It's difficult to tell how much of Meyer's supposed edge is legit and how much is show biz. Nationally, more than a thousand professional handicappers like Meyer make millions selling sports picks, but few if any consistently beat Vegas.
"We have a saying about touts: They're guys who've already lost all their money and now they're going to help you lose yours," says Richard Davies, a history professor at the University of Nevada, Reno and author of Betting the Line, a history of sports gambling.
Lem Banker, a legendary, 83-year-old sports bettor in Las Vegas, is even more succinct. "He's a phony bastard," he says of Meyer. "He's a fake bullshitter."
Even before he met Nevin Shapiro, Meyer didn't steer clear of some other bad bets.
In May 2002, he was arrested in Plantation, where he was living on an $870,000 estate. Local jewelry store Levinson Jewelers told police he'd written more than $80,000 in checks for eight watches. The checks bounced, though, and when officers arrested Meyer, they found a warrant out from the Clark County Sheriff's Office in Vegas on fraud charges.
The local charges were dropped when Meyer returned the watches. The Vegas charge for an unpaid "marker" — a line of credit casinos issue to gamblers — was cleared when he posted bond and settled the debt.
Those weren't Meyer's only unpaid bills. In 2003, the Atlantis casino in the Bahamas won a $200,000 judgment in Broward; the casino sued again in January 2006 when Meyer still hadn't paid up.
Then, on December 22, 2006, cops charged Meyer with domestic violence. He was divorcing his wife Jennifer when he went home to pick up some clothes. The two got into a violent argument in her car, police say, and Meyer "grabbed her wrists," leaving her with "red marks." (She declined to press charges.)
The next year, a Fort Lauderdale man named Forest Simpson sued, alleging he'd invested more than $600,000 to stage a boxing match that never happened. They settled out of court.
Around 2005, Meyer had befriended Shapiro. The short, flashy South Beach resident was in the midst of turning his grocery-diverting business into a massive Ponzi scheme — and he had a huge gambling vice to feed with the millions coming in.
He turned to Meyer for help. "We became friends," Meyer says. "When I would go to Vegas, I would place bets for him. He paid for my advice also."
Meyer, in turn, invested in Shapiro's business. Around 2006, he agreed to lend Shapiro $675,000.
By 2009, when Shapiro could no longer sustain the fraud, Meyer realized he would never see the money again. He drafted a lawsuit, but in November, Shapiro filed for bankruptcy protection.
Four months later, Shapiro was under arrest by federal agents, charged with running a massive Ponzi scheme.
It's not clear how much cash Shapiro funneled through Meyer, but Joel Tabas, Shapiro's bankruptcy trustee, claims at least $5 million went to the sports handicapper.
Meyer's attorney, Hirschhorn, says most of the cash simply passed through on the way to bets in Vegas casinos. Tabas must have agreed — last month, he struck a deal for Meyer to pay back $900,000.
Meyer and Shapiro's relationship is likely to have a more lasting impact on UM, which is already under investigation by the NCAA after Shapiro provided Yahoo! Sports with a jaw-dropping list of allegations in August. He says he personally paid Canes athletes, bought hookers, and hosted wild bacchanalia.
Shapiro certainly could have used that close contact with UM players to his advantage.
"Everyone looks for a tiny edge; that's the nature of sports betting," Jarvis, the Nova professor, says. "Even if he just knew a receiver had stubbed his toe before a game, that could be enough to affect the spread."
Meyer, though, says he can't recall Shapiro ever placing a surprising UM bet that implied inside info.
But Hirschhorn does add one more nugget for the NCAA investigators to consider.
In 2008, the attorney says, he met with "high-level UM officials" to warn them not to take money from Shapiro, who had already pledged $150,000 to the school. "I knew this guy was going to take a fall someday, and I wanted to at least pass it on," Hirschhorn says.
Hirschhorn declines to name the people he met with, but a source who asked not to be named confirms he helped set up a meeting between the lawyer and Kirby Hocutt, then UM's athletic director.
Hocutt, now the AD at Texas Tech, didn't respond to emails and calls to his sports department for comment.
Whatever the future holds for UM, Meyer believes he's at least back to his winning ways.
He's living in an $800,000 house in Weston and told Cigar Aficionado he's pulling in an "eight-figure annual income." He made headlines in Vegas last year while filming a reality show about laying a million-dollar bet on the Super Bowl.
But life hasn't come up all aces for the gambling king. When New Times called last month, he claimed a former employee was trying to extort thousands of dollars from him. He also believed New Times was buying false rumors about his relationship with Shapiro.
"You better be careful if you're coming after me. I'm telling you that now," he said. "My family's name is on the line. My reputation is on the line... I'm just warning you that you're setting yourself up for a world of trouble here."
Are you Adam Meyers friend? Your a dumb piece of shit. You know exactly the Adam Meyer they are talking about in this article. It's the same piece of shit at ADAMWINS.com. The same piece of shit who claims to win money. HE SUCKS... This post is from a guy who lost thousands with Adam and sucks at bankroll management and is nothing but a sleezeball fag.
No wonder Adam Meyer is suing for 20 Million dollars. Anybody that knows Adam Meyer knows this is nothing of what he looks like. Looks like they referenced the wrong guy for multiple charges! http://goo.gl/Pfwwo and http://goo.gl/vYSTG and http://goo.gl/kb4eI Wow.
It is unfortunate that in the fallout from the Nevin Shapiro escapade, there seems to be a concerted effort to villainize Adam Meyer in a number of venues. Specifically here, Mr. Elfrink's piece has such a negative bias that it reads more as a personal vendetta than as a professionally prepared piece of journalism. Mr. Elfrink while attempting to refrain from crossing the line into false accusations, exploits and emphasizes every possible derisive angle from Mr. Meyer's personal grooming to the value of his homes - noted twice for some odd reason. Even for the purpose of supporting a particular position, a seasoned, professional journalist would attempt to balance this bias by at the very least presenting an opposing view. Granted this is not the New York Times here - but he has made not even the most minimal attempt to do this. The truth of the matter is that there are many individuals and companies who have had long and short term business interactions with Mr. Meyer who have found him to be pleasant, professional and responsible. He is also a devoted and protective father and a long term business owner with many loyal employees and associates - some who have been with him for decades. But perhaps disclosing this would not have made for as 'theatrical' an article (enhanced no doubt by the 'flames of fire' image accompanying the article). The business of handicapping and its related fields is not a particularly delicate business and attracts for the most part 'hard core' personalities or those who think they are. Mr. Meyer could have taken steps to 'block out' issues he may have had in the past - but he chose not to. While some of these issues - be they transgressions of youth or poor judgement may not represent particularly admirable moments, they provide a more honest account than being exploited by third parties for questionable gain. And while he may have had professional interactions with Mr. Shapiro - that does not make him one and the same.
When you contact a bankruptcy lawyer, he helps you n more than one way. He first makes you aware of your own financial situation. He is the best person to decide whether you can file for bankruptcy or no. He will surely take out time to tell you about your rights and duties, the laws of bankruptcy of the state etc. Calculating your incomes and expenses, collecting all the information and evidence to prove your bankruptcy is all done by your bankruptcy lawyer. You can lie to anyone you want but not your doctor or your lawyer or else you will be in deep trouble.
Adam Meyer: Florida's gambling king shouldn't have bet on Nevin Shapiro...@redears:disqus my best friend's mom makes $77 an hour on the computer. She has been out of job for 9 months but last month her check was $7487 just working on the computer for a few hours. Read about it here, CashHuge. com
"By 2009, when Shapiro could no longer sustain the fraud, Meyer realized he would never see the money again. He drafted a lawsuit, but in November, Shapiro filed for bankruptcy protection" BUT Meyers lawyer said he warned UM about Shapiro in 2008? Something doesnt add up, why warn UM but not your client?
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