I still think Luck would have had a much higher ceiling as a show if it would have been set in the late 1800's when the takeout rates were under 5%, when horse bettors made absolute fortunes, when horse bettors dated the best actresses from plays, when the press frequently wrote about them in the papers, and when a few of the more notorious ones did crazy sh!t all the time.
Not that it detracts any from the show -- but you have a guy who lost his last dollar playing poker the night before, he's broke, and he shows up at the track with a napkin that has a $3,240 pick six play on it.
As for the $3,240 play on the napkin... it's 3 by 1 by 4 by 5 by 3 by 9
He singles a horse off of a 2-year layoff that went off at more than 12/1 odds even though his own trainer bet $3,000 to win on him.
Next time there's a big pick six carryover somewhere -- try that -- show up, tell people you don't have any money on you, but give them a 3K + Pick 6 play with a double digit longshot singled.
The guys who made fortunes betting horses in the late 1800's -- that would translate to fortunes worth tens of millions of dollars today -- they did it without any luck. They did it in a time when horse racing was one of the three major sports in New York along with Baseball and Boxing ... and in some big cities outside of New York, horse racing was bigger than any other sport.
Seemed like it would have been such a perfect fit for Milch -- because Deadwood was 1870's in about the same time range as the start of the goldenest of golden eras for the horse bettor. And an era when some real shady, violent, and interesting stuff did happen in horse racing. There will never be another person assosicated with horse racing who is even 1/100th as intersting as Plunger Walton.
All beside the point -- it takes nothing away from Luck. The days of horse bettors having national and even international celebrity are over. The racing is at least more honest and tightly regulated now... but that doesn't suit the time peroid for a drama series.
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