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[...] We learn some details about the ascendance of the offshore sports betting market. We also learn a bit about what it’s like to do business in Central America. However, what Steve Budin covers most in Bets, Drugs, and Rock & Roll is Steve Budin. We hear about his family, his drug habit (for which he is mostly unapologetic), his sexual escapades (likewise), and basically how he’s the smartest, hardest working, most talented, and most virile person on the planet. Never in my life have I seen more shameless self-promotion in any medium. It’s slathered on so thick here that the book would almost work as a self-parody, if only I thought Budin was capable of it. The only person Budin admires nearly as much as himself is his father, who is positively deified by Budin’s account. If someone wonders what would posess the emperors of ancient Rome to proclaim themselves gods, hand that person a copy of this book. Throughout his narrative, Budin backhandedly complements his employees, rats out some of his celebrity customers, displays an abject objectification of women, and downplays the influence, and often competence, of everyone else in the industry. [...]
AP Photo / Wilfredo Lee
