LAS VEGAS — Johnny Avello has a big title, executive director of race and sports operations at Wynn Las Vegas — but in a town that talks about point spreads with the same intensity that farmers discuss the weather, he has an even bigger reputation. He is considered a Don in one of this town’s most respected fraternities, the brotherhood of bookies. Call him a wizard, a Wizard of Odds.
It is a title bestowed on those who put out point spreads, or lines, on scores of sporting contests all year round, but have a turn in the mainstream spotlight only once a year when the Super Bowl transforms America into a coast-to-coast sports book. They are the men — and they are almost all men — who decide the numbers and proposition bets for football’s biggest game, affecting everything from office pools to bets made with neighborhood bookies and organized crime syndicates
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