does anyone use or recommend one or the other? i'm not a big gambler but sometimes i like to lay down a bet or two, and the one that my friend recommended proports to be the "sexiest" booking site on the net so maybe i should shop around a wee bit. any experience with these?

I used worldwager.net for a while. The site was easy to use, there was either no, or a very small, minimum bet which allowed me to play some pretty crazy multiple parlays that I knew I didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning. They have live help support. And the prop bets are usually pretty good (tons for the super bowl and football playoffs, boxing, and even political props (e.g., the capture of Osama). Getting money in was pretty easy at the time, but getting it out was a little more of a pain in the ass. I had to fax in pictures of my drivers liscence and credit card (but I believe that is done for my protection). The check finally did come a couple weeks later, so I was happy. Oh, and they usually have some sort of first time load or reload bonus - around 10-20%.

The one catch is that getting money into the books has become more difficult because most credit card companies block charges to places like this. So you really need to bend over backwards to get your money there - through money wires, mailed checks, or third party companies. If you find a place that takes paypal, you let me know.

I agree with you about how difficult it has become to transfer funds;

The book that I used most successfully stopped taking bets on sports (InterCasino)

That being said betonsports.com is pretty ok.

I don't use it but my friends who do swear by www.bodog.com

You have to join and get a username, and all that. They have been using it for 3-4 years now.

I think they have a 5% vig fee for the service or something.