He mixes and matches various combinations of winners and point totals, a way of hedging his bets, he says.Įach wager is small, just $2 each, but they come with potentially huge payouts should all 12 outcomes come through. James has developed his own a system: He picks six games against the spread and the over-under in those same six games.

He’s scribbling furiously on a sheet of white paper and filling in the bubbles on a dozen ½-point parlay cards that look like small square standardized tests. This is the new normal in Atlantic City on an NFL Sunday now that sports gambling is legal here.Īs the line builds, Brian James, a video producer from New York City, sits hunched over at a round high-top table. Tom Brady couldn’t possibly lose three straight games, could he? What about the New England Patriots, a seven-point home favorite against the undefeated Miami Dolphins. There’s the Chargers, a 10.5-point home favorite against the Jimmy Garoppolo-less 49ers … that seems like an easy cover? Or the Indianapolis Colts, only a 1-point favorite against the winless Texans. Gamblers, mostly men, many of them wearing NFL jerseys and team garb, hold coffees and cocktails as they stare at printouts of the day’s NFL lines.

Atlantic city football gambling