A Bookmaker in Paradise
By Redstone Brimely

The life I led in the States wasn’t working for me. My last business venture ended in failure and I was being evicted from my home. The country health inspector, alerted by my nosey neighbor, posted the notice on my front door citing me with excessive refuse from fast food establishments. If that wasn’t enough, I was down to my last pair of pants, I had outgrown Big and Tall. I needed a change.

Watching infomercials at four in the morning, I heard testimony from a West Virginian illiterate expounding of teaching English overseas. I sent for the delux package. The exotic destinations offered were many, but I decided Costa Rica was going to be my new home. There’s something about change that gives a young man a bounce to his step. I sensed good things ahead and I was right.

I went to work as an English teacher for a language institute in San José, tutoring local exectives. My first week there I instructed a group of Costa Ricans who spoke excellent English but needed to brush up on their grammar. Interesting work but my biweekly stipend would barely keep me in rice and beans. A compamy called Grand Central Sports, an offshore Las Vegas-style sportsbook operating in San José, had sent their employees to the class. The top student in the class happened to be a supervisor in the wagering department. At the end of the term he offered me a job.

I had never before worked in the gambling business, however I knew something about gambling— my father was a generate gambler.

When I completed my training I was placed in the betting department along with fifty other clerks where the phones were literally “ringing off the hook.” Native beauties with cocoa butter skin and pearly white teeth in halter-tops and sarongs answered the phones speaking perfect English. I was in shock!

My main concern when I took this job was whether or not I was breaking any laws. I did some investigating and found out offshore bookmaking is legal and beyond the juristiction of the United States government. The company’s growth during the past football season has been phenomenal. In fact, we’ve both grown. I was made a betting supervisor and was given a couple of weeks off before the start of the basketball season. Until then I’ll be at the beach where I’ve traded in my Oshkosh for Bermuda shorts and a Panama hat with the radio at my feet to keep track of his numerous plays.