LAS VEGAS — In his first college football game, Jon Denton started at quarterback for UNLV at Tennessee, in an orange cauldron of 106,212 howling enemies, to open the 1996 season.
Those who knew the 6-2 freshman confirm his cockiness and confidence, and the born-and-bred Vegas kid also possessed exceptional street savvy. Another Vegas native said, “A pretty sharp dude.”
One pal’s pop topped the FBI’s Buffalo crime-family tree.
“That’s Vegas,” Denton said. “You get exposed to things that others see and hear in movies. Two different worlds, the legal world and the underworld. Which one is real? I got exposed to it fairly young, learned the ropes early.”
The state’s sportsbooks had been barred from posting lines on UNLV and Nevada games since the 1950s. Denton, though, still knew the spreads via friends whose older siblings or fathers gambled with bookies or tapped offshore outlets.
He tried motivating teammates with his information.
“That’s when I started paying attention,” he said. “ ‘OK, how did these folks compare us to opponents?’ I used that. ‘Guys, we’re 53-point underdogs. Man, at least let’s cover the spread!’ Joking around. That was the extent of it.”
Didn’t work, as junior quarterback Peyton Manning and the No. 2-ranked Volunteers smashed 53-point-dog UNLV 62-3. Later that season, the 28-point-underdog Rebels beat San Diego State 44-42, a 30-to-1 moneyline payback.
Denton, 45, still holds seven UNLV passing records. He rang for his ATS record. Two of 21 starts were unlined, so he went 13-5-1, a magnificent 71.1% cover rate.
“Proud of that,” he said, “for sure.”
INDISCREET
Jon and wife Natalie moved to Shenandoah, Iowa, near Nebraska and Missouri, about 10 years ago. Olivia, the eldest of their three daughters, recently informed them of their imminent grandparenthood.
With radio-podcast pal David Carney, in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Denton’s daily selections won 62.5% of the time over 2½ years through 2022. He taps several experts for input and conducts his own research.
He peddles computer software, so he didn’t miss a beat when I informed him that the NCAA recently divulged it had registered 175 gambling infractions since 2018, when legal sports betting blossomed.
Seventeen are ongoing cases. All involve athletes, coaches or administrators.
Sports gambling is now legal in two-thirds of the nation.
“What did they expect?” he said. “People open an app, hit a couple of buttons and think it’s discreet. They don’t realize … everything is open, even though they say it’s hidden on these devices.
“But we’re talking about tech. You got a data trail every day you wake up.”
At Denton’s first spring camp, the new Hard Rock Hotel’s casino was a five-minute walk, due west, from the practice field. Teammates never discussed sports betting, but craps, poker and table games were popular.
“Stipend checks came in, and they’d first pay the rent, then go ‘over here,’ ” Denton said. “Annually, [officials] came in and put the fear of God in you about sports betting.”
The few Vegas players were pulled aside and asked to be vigilant.
“Almost like, ‘Be a rat, let us know.’ That’s the opposite of what I’m going to do. I won’t be in there myself, but I definitely wouldn’t rat folks out.”
NONSENSE
In January 2001, the Nevada Gaming Commission allowed betting on Rebels and Wolf Pack games. Their absences were conspicuous, nonsensical.
Today, it doesn’t make sense that recently legalized Nebraska forbids betting on Cornhuskers football or Creighton hoops home games.
“They’ll find a way to bet on that stuff,” Denton said. “You might as well open it up, legalize it, track it and trace it, as opposed to losing out on the revenue and driving some of that into the world that you want to bring them out of.”
He laughed.
“Just doesn’t make sense.”
Iowa’s brick-and-mortar shops and online setups are near-model operations.
Denton has DraftKings, Caesars and BetMGM apps on his phone. He does well but keeps it recreational. He recalls vividly a friend’s dad who had fared well for a few years before spiraling.
“When you’re not responsible with money and how you go about it, you end up moving from a four-bedroom house in [upscale] Whitney Ranch to a two-bedroom apartment in North Las Vegas.”
A failed UNLV drug test led to a two-game suspension as a sophomore; another in February 1998 triggered his dismissal. An Eastern Kentucky stint was short and sour.
Denton never denied having dabbled with marijuana and said he raised his kids to never kid themselves, to “own up to your mistakes, but call folks out when it needs to be right.”
He remains loyal to UNLV. He was at Sam Boyd Stadium for the 2017 opener, when 45-point-favorite UNLV lost to FCS minnow Howard 43-40. Many regard it as the worst defeat in Division I history.
“We definitely knew the spread! Yeah, ‘embarrassing’ is an understatement.”
Denton wishes his UNLV career had ended differently.
As a sophomore, he threw for 354 yards and a touchdown and ran one in as the 25-point-underdog Rebels scared USC in the Coliseum.
Trojans coach John Robinson found Denton in the visitors’ showers and showered him with accolades.
Denton might have played for Robinson, who became UNLV’s boss in 1999.
“Only regret is not seeing my senior year under ‘J-Rob,’ ” Denton said. “Would have been a great full-circle story.”
