Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, the man whose life is portrayed as the fictionalized Sam "Ace" Rothstein in ''Casino'', is still going strong with his own website where you can read his musings on settling down in Palm Beach or pay for his picks.

Lefty speaks admiringly of The Computer Group, a cabal of gamblers who used computers starting in 1980 to master college-sports betting--including Michael Kent, Dr. Ivan Mindlin, Stanley Tomchin, Jimmy Evart, Irwin Molasky, and Billy Walters, who placed bets with cash stuffed in a Famous Amos Cookies bag.

The members of the Computer Group credit their success in part to the removal of Bob Martin from the gambling scene in 1983 when he was locked up for taking out-of-state bets over the phone. Martin set the sports-betting line for Vegas since 1967, having earned his chops betting on the Dodgers with other schoolkids in Brooklyn, then bookmaking on his WWII tour of duty in France to a profit of$30,000 (worth ten times as much in today's dollars). His recommendation for being a successful sports gambler? "Marry a rich wife."