Like most of America, Robert Walker stared at the TV in February 2002 and watched as Adam Vinatieri’s 48-yard field goal won the Patriots Super Bowl XXXVI. Unlike most of America, Walker figures the kick saved his job.
Walker is the director of the race and sports book at MGM Mirage in Las Vegas. He sets the lines for 14 different properties in Vegas, and on this day he was sweating out the largest bet he’d ever taken on the big game.
Someone bet $4.6 million on the Rams to beat the Patriots on that day. When Vinatieri’s kick cleared the crossbar, Walker may have been the happiest man in America.
“I’ve always had a soft spot for the Patriots and Adam Vinatieri since then,” Walker said. “If he doesn’t make that field goal, you might be talking to someone else right now.”
Next Sunday is the biggest holiday of the year in Las Vegas. Last year, a record $94 million was bet legally on the Super Bowl. This year, Vegas hopes to reach $100 million. The men in charge of bringing in all that money spent last weekend trying to figure out the best point spread to make the most amount of money.
Set the number too high and the underdog takes in too much money. Set it too low and everyone jumps on the favorite.
For Walker and his brethren, these are the two biggest weeks of the year. From the regular betting line to prop bets, they have to make placing a bet on the big game as tempting as possible.
This year’s matchup between the Colts and Bears has them thinking big bucks.
“I think it’s a phenomenal matchup,” said Chuck Esposito, the assistant VP of the race and sports book at Caesars Palace. “The Bears are one of the most popular teams with the public. The Colts have arguably the most popular player in Peyton Manning. You have the Colts offense vs. the Bears defense.”
Each of the sports-book directors interviewed said they entered last weekend with an idea of what the line would be for each potential matchup. Walker even posted lines at the Mirage for each scenario to gauge the public’s feelings. They all felt the Colts would be around 61/2- or 7-point favorites if they wound up matched with the Bears. When watching the games, they paid attention for any injuries or performances that might affect the way the public would bet.
John Avello, the director at race and sports operations at Wynn Las Vegas, thought the line would be Colts minus-61/2, but then decided on 7 after watching the Colts’ performance in the second half against the Patriots.
“In the third and fourth quarter, all cylinders were firing,” Avello said. “That was the last impression left in watchers’ or bettors’ minds. I’m thinking we have Peyton Manning, one of the best passers, against the Bears, who have a quarterback [Rex Grossman] that people are unsure of. But the Bears do have a great following. Instead of 61/2, I’m going to use 7.”
The line was posted immediately after the Colts-Patriots game ended last Sunday. Walker, who posted the Colts minus-61/2, saw the first seven or eight bets come in on the Colts and moved it to 7.
Most directors rely on staffs of handicappers to help them come up with the number. Once the line is posted, plenty of other people also offer up opinions.
“When I post that number, I get people running back telling me I made a mistake,” Walker said. “If some think it’s too high and some think it’s too low, I know I have it right.”
After the line and over/under are set, the sports book staffs try to finalize their prop bets, which have increased in popularity in recent years. Esposito said his staff has been working on them for the last six weeks. Caesars is credited with staring the prop bet when it posted odds on William “Refrigerator” Perry scoring a touchdown in Super Bowl XX.
“We’ll have 200 to 250 different prop bets on the board,” Esposito said. “You name it, we’ve got it on the board.”
Source: NY Post

He reaches for his new set of specs, just another indication that Kenny White’s eyes spend way too much time staring at these dizzying digits.
”I just started wearing glasses three or four days ago,” said White, the CEO of Las Vegas Sports Consultants. “My eyes are shot from all these numbers.”
White digs through a stack of papers within this organized mess he calls his desk. He’s in search of his team power ratings, which he develops through statistical analysis to help him devise the betting lines for nearly every national sporting event.
Two unsuspecting tutorials surface near the pile as he searches: there’s a book titled Sports Betting 101 and a cassette tape called How to be a Winning Sports Bettor. Indeed, it is an odd sight, like finding sheet music for Chopsticks near Mozart’s piano.
White knows numbers. He knows them better than bettors, which is why 90 percent of the sports books in Las Vegas consult him before they accept a single wager. White also knows this: Only one number matters more than all of the rest.
It’s the Super Bowl betting line. And it’s Indianapolis by seven.
”Absolutely,” said White, who devised the line with a group of oddsmakers in this office after last week’s conference championship games. “It’s extremely important.
“It’s the most important line of the year, simply because of the volume that will be wagered on this game.”
That, of course, is the reason White has all of these binders full of depth charts and injury reports and statistics. It’s why he still immerses himself in nearly every book written about sports betting.
A blunt reminder of his job’s significance can be found simply by looking out one of the windows in this unsuspecting office building.
On the other side of the airport runway, about a mile from this dark corner of the glittery city, is the Las Vegas Strip. By the time Sunday’s game kicks off, more than $80 million will have been wagered on the Super Bowl at the casinos on The Strip.
”It’s almost like a national holiday,” said Chris Andrews, who runs Leroy’s Race & Sports Book inside the same building as the Las Vegas Sports Consultants. “A lot of people gear their vacation around coming out here for the Super Bowl.”
Even as online overseas gambling sites have surged in recent years, the amount of money wagered on the Super Bowl has continued to increase. Each of the past two Super Bowls has broken the previous record for the amount of money wagered on the big game, White said. Along with his staff, White plays a major role in who ends up with the loot.
But for now, on this particular Thursday in mid-January, there isn’t much sports action within any of those casinos. At the MGM Grand, the area where sports bets are placed (called the sports book) isn’t bustling as it will be this weekend.
Only a few of the 85 seats are filled, and guests have the option to watch 49 TV screens. On this afternoon, there are 15 sports events being shown.
On Sunday, however, there only will be one: the Super Bowl. Every sports book in town will be packed with people tuning into that same money-pulling game.
”It’s just a mass of people,” said Robert Walker, the director of the sports book at the Mirage. “It will be wall-to-wall, people sitting on the floors in the front. And it’s like that at every book in town. It’s like those two minutes of the Kentucky Derby. That’s how the whole first quarter of the Super Bowl is. It’s crazy.”
Walker, like White, also faces some serious stress when it comes to the betting line on Super Bowl Sunday. Most of Walker’s worries begin to build on the actual day of the game, unlike White, who faces his tough tasks weeks before when he sets the line.
`RULE OF 10′
Walker, whose sports book at the Mirage actually serves as the hub for the sports books at Mandalay Bay, the Bellagio and MGM Grand, will watch as weeks of hype culminate within those casinos. That’s when his ”rule of 10” kicks into gear.
”Everybody bets 10 times as much as they normally do,” Walker said.
And in some cases, those bets can creep excessively high. In 2002, Walker accepted the highest bet ever taken inside a Las Vegas sports book wagered on a Super Bowl. The wager of $4.6 million, which first had to be approved by Bellagio president Bill McBeath, was for the St. Louis Rams to beat the New England Patriots with the money line.
”The Patriots won outright, thank God,” Walker said. “Otherwise, you’d be talking to somebody different right now.”
Still, even when considering the significance and magnitude of the bet, Walker said the Super Bowl has an intriguing way of bringing people from all different classes of society together.
Whether the bettor is making big wagers or small, the goal is the same: to win.
”That’s the one thing about that game that’s unique,” Walker said. “You might have a guy that bet $100 sitting next to a guy that bet $50,000 or more, and they’re still cheering the same way. The camaraderie is unique between those two people who have the same bet, no matter how much they put down.”
In Miami, the score of the game will dictate the winners and losers. In Las Vegas, however, it will be the outcome of the spread that dictates the mood of many. So, unless the Colts win by more than seven points, it won’t matter whether they hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
If the Colts fail to beat the spread, they still would be Las Vegas’ biggest losers this weekend — which is precisely what makes oddsmakers like White so important.
”Ideally, if seven is the number, we would open at seven and stay there [rather than moving the line because too many bettors are picking one side],” Andrews said. “That would be great. We also want the game to end nowhere near the number so we don’t have to refund anybody. That would be fantastic.”
IT’S UNPREDICTABLE
Problem is, it doesn’t always work out that way. Over the years, oddsmakers and sports books have faced their share of devastating days — few as terrible for the industry as the 1979 Super Bowl.
Although White is quick to note he wasn’t around for this one, the line for the Super Bowl matchup between the Steelers and the Cowboys was initially set at 3 ½ with the Steelers as the favorites. But because of lopsided betting, the line moved to 4 ½ by the day of the game.
The final score? The Steelers won by four points, 35-31.
”That was one of the biggest nightmares this state has seen,” White said. “Because if the number lands in the middle like that, you end up paying both sides.”
Under his watch, though, White said the Las Vegas Sports Consultants has provided a line that has yielded winning results for casinos — and losing results for the fans — each year.
So pick your team, and decide what you will about White’s decision to give the Colts a seven-point edge. You also might want to keep in mind this one little piece of advice from Bears defensive end Alex Brown about that ever-important Las Vegas line:
“Those people in Vegas don’t play football.”
That’s true. White’s profession involves something far different. In the end, however, Brown and White are after the same goal: They both want to win.
”Crunching numbers,” White said. “That’s all it is. I’ll be in here all day long, just constantly trying to make sure we’re picking the perfect number.”
Source: Miami Herald

US restrictions on online gambling may be challenged by the European Union, the bloc’s top financial regulator said today.
The legality of Internet gambling in the United States was ambiguous for many years, but it was effectively banned last October when President Bush signed legislation outlawing financial transactions for gaming.
Several British online gambling firms were forced out of the US market as a result.
“In my view it is probably a restrictive practice, and we might take it up in another fora,” EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy told the European Parliament.
The United States was protecting its own gambling industry by stopping foreign companies from entering the online betting sector, Mr McCreevy said.
However, Mr McCreevy said: “It’s not my intention to bring forward a harmonised piece of legislation on gambling in the European Union.”
Mr McCreevy had declared that the US rules were a “prima facie” case of protectionism and that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was a possible venue for tackling them. However, due to the WTO’s protracted negotiations to secure a new world trade agreement, he would not rush to file a complaint.
“It’s not something of major momentum,” Mr McCreevy said. There have been no face-to-face talks about the issue with Peter Mandelson, the EU trade commissioner, he added.
US pressure on the industry continues. The US Justice Department recently demanded information from some of the world’s biggest investment banks as part of the investigation into online gambling companies such as Britain’s Partygaming.
Source: Ireland.com

NHL Western Conference Report

By Dan The Man Leach
WagerWeb.com Contributing Writer

It has been a truly exciting season in the NHL so far, and as we enter the second half of the season, let’s take a look top 5 teams in the Western Conference. These are the teams I feel will be there in the end fighting for Lord Stanley’s Cup, as well as couple of sleepers that could make a lot of noise come playoff
time.

1. Nashville (71 points, 1st place Central Division): Could this be the Predators’ year? Many people thinks so as the former late-1990s expansion team is fast becoming a power in the Western Conference. The leadership of Paul Kariya has been key as he has 53 points, most on the team heading into the second half. WagerWeb.com lists the Preds as +800 to win the Stanley Cup.

2. Anaheim Ducks (68 points, 1st place, Pacific Division): With some of the best goaltending in the league, the Ducks are a team that can shut an opponent down and in a hurry. The play of the forwards will be a key come playoff time. The Ducks know they can stay in games with their defense and goaltending, and that is truly dangerous in today’s NHL. WagerWeb.com lists the Ducks as the favorites to win the Cup at
+350.

3. Calgary Flames (Co-1st place, 56 points, Northwest Division): The Stanley Cup finalists from a few years ago are catching fire, no pun intended, and have been playing great defense heading into the break. The second half will be key for the Flames to dominate more as a balanced team instead of one-dimensional at times. WagerWeb.com lists the Flames as +1500 to win the Cup.

4. Detroit Red Wings (65 points, 2nd place, Central Division): The Wings no longer have Steve Yzerman, but they have Nick Lidstrom and some of the best young talent in the league in Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg. Dominik Hasek is capable of winning a Cup by standing on his head, but has been inconsistent at times this year and will need to go into the second half confident and, most important,
healthy. WagerWeb.com lists the Wings as +900 to win the Cup.

5. San Jose Sharks (64 points, 2nd place, Pacific Division): The Sharks have been too up and down for their liking, but when they are up they are a team that can control the blue line and shut the other team down with great defense. WagerWeb.com lists the Sharks as +800 to win the Cup.

SLEEPERS

Dallas Stars: This team has the depth and leadership to make a run.

Vancouver Canucks: One of the NHL’s best offensive teams can be very dangerous when it gets hot, plus the Canucks have
Roberto Luongo in net.

Washington State Representative Chris Strow and his House Bill 1243, believe that online gambling in the United States should be legal in the privacy of your own home.
In 2006, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was signed into law by President George Bush, which makes online gambling conducted in the United States a Class C Felony.
Chris Strow plans to change this law after introducing House Bill 1243 to correct what he considers an inappropriate penalty for an activity responsible adults should be allowed to do in the privacy of their own home.
Strow said, “While I do see the need for protecting our citizens from online gambling that may be scamming innocent victims, I do think that there is also a level of accountability, as an adult, to do as he or she chooses in his or her own home.”
“Most certainly choosing to gamble, or play a game of skill such as poker, should not have been made a crime equivalent to possessing child pornography or threatening the Governor,” he added.
Strow made a plea for state residents to call and write to the Chairman of the House Commerce and Labor Committee, Representative Steve Conway, to ask him to schedule a hearing for House Bill 1243.
Source: Online Casino