Game’s Over-Under Side : Gambling: Betting has become so electronically sophisticated, it’s almost impossible to stop.

Brent Musburger called it a cute little story out of Las Vegas. In the aftermath of the NFC title game between the Rams and San Francisco 49ers two weeks ago, Musburger, a CBS sports broadcaster, reported that the first bet had been made on Super Bowl XXIV.

He told a national television audience that $100,000 had been placed on the 49ers. He reported that San Francisco was a 10 1/2-point favorite over the AFC champion Denver Broncos for Sunday’s game at New Orleans.

Recounting the moment, Lt. Dan Jones of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Administrative Vice Division had another perspective regarding Musburger’s anecdote.

Cute was not what came to his mind.

No sooner had the conference championship games ended than Super Bowl mania began. And to Jones that meant the proliferation of illegal bookmaking in Southern California.

Law enforcement authorities say that more than $1 billion--legally and illegally--is bet on the Super Bowl, which means the game is as much for gamblers as it is for the National Football League’s owners, coaches, players and fans.

“Super Sunday is to the compulsive gambler what New Year’s Eve is to the alcoholic,” said Robert Hunter, a clinical psychologist from Charter Hospital of Nevada. “For the serious sports bettor, now is the time to get even for a whole season of losing.”

Bettors can get action on almost anything relating to the game, including odds, point spreads, overs-and-unders (betting that the combined score of the teams will be over or under a predicted number), which player will score first, which one will score last and on and on. Even which team will win the coin toss.

This glut adds to law enforcement’s task of curtailing illegal bookmaking, said Detective Michael Wixted of the LAPD. After 18 years of trailing gambling operations in Los Angeles, Wixted knows the bookmakers’ book:

Chapter 1: Only play for the 10% commission called the vigorish. The 11-10 is the traditional bet with a bookmaker in which the gambler pays $11 to win $10. The service charge was introduced by Ed Curd, a Kentucky bookmaker in the 1940s, according to Dan Moldea in his book “Interference, How Organized Crime Influences Professional Football.”

Chapter 2: When establishing credit lines with bettors, be as cautious as bankers. Many bookmakers require character references and sponsors before accepting a customer.

Chapter 3: Know when to balance the betting on each side to avoid heavy losses. They call it a layoff when a bookmaker bets with another bookmaker to get rid of excess action on one team. Bookmakers realize that success begins and ends with their commission, not with gambling.

Chapter 4: Remain elusive.

About Chapter 4 . . .

Vince Repetto of the San Francisco Police Dept. said that is what keeps his life interesting.

And, at times, frustrating.

High-tech electronic equipment has made it easier to disguise illegal operations.

Fifteen years ago, bookmakers worked with paper and pencils. But even then they were artful dodgers, recording bets in invisible ink on paper that dissolved in water or quickly disintegrated when lighted by cigarettes.

When marking bets these days, three carbon copies and tape recorders are used to ensure accurate bookkeeping. These records usually are kept for a week until bookmaker and client agree on what is owed. Then they are destroyed.

So, how to disguise business?

The biggest change, police say, is advanced telephone systems. To remain undetected, bookmakers use 800 numbers, call forwarding, cellular telephones, microwave transmissions, facsimile machines and computer modems.

Las Vegas police found out just how far bookmakers would go to hide their service when investigating the Sports Office Accounting Program, a computer program for bookmakers. The software sold for $2,000, and included a kill key in case of a police raid.

“When I started, it was all paper and pencil,” Wixted said. “Now it’s all computerized. Today, everything is done with electronics so you never know where the bookie is.”

Well, almost never.

Repetto said San Francisco police lucked into one case when some old tape cassettes were uncovered in a dumpster in Golden Gate Park. Because the tapes had not been erased, police were able to locate four offices and stop an $800,000-a-year operation.

Sometimes, it just takes shrewdness. Repetto recalled a raid in which the suspected bookmaker had surveillance cameras at his home.

Just before the raid, San Francisco police called local utilities officials, and had the suspect’s electricity turned off so he could not see police coming and erase tapes, disks and other evidence.

Jones said that LAPD officers rely on telephone company records when investigating a ring. Those records help build a paper trail, which can lead to an arrest.

Los Angeles vice officers once uncovered a Gardena operation that had calls forwarded four times, Jones said. The incoming calls went to a nondescript office, to another room within the office, to San Pedro and then to the first number. From there, the bets were finally placed and sent to the bookmaker’s back office at another location. The records usually are stored at a back office, which is more difficult to locate because it does not take incoming calls.

The first location is called a front office, where telephone clerks know clients by a code number. Police said the clerks usually earn from $300 to $500 a week, tax free, for recording bets and passing them to the back office.

The front office usually is open in the morning for three hours before the start of East Coast events and then in the afternoon for West Coast games.

Police usually target the back office because many bookmakers run more than one front simultaneously.

“That’s where the brain is,” said one bookmaker. “He’s the only one who knows what is going on at all times. The brain changes the line.”

The bookmaker changes the line, according to the amount of money wagered on each game, so that he can get equal amounts of action on each side of the game.

“Those who don’t get big action on a certain game might stay the same (all week),” the bookmaker said.

The bookmaker said he sets his line from Las Vegas, as do most of his peers. He said the figure is determined a week before football games by a select group.

“One of them will say, ‘I make Team A six,’ ” he said. “The other guy says, ‘I make it seven.’ So they go with the middle number.

“The line can change any time, like the stock market. After the line is established, money and the volume of money will influence the fluctuation of the points in that event.”

A line’s progression can be charted by reading one of the weekly sports journals, such as J.K. Sports Journal, that lists games to be played each day.

Tout sheets were once the best source of information for gamblers. But now they are one of many forms. Calling a telephone tout service is an easy way to get the latest line on a given event.

All these information services and telephone systems have made it easier for bookmakers to move to the suburbs, where they often work undetected. With 800 numbers, it is no longer necessary for the bookmaker to remain in the neighborhood.

Aggressive enforcement in large cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco makes such moves logical. One police department in southeast L.A. County had never arrested a bookmaker when Wixted helped them stop an operation recently.

“They didn’t know what to do,” he said.

The same cannot be said of bookmakers, who can earn between $15,000 to $1 million, police say.

Larger operations, which average in the six-figure range for taking football wagers, use agents to attract customers. Police say agents often are waiters, bartenders, union representatives. Anyone who regularly handles bets for a small group. The agents do not have enough capital to start a bookmaking operation so they join one, splitting the commission.

Los Angeles police discovered the inner workings of one operation when confiscating eight pages of instructions for agents.

The instructions read in part:

“Simply put, we are independent businessmen. We provide a service; one that is wanted and needed by many people. . . . We operate an ethical enterprise. We pay our debts, but by the same token we expect prompt payment. . . . If we have a history of collection problems, we will take prompt remedial action.”

The bookmakers asked agents for character references to ensure client payment. The agent had to stand by the bettor as if he were co-signing a loan.

Wixted said most gamblers use more than one bookmaker, and shop for the best point spread before placing a bet.

Some bettors use the odds to their advantage by what is known as middling the field. The idea is to bet on both teams at different point spreads in hopes that the final score falls in between, so that both bets can be won.

If the point spread starts at 10, a wager of $1,100 might be placed on Team A. If the spread goes to 13, the gambler might put another $1,100 on Team B.

With such a bet--$1,000 plus the $100 commission--it is doubtful the gambler would lose both sides.

“He is gambling with the $100 with the possibility to win $2,000,” a bookmaker said.

Because it takes the talent of a CPA to run a successful organization, police say football is a bookmaker’s favorite season. They say many illegal operations shut down after Super Bowl Sunday.

Bookmakers do not like to handle basketball and baseball because those sports play too many games a week for accounting purposes.

Also, the more games a week, the smaller the handle per game.

“It’s not worth their while,” Jones of the LAPD said.

With Las Vegas handling so much legal gambling, many wonder why illegal books remain active.

The reason, police say, is convenience. It is easier for gamblers to call bookmakers than it is to go to Nevada or to Caliente, Mexico, which also offers sports betting. Also, bookmakers work on credit, whereas Nevada and Caliente bookmakers accept only cash.

Furthermore, gambling is such a spontaneous activity that calling a neighborhood bookmaker is the easiest step.

More and more take that step when it comes to the Super Bowl. And the stakes increase accordingly, authorities say. Those who wager $10,000 to $15,000 in a week will bet that much on one game.

“There is no more college football or other pro games to stimulate people who want to bet,” Jones said. “So, they come up with 100 different ways to bet the one game. This brings a bookmaker the same amount of business as a regular week of action.

“Also, with one game, big bettors come out. They are more likely to lay out big-time money on a one-time event like a Super Bowl.”

That certainly was the case in the bet reported by CBS.