PST Staff

Ron Raymond

Lynda Collins

Collins also was a reporter in the Associated Press' Los Angeles Bureau, where some of her more interesting assignments included the death of Howard Hughes and the 1976 Presidential elections when candidates Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter were in the West. She later co-hosted a radio sports talk show in Houston as well as Astro pre and postgame shows. Her articles have appeared in numerous sports magazines and newspapers, along with the Vegas Insider and Prescription Web sites.

Collins was born in Ohio and grew up in the Chicago suburbs, a big fan of the Chicago White Sox and Bears. She began her career out of high school working on the society pages of her hometown newspaper, the Waukegan News-Sun. Collins continued to work there summers while attending North Central College, gradually moving into local politics and then her first love, sports. After college, where she was a cheerleader and editor of the school newspaper, Collins was hired as the Midwest's first female sportswriter by the now-defunct Chicago American. She specialized in feature stories involving the Windy City's major sports teams and drew national attention after being expelled from the Atlanta Braves' press box for being a woman, an issue that was resolved when Collins was admitted to the Baseball Writers Association of America. Years later while covering the NBA, NFL and college sports, she was caught in the controversy over women being allowed in men's locker rooms.

Lynda landed in Las Vegas 20 years ago when she was hired as a sportswriter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. That was where she got her first taste of sports betting -- other than her father's frequent and hushed calls to his bookmaker when she was growing up -- as Collins was tapped to originate a sports gambling column for Nevada's largest newspaper. Prominent Vegas sports gaming figures like Lem Banker, Sonny Reizner, Russ Culver, Keith Glantz and Lee Pete introduced the novice to intricacies of the trade and she quickly found it all quite fascinating. She was the first writer to cover the prestigious Las Vegas Hilton SuperContest on a weekly basis and has charted the competition for readers for seven straight seasons, including the past one for The PST.

Collins and her longtime companion, handicapper Mike Lee, live in Las Vegas. Each has a grown child and they share three grandchildren, ages 5, 2 and 1, along with a pampered, beloved 8-year-old Lhasa apso. Lynda and Mike especially enjoy pro football, horse racing (particularly summer trips to Del Mar), swimming, watching pro golf, riding rollercoasters, movies and music.

Greg Dempson

Bob "THE BEAR" Cowan

“The Bear” was a fictitious character created for radio specifically to cover the weekly NFL games with a special slant toward bettors and the huge number of American Football Pool players. Originally “The Bear” called from phone booths around town or from NFL cities like Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco or places unknown. Recently he has come out of hiding using his full name, Bob “The Bear” Cowan, and into the studio. Although it was clear The Bear was not a “Bookie” himself, his travels brought him up close to the exotic sides of life. Through the combination of his cast of strange contemporaries and his research and hard work, “The Bear” clearly became one of the top football handicapper in the industry. Since 1985 he has never had a losing season and in all but four years was close to sixty percent, which is truly outstanding.

The Bear actually has a minor football background and is more than capable of discussing all aspects of the game. He has done several open line shows, was heard regularly on National radio, has written articles in various magazines flavoured for the betting public and has evolved as Canada’s top NFL handicapper. He currently is seen on “The Score” National Television Network and heard on Toronto radio.

On various times during the year he cautions people not to “bet the farm” and that there are no guarantees no matter what someone’s past record has been. In fact, the Bear’s real popularity and his eventual key to longevity will be his integrity combined with his outstanding record To arrive at his selections The Bear spends up to 20 hours a week reading and analyzing team’s game results and tendencies. Coupled with many high percentage betting theories are his analysis of team performance, how each team performs on grass or artificial, home, away, in their division or out, look ahead or sandwich games, how each defense performs against different style offenses and vice versa, which corner backs get beat and which stop the run, injuries and often more important the potential replacements, etc. His network of contemporaries, from all parts of North America, are often consulted before the final decision. The information and comparisons explode and, like with all top handicappers, are then condensed to those most meaningful to the selection. It is his experience and special insight that reduce the preponderance of facts and opinions to his final weekly winning selections.

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Dennis Hill

Ross Benjamin

Mike Lineback

Mike "thebrush" Borris

Kevin "Misinformed" Pelt

Richard Witt

Bob "Bagiant" Levine

Fred "Dogdayafternoon" Caldwell