Legalized sports betting — and the bookies to whom it’s giving agita — is the subject of a forthcoming HBO Max series called How to Be a Bookie starring comedian Sebastian Maniscalco. 516k44
Created by Chuck Lorre of Two and a Half Men fame, the show — which has been green lit for an eight-episode first season — will feature Maniscalco as a California bookie who is struggling to “to survive the impending legalization of sports gambling, increasingly unstable clients, family, co-workers, and a lifestyle that bounces him around every corner of Los Angeles, high and low,” according to the official logline for the show.
Of course, this being a fictional story, it should be easy enough to gloss over the fact that doomed to failure.
“It’s an absolute dream to work with Sebastian Maniscalco — whom I’ve been a fan of for years,” Lorre said in a statement. “To have my first project at HBO Max with such an incredibly gifted comedian and alongside Nick Bakay is the trifecta. I can’t wait to get started.”
Bakay is co-creating the series with Lorre.
Maniscalco, though primarily known as a comedian, has been doing some acting of late, notably as “Crazy” Joe Gallo in The Irishman.
No word if any real-life gamblers — much like how The Sopranos made use of real-life mob — will be featured.
