Vegas wins big in Super Bowl betting

Less money bet, more profit.

That’s how the Super Bowl went for Nevada’s 176 sportsbooks.

The Super Bowl XLI handle in Nevada was $93.1 million, down from last year’s record write of $94.5 million.

More than making up for this slight dip, though, was the state’s sportsbooks’ take of $12.9 million on the game. It’s the 12^th straight year Nevada sportsbooks turned a profit on the Super Bowl. The last time they didn’t make money was when they lost $396,674 in 1995 on the San Diego Chargers-San Francisco 49ers Super Bowl.

Things certainly didn’t start out well for bookmakers when Devin Hester returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown. Hester was a popular betting choice – at odds of between 25-1 and 30-1 – to score the first touchdown.

John Pinto, director of sports for the Silver Legacy Resort Casino in Reno, told the Reno Gazette Journal his shop lost $90,000 on the first player to score a touchdown prop.

Where Nevada bookmakers scored big were parlay cards and NFL futures. With the Colts covering the spread and the total going under, all favorite-and-over and dog-and-under correlation parlays were knocked down.

“Colts and under was the best combination for us of the four,” said Mike Seba, senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.

Although late Indianapolis money came in the day of the game, much of the early money was on Chicago.

The house could have done even better if Tony Dungy would have had Adam Vinatieri kick a field goal near the end. If that had occurred, the Colts would probably have won 32-17 instead of 29-17. That 15-point margin of victory would have killed all the winning Bears teaser bets and pushed the total over.

The over/under came down from 48 ½ to 47 the day of the game when bettors became aware of the rain.

More puzzling to some than Dungy’s conservatism, was Nevada drawing less betting action than last year despite two public teams with huge fan bases being in the Super Bowl. Wagering on the Super Bowl had increased the five previous years setting records each year.

Speculation was this could be the state’s first $100 million Super Bowl, but it didn’t happen. There are several theories why.

For the first time, there was no Stardust. That legendary casino closed in 2006 and there also weren’t many new rooms open, unlike the previous few years.

“For the first time in a long time there were no major hotels opened,” said longtime Las Vegas professional sports bettor Dave Malinsky.

Problems offshore may have contributed, too.

Some recreational and medium-sized bettors planning on traveling to Nevada may have had their betting funds tied up in the offshore sportsbook BetonSports.com and NETeller, a payment service used by online bettors. Both recently came under fire from U.S. law enforcement and subsequently closed up shop in the American market.

Several Las Vegas sportsbook directors, including Robert Walker of the MGM Mirage and Jay Kornegay of the Las Vegas Hilton, said they received fewer five and six-figure wagers than in past Super Bowls.

Perhaps the matchup had something to do with reduced handle. It was a difficult game to handicap.

Anyways, you don’t hear any complaining from Nevada bookmakers. You rarely do when it comes to the Super Bowl.