Marisa Lankester

Marisa Lankester was born in Rome, and raised in Westchester County, NY by an English father who worked at the United Nations and German mother, and attended the all-girls Catholic independent Ursuline School. She attended Marymount Manhattan College before moving to Vancouver, BC, and later to Los Angeles, CA

In June 1987, Lankester was arrested on charges of bookmaking, along with six other employees, after Los Angeles sheriffs, aided by information by two FBI informants, raided the office where she worked as a clerk for Ron (the Cigar) Sacco, operator of a sophisticated horse racing and sports betting operation that processed "at least $40 million" in bets in 1986 and considered the biggest bookmaker in American history.{{cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZL9jJpC6BY |title= Betting Sports: Beating the Odds|date=|work= Video news clip: Special Report by Michael Tuck, KCBS Channel 2 Action News Los Angeles, refer timeline 4:00-8:10}}

Lankester married Sacco's right-hand man, Tony Ballestrasse, in 1987 and gave birth to a daughter before locating with Sacco's operation to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic where gambling was legal; although a top model on the Island, she was jailed twice and endured repeated rapes after the FBI and local police raided Sacco’s headquarters in January 1992 (at the time the operation was taking in $100 million/month in bets and considered the "nerve center of American sports betting."){{cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwgZRK35yGA |title=Brian Ross Reports On Ron Sacco|work= video news clip: CBS Nightly News, Brian Ross (Date Jan. 1992 = as per Ross' mention of raid on Sacco headquarters ahead of Super Bowl weekend)}}{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gekxj465caA |title=Cigar Sacco|date=18 July 1993 |work= 60 Minutes (Steve Croft)}}{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2620838/ |title=Cigar Sacco |date=18 July 1993|work=60 Minutes, Season 25/Episode 44}}{{cite web|url= https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-08-16-mn-24356-story.html |title= 26 Indicted in Sports Betting Probe: Crime: Bookmaking ring took in more than $1 billion a year, officials say. Prosecutors will seek deportation of suspects from Dominican Republic|date=16 August 1993|work= Los Angeles Times}} Dominican police corruption included hiding Lankester from the FBI against her will.{{cite web|title=Betting 360 Ep 047 – Dangerous Odds with Marisa Lankester|url=https://www.championbets.com.au/betting-360-podcast/betting-360-ep-047-dangerous-odds-with-marisa-lankester/|publisher=Champion Bets|date=10 March 2016|work= David Duffield}} As an insider, Lankester was also aware of the role off-shore (shell companies) played in Sacco's operation.{{cite web|url=http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article70481122.html/|publisher=McCatchyDC(National)|title=Panama Papers:Creating far-off companies, with few questions asked |date=7 April 2016|accessdate=2016-10-19|language=English}}{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2006/0327/112.html/|work=Forbes|title=Catch Me If You Can|date=3 November 2006|accessdate=2016-10-19|language=English}}

Retiring permanently from bookmaking in 1994, she moved back to New York in 1996 to attend college in Manhattan. She remarried and moved to Switzerland where she had her second daughter (later divorced). She currently resides in Zürich, Switzerland with her family.

Lankester was interviewed by the NY Daily News{{cite web|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/dangerous-odds-tells-story-woman-life-illegal-betting-operation-article-1.1796495/|title='Dangerous Odds' tells story of woman's life inside an illegal sports-betting operation worth billions|date=18 May 2014|work=NY Daily News(Sherryl Connelly)|accessdate=2018-07-01}} and active in debates surrounding US gambling laws (refer "Works" below) including input on the recent ban reversal in pro-sports.{{cite web|url= http://zlotonews.com/sports-betting-world-believes-supreme-courts-ban-reversal-is-too-little-too-late/|title=Sports betting world believes Supreme Court's ban reversal is too little, too late |date=15 May 2018|work= ZLotoNews}} She published her memoirs, Dangerous Odds, with the book rights optioned in 2015 by Warner Bros to become a motion picture starring Margot Robbie and screenplay by Andrea Berloff.{{cite web|url=https://m.imdb.com/title/tt4383566/|title=Movie Database: Dangerous Odds|work=imdb.com}}{{cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2015/01/margot-robbie-dangerous-odds-andrea-berloff-illegal-sports-betting-1201355260/|title=Warner Bros Closes Deal For Margot Robbie Sports Wagering Tale 'Dangerous Odds'|date=29 January 2015 |work=Deadline, Mike Fleming Jr}}{{cite web|url=http://www.filmstarts.de/nachrichten/18491136.html/|author=von Maike Johnston|title=Spiel mit dem Feuer: Margot Robbie lebt als Insiderin ein gefährliches Leben im Sportwetten-Drama "Dangerous Odds" |publisher= Film Starts (Kino News) |date=26 January 2015|accessdate=2016-10-19|language=German}}{{cite web|url=http://idailytimes.com/margot-robbie-age-profile-wiki-details-biography.html/|publisher=iDaily Times|title=Margot Robbie Age, Profile, Wiki Details & Biography|date=29 May 2016|accessdate=2016-10-19|language=English}} On February 27, 2018, it was announced that BoldFilms is financing the movie.{{cite news|title=Margot Robbie's 'Dangerous Odds' Movie Gets Backing From Bold Films|url=https://variety.com/2018/film/news/margot-robbie-dangerous-odds-movie-gets-backing-from-bold-films-1202712613/|date=27 February 2018|work= Variety, Dave McNary}}

.{{Cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2018/02/margot-robbie-dangerous-odds-bold-films-financing-1202297996/|title=Margot Robbie Sports Wagering Tale 'Dangerous Odds' Finds Big Roller in Bold Films|date=28 February 2018}} Lankester did not approve of the way Bold / Berloff / Robbie wanted to tell her story and declined to further pursue this cooperation.https://nzzas.nzz.ch/gesellschaft/marisa-lankester-schmugglerin-model-und-rally-fahrerin-ld.1444780

NZZ AM SONNTAG, Dez. 16, 2018 In an April 2019 interview, Lankester expanded on her current life and movie development activities.{{cite web|url=https://doertewelti.tumblr.com/post/184762437806/one-of-those-manche-geschichten-sind-einfach|author=von Doerte Welti|title=Wetten, Dass...?|publisher=50 Plus( CH/Switzerland)|date=April–May 2019|accessdate=2019-06-01}}

• {{cite book|title=Dangerous Odds: My Secret Life Inside an Illegal Billion Dollar Sports Betting Operation|author= Marisa Lankester|isbn=9783906196008|publisher=Cappuccino Books Publishing|year=2014}}
• {{cite web|author=Marisa Lankester|date=May 29, 2014|url=http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/05/feds_should_fold_in_their_fight_against_nj_sports_gambling_opinion.html|title=Feds should fold in their fight against N.J. sports gambling: Opinion|work=NJ.com}}
• {{cite web|author=Marisa Lankester|date=December 9, 2015|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/marisa-lankester-tough-odds-daily-fantasy-article-1.2460485|title=Tough odds for daily fantasy: A former bookmaker offers advice to DraftKings and FanDuel|work=nydailynews.com}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lankester, Marisa}}

Category:Living people

Category:1963 births

Category:American memoirists

Category:American women memoirists

Category:21st-century American women writers