The Computer Group STORY:

Origins of Computer-Driven Sports Betting Syndicates

Introduction

Before ProComputerGambler was launched, I had the opportunity to work closely with someone who had been part of one of the most influential betting syndicates in sports wagering history — the original Computer Group.

Within that group he was known simply as “The Judge.” During the 1980s he worked directly alongside Billy Walters as part of the syndicate that pioneered the use of computer-driven analysis to attack sportsbook markets in Las Vegas. Long before modern analytics, public databases, or the internet, the group used early computer modeling and structured data collection to identify pricing inefficiencies in betting lines.

When ProComputerGambler first launched, The Judge handled the NFL selections for several years and became an important mentor in shaping how I approached betting markets. Our work together focused on the same core principles that defined the Computer Group decades earlier: disciplined analysis of numbers, structured information gathering, and understanding how sportsbook pricing actually works.

Eventually he stepped away from ProComputerGambler to pursue other projects in the industry, including operating his own sportsbook in Panama. But the philosophy behind his work — and the lessons he shared — had a lasting influence on how this site approaches sports betting research today.

The following article was written by The Judge and explains the story of the Computer Group from the perspective of someone who was there.

Why the Computer Group Was Successful

The Computer Group gained an edge by combining early computer modeling, faster information gathering, and coordinated betting strategies to exploit inefficiencies in sportsbook lines.

• • Early statistical modeling
• • Faster information gathering than sportsbooks
• • Large coordinated betting syndicate
• • Ability to exploit line inefficiencies quickly

What Was the Computer Group?

The Computer Group was a professional sports betting syndicate active in Las Vegas during the 1980s. Led by Billy Walters, the group used early computer systems and statistical models to identify inefficiencies in sportsbook betting lines.

“We were successful for two reasons. First, we were ahead of the oddsmakers in collecting important information… The second key to success is understanding how the numbers really work.”

The Judge

Key Takeaways

• The Computer Group was one of the first computer-driven sports betting syndicates.
• Led by Billy Walters in Las Vegas during the 1980s.
• Used early computer models to analyze sportsbook lines.
• Helped pioneer modern data-driven betting strategies.

The Early Days of Computer Handicapping

As “Computer Kids,” we were pioneers in the field of sports wagering. Before the invention of these electronic brains, handicappers were relying on their own trends, stats, and good sense to survive. How many times have you watched a horse win, then reviewed the form to see what you missed? Oh my God…there it was…You just missed it!

The idea was to create a model that could analyze each situation and predict the probabilities. Eliminate the human factor, taking Emotion and prejudice out of every decision.

We crushed Las Vegas and proved once and for all that the power of Computers had arrived. In 1983, our Group’s main wagering pool was $40 million per year.

Michael Kent and the First Betting Models

Before 1980, computers were only a gimmick of Science Fiction, where blinking lights and crazy display monitors were serviced by Geeks in white lab coats. The idea of beating the Bookmakers started with a small group of programmers. It was headed up by a 34-year-old mathematician, Michael Kent, who had spent 11-years helping develop nuclear submarines for the Westinghouse Corporation.

Finding such work boring, he relocated to Las Vegas to bet on Football games. For the last seven years, he had been saving his money to wager on football and basketball games. The job of betting on sports full-time was a little harder than he had imagined.

Kent would wake up early and update his information from the morning newspapers. Access the Control Data computer on which he was renting time, and establish a betting line for each game. Then he and a friend would spend the rest of the day and night visiting sports books and private bookmakers, seeking out the most favorable opportunity. According to his records, he lost $40.000 that football season. His bad luck continued two months into the basketball season.

“I was getting killed,” he says. “I was at the point where I was debating what my future was going to be.

Betting on the games was an awesome responsibility. It was not an easy thing to settle up with a bookmaker after each round of bets, carrying huge bundles of cash in and out of public places. Whenever he had a lot of money on him, he feared he was being followed. If he happened to notice two men walking behind him on the sidewalk, he would run as fast as he could into the nearest casino and stand near a security guard for a while.

“Carrying $100,000 in a Paper Bag was getting Risky”

Of course, this only drew more attention to himself. He asked security guards to escort him to his car whenever feasible. He also depended heavily upon valet parking. He didn’t like the idea of carrying $150.000 into a dark garage. Valet parking was much safer. He didn’t know how to just be cool about it. He couldn’t chill out. He was working 80 hours a week in the strangest city in America, and he was always worrying. He won $150.000 betting on college basketball in 1979-80, but it was a terrible way to live.

The Rise of the Computer Group

He became partners with orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Ian Mindlin, who agreed to place the wagers and split the profits 50-50. The computerized predictions netted the pair 100,000 dollars in 1980, their first year of playing college football. By 1983, the Group had expanded, and they were winning almost $1 million a week. Because of the success of The Computer Group, bookmakers were unwilling to accept their wagers. Obviously, this was long before Betfair. They branched out from Las Vegas and employed dozens of agents, and betting beards to cover New York and the Eastern portions of the United States.

Enter Billy Walters

In 1983, Billy Walters began making bets for the Computer Group, with a wagering pool of $40 million per year. One of the original partners, Stanley Tomchin, a Cornell graduate and world-class backgammon and poker player, lost interest in gaming. His newlywed wife insisted that he stop gambling, and so, in 1984, he walked away from the money and moved to Spain. Billy Walters was then placed in charge of moving the weekly millions. He lived on the eighth fairway of the Las Vegas Country Club. He was a power broker who blanketed the country with bets, taking action wherever it was available. In return for his work, Walters received free use of the group’s betting information. Because he didn’t have to share his profits with others, he may have earned more than the original computer wizards. For the first time in his life, Billy Walters was winning consistently and holding onto the money.

He invested in real estate, fast food franchises, and other ventures. His confidence was such that he could play golf matches for thousands of dollars. He even captured the 1986 Super Bowl of Poker in Lake Tahoe.

There has been recent talk that he won more than $3 million in one day of roulette in Atlantic City. Apparently, Walters hired agents to take notes at the roulette tables, in an attempt to locate “biases,” or patterns, in the wheels. Sources at Caesars Palace say that after Walters beat them for more than $1 million in one sitting, the wheel was sent to NASA for an examination and dissection that revealed specific biases, but not for the numbers Walters had been playing. Nobody knows his secret, and he isn’t saying, though he admits he has been barred from playing roulette in the major casinos.

Late in 1984, Walters’ reputation had risen so high that he was invited to join the Computer Group on a percentage basis. In other words, he would share in profits with Michael Kent, Dr. Mindlin, and other core members of the group. Walters continued to place additional bets for himself until January 1985, when the FBI raided the group for its records and cash, shutting down Walters for the remainder of the college basketball season.

He complains about harassment by the FBI, saying it confiscated funds and refused to transfer them to the IRS to pay his taxes. He claimed he is persecuted in part because the government loathes his attorney, Oscar Goodman, a colorful Las Vegas lawyer who has represented many mob figures. In later years, after many court battles, the Computer group was exonerated of all wrongdoing, and Oscar Goodman became and is now the Mayor of Las Vegas. He perceives himself to be a rare gambling success story – a man who was in debt before he came to Las Vegas. “I came to Las Vegas because it’s the Wall Street of gambling.?

How the Syndicate Beat Las Vegas

In March 1986. Sports Illustrated became the first national publication to report the story of the Computer Group. They shared a complex story. They had analyzed 25,000 past college basketball games using computer services nationwide.

This was done to assess the accuracy of pregame spreads against the final score. The magazine reported that they “devised a program to make a number on each game.

The handicapping and mathematical masterminds behind the mysterious Computer Group had become the biggest known sports betting ring ever established anywhere.” Each day, they collected the statistical data for every team on baseball, basketball, and football, fed it into the computer, and updated their programs. Remember, this was long before the Internet’s? Everything was still being done by hand. After fine-tuning the forecasts, they dumped them into a computer file and out popped gambling gold. The Computer Group reached the height of its powers in 1983-85.

The national betting network was operating at its peak of efficiency. The programmers continued to further fine-tune his computer program. The 1983 seasons were smoking times for the Computer Group, which had enjoyed a great run three year run against inexperienced Las Vegas Bookmakers. In its sleekest moments, the Computer Group had as grand an effect upon its constituency in the 1980’s as OPEC had upon American consumers in the ’70’s.

By 1984-’85, the Betting Line began to improve appreciably, as others were now competing in the market against the Computer Group. The Computer Group had burgeoned into the first truly national network of sports bettors, able to buy up the best point spreads from coast to coast.

The FBI Investigation

Thomas Noble, lead agent for the FBI, obtained wiretaps on the group’s telephones for five months. Noble maintains his firm belief that the Computer Group was a criminal enterprise worthy of prosecution for Bookmaking. The investigation cost the taxpayers $1 million dollars, which does not include the $577,000 lost by the Internal Revenue and their investigation. He oversaw the seizure of evidence by the truckload: bank checks, the origins of which had to be traced, hundreds of thousands of dollars with serial numbers that demanded verification, gambling ledgers that had to be interpreted, not to mention 216,000 pages of computer printouts, incomprehensible to all the Computer Group programmers.

Then, in January 2004, after six years of investigation and review, after the case had been opened and shut and opened again, the indictments at long last came down in Las Vegas. Nineteen men and women were placed under arrest. Each was charged with up to 120 counts of conspiracy, gambling, and racketeering, related to their use of the telephone to place bets and exchange betting information. There was no charge of bookmaking.

The Legacy of the Computer Group

So the government admits, at last, that the Computer Group was “Simply Betting on Games.” No Bookmaking…Everything we were doing was Legal.

Six years with Big Brother have not cured us. Of the 19 who were indicted in 2004, most are still gamblers and are now living all over the world. With the internet and all their promotion, these modern brokers of sports bets will never match the sensation created by the Computer Group, who were sophisticated enough to beat the linemakers at their own game.

Our legacy was to ruin the game for all who might try to duplicate our success, including themselves. The Sports Betting Advantage was gone. Many of our group looked for a NEW opportunity.

The Legacy Today