But in the cozy back room of a modern house that once served as the Chinese Embassy, past the lazy dogs in the yard and the bicycles in the driveway, Bob Eremian was entertaining Americans in a different way.
It was two hours before the start of Sunday’s Super Bowl game in San Diego, and Eremian, in short pants and bare feet, was sitting in front of three computer screens, overseeing a sports betting operation that would take over 10,000 bets on the game before the day was over.
“They’re calling from all over the U.S. today,” he said, as the 25 telephone operators seated in front of him quickly logged bets into their computers. “That’s what people want to do,” Eremian said. “Bet on sports.”
Wagering on sports is illegal in the United States, except in Nevada and Oregon. But over the past two years, a small number of bookmakers have packed up their lists of customers and traveled south, along with some first-time bookies, to take refuge in tiny West Indies countries like this one.
Licensed by the local government and using advanced technology to communicate, set odds on games and record wagers, they have created hundreds of jobs for local residents and rapidly built an offshore sports book industry that gaming analysts say is taking in 1 percent to 5 percent of the $100 billion that is bet illegally on sports each year in the United States.
I’m wondering if John Kerry’s boat makes it down that way on occasion?