicago than Detroit and vice versa. You don't want to take more bets on one team than the other. You want to have an equal amount of bets on both teams. That's you goal because you don't care who wins. YOU COLLECT FROM THE LOSERS. The 10% vig is what you live on. It's only when you think you can place bets yourself on one team or the other trying to make more using other people's money that you get into trouble. Making 10% a week on your money is just a little bit better than the market would give you.

Thanks! And thanks Killahbe! Sounds like a tough thing to break into. The guy I know makes it sound so easy.

 

[Hiatussin]

Tax evasion is illegal too, but it is the preferred sport of a whole class of gentlemen. It´s like a strategy game. I can even say I´ve spoken to a few "tax geeks" who are simply tiring in their enthousiasm in explaining their little clever constructions.

One guy I know makes "20k a year" and has two big homes and two expensive cars and has all his clothes tailored, hes got 2 kids and a wife with expensive taste.

Another retired at 48 and hasn´t paid a dollar of tax, not even sales tax since

There are areas of Belgium that are poverty striken according to statistics, but very wealthy upon close inspection.