[jjgold]

Anyway to get an account here from USA?

https://bet.caliente.com.mx/ingles/gral_deportes.php

[BurtRapp]

That looks awesome. Nice out.

[Kellen]

JJ, I got a local in Tijuana.

[thezbar]

I spent many weekends in the Pueblo Amigo Sportsbook during football season when I lived in San Diego. At that time you needed to deposit $ in person. Looks like things have changed after looking at that website. HOWEVER The two and three percent tax on winning bets makes this a loser from the get go.

[ritehook]

Deal is this:

Caliente grabs a federal tax of 3% of the winning part of a sports bet, and 5% of the entire payback for a horse bet.

Tough enough game without supporting know-nothing bureuacrats in Mexico City (and yes, it is a fed tax, not something invented by Caliente).

The owner of the faciltiy (with scores of books in Mexico and worldwide) is widely suspected of the 1988 murder of a critical journalist. Also with active invovement in drug trafficking. He was, unitl recently, mayor of Tijuana.

Caliente is very fearful of doing anything to piss off the US govt. Thus, you cannot open an internet or phone account if you have only a US address. I am also told they will block calls from the US.

15 years ago, before the big explosion of offshore books, the very nice Caliente books near the border were daily (and esp on weekends) jammed with US bettors. Now, it's all Mexicans, either poor ones trying to double their pathetic pesos, or super-rich ones, the traffickers, who cannot cross the border without risk of arrest.

As they say in Mexico; Olvidalo! Forget it!

[ritehook]

By the way, a bodyguard of the Caliente owner was, in the '90s, convicted of the murder of the journalist. (Not his mega-millionaire boss tho - the super-wealthy down there are intocable, untouchable.)

Once, in pursuit of a story about drug smuggling, I visited the state prison in TJ. Cripes, what a place. If you have money, tho, you can buy a little house to live, rather than a cell. Your girlfriend, or a whore, can visit you. And you can open a business, a restaurant, etc. I met this one guy who spent hours handcrafting fancy leather belts, and selling them worldwide. For good mmoney, too.

But there are also people there - as in most prisions - who will as soon kill you - esp a gringo - as look at you.

One guy had a very big business there, employing a dozen of his fellow inmate, making clothing to be shipped to the big Los Angeles markets and then across the USA.

The owner? Right, the bodyguard of the master of Caliente, who was set up in prision with that business. Kill a guy for your boss, become a wealthy bisinessman while doing your time . . .

[ritehook]

From the Caliente website: they are still stating,tho less forcefully than before, that they don't want you to violate US laws. But, yes, less forcefully. They have lost a ton of cutomers, virtually all the American one, to the offshores, and are desperate to get them back. Even so, with the big tax, they'll never compete.

The recent jump in that tax, btw, was a result of the declining revenues. The crooks in Mexico City who got that tax rake-off saw their take getting smaller, so "fixed" the problem by upping the percentage.

----------------------------------------------------------

THIS IS AN INTERNET SITE, WHOSE TITLE HOLDER IS AUTHORIZED TO RECEIVE WAGERS IN THE MEXICAN REPUBLIC, WHERE THIS IS CONSIDERED A LEGAL ACTIVITY, FOR THAT MATTER ALL BETS PLACED IN THIS SITE BY MEXICAN RESIDENTS, DO NOT CONTRAVENE ANY DISPOSITION OF PUBLIC ORDER. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN REGISTERING OR PLACING BETS IN THIS SITE, YOU MUST PREVIOUSLY CONSULT THE EFFECTIVE LAWS OF THE PLACE WHERE YOU ARE OR RESIDE IN.

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BY ALL OF THE ABOVE, BE AWARE THAT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE QUOTED LEGAL NORMS, THE EXECUTION OF ANY OF THE MENTIONED BEHAVIORS, IS SEVERELY SANCTIONED WITH PENALTIES FROM 5 TO 15 YEARS OF PRISON, ALSO BE AWARE THAT IN PREVENTION OF THE PRESENTATION OF THIS BEHAVIORS, THE ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANS OF THE HOLDER OF THIS SITE, WILL CARRY OUT RANDOM OR GENERAL REVISIONS OF THE DIFFERENT WAGERS PLACED IN THIS SITE, UNDERSTANDING THAT, IN CASE OF ANY DETECTION OF SUSPICIOUS OPERATION, THE HOLDER OF THIS SITE IS AUTHORIZED BY YOU TO NOTIFY THE COMPETENT AUTHORITIES IN THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO, BEING RECOGNIZED AND ACCEPTED BY YOU, THAT IN ANY CASE AND UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES YOU WILL ABLE TO HOLD THIS SITE OR ITS AFFILIATES LIABLE, FOR SUCH NOTIFICATION, NOR EXECUTE ANY LEGAL ACTION AGAINST THEM, LIBERATING THEM OF ANY RESPONSIBILITY THAT COULD RESULT IN THAT RESPECT.

FOR YOUR SECURITY, BEFORE REGISTERING OR PLACING ANY WAGERS IN THIS SITE, PLEASE CLARIFY ANY DOUBTS REGARDING THE PRESENT WARNING, BY CONSULTING YOUR LOCAL EFFECTIVE LAWS, AS WELL AS ALL QUESTIONING IN REGARD WITH THE APPLICATION OF THE LEGAL NORMS OF THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO, CONCERNING THE REFERRED ILLICIT BEHAVIORS.

YOU EXPRESSLY RECOGNIZE AND ACCEPT, THAT THE RESOURCES USED BY YOU TO PLACE BETS IN THIS SITE, DO NOT ORIGINATE OR REPRESENT THE PRODUCT OF AN ILLICIT ACTIVITY AND THAT YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THIS SITE, DO NOT CONTRAVENE THE LEGAL NORMS THAT GOVERN IN THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO IN THAT RESPECT, OR ANY OTHER LOCAL LEGAL DISPOSITION FROM THE PLACE YOU ARE RESIDING OR STAYING, FOR THAT MATTER YOU TOTALLY AND ABSOLUTELY ACCEPT THE RESPONSIBILITY THAT COULD RESULT IN CONNECTION WITH THE ORIGIN OF THOSE RESOURCES, IN THE EVENT OF ANY INVESTIGATION THAT COULD BE HELD BY THE COMPETENT AUTHORITIES OF THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO, OR THOSE FROM THE PLACE IN WHICH YOU ARE RESIDING OR STAYING.

[sofos]

As of 01-01-2008 they doubled the percent they take off the winning amount for sports and horses. In addition they added a "handling" fee of 1%. This is regarding the live books (Tijuana, Rosarito, Ensenada). I don't know if the 1% handling fee is added over the internet.

[diamond]

Anyway to get an account here from USA?

https://bet.caliente.com.mx/ingles/gral_deportes.php

With that ownership, hope they never turn into a creditbook.

[thezbar]

Good work Ritehook! Your posts invision the flavor of T.J. and it sounds as if its gotten worse. I was always very careful when I went across the border to gamble. Dressed poorly and was back to the borderside book by sundown. There were stories of gringos getting robbed at night by the bridge passage way near Pueblo Amigo. It would have been a nice payday for some thief as there were times I was carrying thousands in my socks and shoes. I guess I was lucky.

[ritehook]

Good work Ritehook! Your posts invision the flavor of T.J. and it sounds as if its gotten worse. I was always very careful when I went across the border to gamble. Dressed poorly and was back to the borderside book by sundown. There were stories of gringos getting robbed at night by the bridge passage way near Pueblo Amigo. It would have been a nice payday for some thief as there were times I was carrying thousands in my socks and shoes. I guess I was lucky.

Z,
If you were there when the sports betting came (around 1989) it was interesting and exciting times. I mean, legal sports betting. Guys were coming down from LA, even Frisco and points futher north and south.

Bettors were also now and then coming down from Vegas, to bet on or against the Rebels or Wolfpack.

They did then have a 1 1/2% takeout on the win part of a sports bet, but the level of sports bet intelligence was so low
that you could get a few points more on public favorites just before kickoff than with locals in the US. Ditto for the UNDER on big games.

Then, the first year they got so burned on NFL teasers, that they reduced the odds the following year.

Fun times. And btw, the famous Mike Roxborough, Mr Odds of Vegas, was the guru for the Mexicans when they started sports betting. He sent two guys from Vegas to show the Mexicans how to do it ---- and yeah, you guessed it. Mike's buddies ended up setting fake lines on some games every week and bet into the bogus numbers.

I understand they got away with well over a hundred grand before being caught. And no killing, they just were bounced back to Vegas. (In the mid '90s I know that one of 'em was driving a cab in Glitter City!)

One of these guys, the younger of the two, was a real dickhead. I recall sitting in one of the big whore bars near the racetrack (part of Caliente) and he walks in, having just been fired for his stealing.

The pungent aroma of grass oozing from every pore in his body he floats over to our table, and tells us he has fallen in love with one of the hookers who works there. What did we think - would she marry him?

If this moron could steal a million from one of Mexico's wealthiest families, you gotta figure anyone could.

Yeah, it was dangerous there on the walkback to the border. A lot of TJ is dangerous now. Zona Norte, where a lot of the whore bars are, is a place I would not venture into on foot, even in the daytime. Whereas in the '70s and early 80s it was as safe at a Methodist bake sale in Dubuque.

Crime is out of control in the big cities of Mexico. Wow, what a hoax this NAFTA was. And the crime is going to get progresively worse in the USA, as we "import" the worst of Mexico.

[Shark79]

RH

U really got into this thread .... great write up!

[ritehook]

Incidentally, just like the Mexican oil industry, the Caliente operation was started back in 1916 -- by gringos!

Particularly one guy, a San Diego boxing promotor, James Coffroth. If you tour San Diego and hit the old sailing ship, Star of India down on the Embarcadero, that ship was brought to San Diego by Coffroth.

He didn't have sports betting, but he did build a racetrack, right near the border. As racing was banned in Califonria at that time, the track was a big success, and through the 1920s it - along with the Agua Caliente Casino - brought all the Hollywood luminaries down to Tijuana. Also guys like Al Capone.

Of the big gambling bosses in the 1920s was a guy with the colorful name of "Booze" Beyer. San Diegans who have traversed the South Bay may have been on Beyer Boulevard, named after that gambler.

[ritehook]

RH

U really got into this thread .... great write up!

Gracias,
I have an interest in both gambling history and in Baja. So . . ..

If SBR ever wants to part with a few hundred frijoles I'll post a story I sold several times in the early '90s, about the biggest betting coup, possibly of all times. Happened at the very book, Pueblo Amigo, upstairs book, that some posters are familiar with. Horses, not sports. I had an "inside track," so to speak . . .

Readers on this board will love it. But, that was part of my livelihood at the time so I won't give it away.

[thezbar]

Gracias,
I have an interest in both gambling history and in Baja. So . . ..

If SBR ever wants to part with a few hundred frijoles I'll post a story I sold several times in the early '90s, about the biggest betting coup, possibly of all times. Happened at the very book, Pueblo Amigo, upstairs book, that some posters are familiar with. Horses, not sports. I had an "inside track," so to speak . . .

Readers on this board will love it. But, that was part of my livelihood at the time so I won't give it away.

If the race in Question was at Turfway Park, I was at the book that day. Winning horse won the race at 18/1 or so and it was a commanding victory. There were others also. Including An $80.00 maiden wictory in a summer race at Del Mar.

[Saunders FTW]

nice

[ritehook]

If the race in Question was at Turfway Park, I was at the book that day. Winning horse won the race at 18/1 or so and it was a commanding victory. There were others also. Including An $80.00 maiden wictory in a summer race at Del Mar.

Right. The race was a set-up. He showed no works, but was training in secret.

How the scammers - principal one is dead now - set this up, and nailed Caliente for over a million bucks (and how Caliente tried to avoid paying) is fascinating.

Even non-horseplayers would enjoy it. One of the major gambling scams of the last century.

Did you know the late Caliente horse trainer, Bob Ward? He filled me in on a lot of it, as he was a close friend of the main scamster. Tho not in on the scam itself.

[thezbar]

I was in the lower level at the Pueblo Amigo book when that race was run. Down the backstretch the winning animal made a big move and it was obvious he was going to win. In the area off in the corner there was yelling and laughing. And it was Loud. After the race my gambling buddy sat down next to me and said "that was a fixed race". He had overheard someone talking about it and was shut out as he tried to get a bet in as the horses entered the starting gate. I looked at the form and there was no way I would have come up with that horse.
I didn't know Bob Ward but the name does ring a bell. In the early 90's I was a stable runner for a small barn. I laid off about five or six plays in mexico and vegas as at that time it wasn't pari-mutual. One of the times in Mexico they refused to take my action, I guess that was a fallout from the turfway race.

[ritehook]

Bob Ward was a longtime trainer at Caliente. He came down when he was around 18, with a string of horses from some trainer he was working under up at Santa Anita.

Bob fell in love with TJ, and lived there the rest of his life, training horses, and then dogs when the horse track closed down around 1993.

Interesting character. He used to do a handicap show, first from the hotel across from the track, then on the tracks tv monitors. I was on it a couple of times.

Bob died last year, complications of liver cirrhosis problems. H was a lifelong drunk who once told me he never thought he'd make it must past age 50. He was around 75 when the Demon Run finally did him in.

[thezbar]

The parents of a high school friend loved to drive from L.A to Caliente on weekends to play the 5/10. That was the forerunner to the pick six. The racing was cheap but I seemed to have a nack of leaving Mexico with more $ than when I arrived more often than not. For a time my statis symbol was going into the liquor store on Friday night and purchasing the "Caliente" form for Saturday and Sunday. I hit my first four figure trifecta at Caliente.
I do remember the name Bob Ward after reading the above post. There were racing cards in which he won multiple races.
This one for you Bob . Start training some winners at Gateway Fields.
R.I.P.

[ritehook]

The old Caleinte track actually was, since its inception back during WWI, a pioneer in a number of innovations.

First tradc to wet down the surface with a watering truck, first to use a photo finish (a local photographer, in the 1920s), first to use the jockey's safety helmet, first with Sunday racing, and it was the first in North America to have the Pick Six - they called it the Five-Ten. ( I won it once, for a $2 ticket, but only for about $3000.)

Bob Ward used to train for the 40s and 50s Hollywood and showbiz celebs, Harry James and Betty Grable, (husband and wife for a time). Grable supposedly had her legs insured for a million bucks.

Once, they fell behind in their training fees, and Bob called Betty - then performing in Vegas - to ask about it. She cursed out Harry, whom she was in the process of divorcing, and insisted Bob come up to Vegas to get paid.

He went. A funny story, I'll tell it some other time.

[thezbar]

Reading this I think I can picture him at a bar in the old clubhouse at Caliente in the mid 80's.The clubhouse was a great place to watch the races.

[LVHerbie]

amazing stories... thanks alot for sharing them here...

[ritehook]

The scam re the Turfway horse (which also involved the owner of the Village Club Cardroom in Chula Vista) had the owners of the animal in the upstairs book at Pueblo Amigo.

They had set the thing up for weeks, acting like dumb damn-fool gamblers, in preparation for when they would put over their coup. A master stroke that was almost derailed after the horse won and Caliente realized they'd been had.

If anyone had ever patronized this book they may remember the GAllant Fox Room, just off to the left of the entrannce, where you would be greeted by the slim and always smiling Mercedes.

The GAllant Fox was the favorite place for the big traffickers, the lieutenants of the notorious Arellano-Felix synidicate. I saw these guys, who wouldn't know a Racing Form from a drug order, stride the windows and bet thousands on a horse.

It was mostly Americans there around 1990 and for 8,9 years later. But with 911 came the huge lines and waits at the border, and then the recent big tax increase. The gringo horse bettors are now at Del Mar or the Indian casinos, or online, and all the sports bettors are playing offshore.

[ritehook]

If the race in Question was at Turfway Park, I was at the book that day. Winning horse won the race at 18/1 or so and it was a commanding victory. There were others also. Including An $80.00 maiden wictory in a summer race at Del Mar.

Yeah, I think the Turfway horse (trained by California trainer Bernie Raub) paid around $34. Won laughing. I had heard about the $80 Dmr winner, and that it was also a boat race, but know nothing about it.

It's a game for deep insiders. Usually. I know this old guy who used to own a few cheap horses at Caliente (Just because one owns a few horses hardly makes one an "insider," as hundreds of new owners every year discover. The only "inside" they'll ever see is the lint inside their pockets, as they dig deep to pay training fees, vet bills, etc

[ritehook]

Oops, forgot to finish the thought.

This guy came down from Del Mar (I think he was an assisstant trainer, but my elderly friend can no longer remember) and met my friend in a South Bay bar. He wanted this friend to take him to the Caliente backside where he could buy a buzzer (usually referred to as a joint or a machine).

So, my friend took him there, he bought the joint (sold openly in the tack room - they are used on ALL racetracks, esp for morning workouts,and yes, sometimes in actual races, even at the big SoCal plants).

In return for my friends help the guy gave him the name of the horse that was going to get a shock during a race,and the day the race was going to be run, at Del Mar.

My friend went to the track that day, and laid a big bundle down on the horse. Won easily, paying over $40. Friend walked out with pockets bulging.

Anyone who thinks their mastery of the Daily Racing Form is going to lead them to longterm racing profits is living in Never Never Land.

[ritehook]

Reading this I think I can picture him at a bar in the old clubhouse at Caliente in the mid 80's.The clubhouse was a great place to watch the races.

Bald, roly-poly little guy. If Disney had an eighth dwarf named Boozy, Bob Ward would have been it.

He rarely left TJ, except to pick up mail and shop in SD. Did a few years bring some cheapies up to the Los Al thorobred meet. Never went further west than Vegas.

Never registered for the draft, or paid a dime in income tax. Just happily spent his money on booze, whores and gambling.
And very friendly to everyone, esp gamblers, drinkers and whoremongers.

[thezbar]

The scam re the Turfway horse (which also involved the owner of the Village Club Cardroom in Chula Vista) had the owners of the animal in the upstairs book at Pueblo Amigo.

They had set the thing up for weeks, acting like dumb damn-fool gamblers, in preparation for when they would put over their coup. A master stroke that was almost derailed after the horse won and Caliente realized they'd been had.

If anyone had ever patronized this book they may remember the GAllant Fox Room, just off to the left of the entrannce, where you would be greeted by the slim and always smiling Mercedes.

The GAllant Fox was the favorite place for the big traffickers, the lieutenants of the notorious Arellano-Felix synidicate. I saw these guys, who wouldn't know a Racing Form from a drug order, stride the windows and bet thousands on a horse.

It was mostly Americans there around 1990 and for 8,9 years later. But with 911 came the huge lines and waits at the border, and then the recent big tax increase. The gringo horse bettors are now at Del Mar or the Indian casinos, or online, and all the sports bettors are playing offshore.

Mercedes was attractive also. One day I started flirting with her misreading her welcoming smile. Past the enterence was the armed security officer who suggested I think carefully about what I was doing. After that visit she never smiled that way at me ever again. My last memory of her was of someone who had become bored with her lot in life.
? Have you ever heard of the term "elephant juice" JUST ASKING

[MJFtheGenius]

They are crooks

[thezbar]

They are crooks

Maybe,maybe not. But one of the dumbest crooks in recent years is a part of Caliente history. A jockey with the initials R.P.

[ritehook]

Don't know the term "elephant juice." Unless it's the same as a "milkshake."

Once (story I heard from Bob Ward) Mercedes was invited to one of Jorge Hank's private party, by invitation only. She was a pretty straight-laced gal. So Jorge and his friends were insisting that she join in the drinking. She did, relectantly, and ended up puking her guts out.

J Hank was (and is) one of the wierder dudes in Mexico. Lot of sex stuff that make the weirder posters on this board seem like models of decorum and normalcy. And once, he invited all the horsemen to a big feast in the racetrack infield.

Bob Ward told me that all the horsemen ate heartily, while trying to identify the tasty but strange meat.

It wasn't unitl a few days later that Bob noticed that the many dogs on the backside were no longer there . . .

[jjgold]

I wish they tok Americans online

[ritehook]

I wish they tok Americans online

Why? It's tough enough winning consistently betting sports, you also want to pay that huge tax?

[armando]

I live in mexico and making my bets in Caliente its the most convenient thing, I live in Tijuana and here are more than 10 branches if you can called it that because here is where headquartes are, I make my bets, go to the nearest book and collect my winnings instantly "in person" with no problems, I read a lot in this forum about payment delays, bettors getting angry, frustaded with all kind of issues and their only thing that they can do is talk with a faceless voice that can send you to hell if he wants, for me its diferent, I even have a college buddy that works there and every time I go I get to talk with him about the old school days while handing me my cash, so for that I DONT mind paying 3 % comission at all.