Chicago is a seven-point underdog in the Super Bowl, but the city is an overwhelming favorite with bookmakers, who think Bears fans will help push betting on the big game to record levels.
Nevada casinos and Internet wagering sites are counting on a combination of a nationwide fan base, an intriguing match-up between the Bears’ stout defense and the Colts’ jet-powered offense and the fervor that comes from a big city starved for a football championship.
Super Bowl betting, though, isn’t just a matter of whether the Bears will win or lose: People can gamble on everything from how many rushing yards Thomas Jones will gain to how long it will take Billy Joel to sing the national anthem.
Still, most money goes toward the outcome of the game, and high rollers already have begun to put down six-figure bets.
Though the majority of the wagers won’t come until the weekend, the heaviest cash so far is on the Bears’ side of the ledger, said Robert Walker, sports book director for the MGM Mirage casinos.
“Chicago is a very popular team, a huge city, with a storied program,” he said. “They’re just one of those franchises that when they get to the big game, they’re going to enhance it.”
Though experts estimate that the NCAA men’s basketball tournament has become the nation’s biggest overall gambling event, the Super Bowl remains by far the largest single game for wagering.
Casinos in Nevada – one of the few states in which sports betting is legal – took in $94 million last Super Bowl, and expect to top $100 million this year.
Frank Streshley, senior analyst for the Nevada Gaming Control Board, said the strengthening economy of the last few years has been chiefly responsible for the increased wagering, but that the teams playing also makes a difference.
“The Colts and the Bears have a large base of fans – especially Chicago,” he said.
Chuck Esposito, a native of the northwest Chicago suburbs who helps run the sports book at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, said Chicago fans seem more willing than others to put their money where their hearts are.
Before the football season begins each year, he said, more people pick the Bears to win the championship than any other team, regardless of how the squad is shaping up (the same is true with the Cubs). They were at 12-to-1 odds for this season, so an optimistic fan who put down $100 a year ago would collect $1,200 with a victory Sunday.
Esposito said most of his colleagues rooted for the Bears and the Colts during the playoffs, figuring that matchup would spur the most action.
“You have offense against defense, two of the most popular players with (Colts quarterback) Peyton Manning and (Bears linebacker) Brian Urlacher,” he said. “It’s just a dream matchup for the viewing public – a dream matchup for the betting public, too.”
Some Internet-based casinos also foresee a big day. Calvin Ayre of Antigua-based Bodog.com, which takes wagers from all over the globe, said through a spokesman that betting on the Super Bowl probably would be second only to last year’s World Cup soccer championship.
Internet gambling is not legal in the United States – credit-card companies and banks are prohibited from processing online wagering transactions – and Ayre said his company no longer markets to the country. But BetUS.com, a site based in Costa Rica, still accepts American wagers.
Spokesman Reed Richards wouldn’t comment on how American gamblers are placing their bets. Richards did say, though, that bets coming from Chicago and Indianapolis are split almost 50-50, reflecting an enthusiasm that he believed would drive the 10-year-old site to a record day.
“You’re seeing two teams that haven’t made an appearance in quite some time,” he said. “There’s a little bit classic Americana being played there. It’s nice to see a break from teams like the Patriots.”
Chicago area bookies might be in for a windfall of their own, even though they tend to set firm limits on what their customers can bet, said FBI spokesman Ross Rice.
“They don’t want them to get down too far (so they) won’t be able to pay,” he said.
“A new player, someone who bets (only) for the Super Bowl, will have a small limit.”
Jay Kornegay, executive director of race and sports at the Las Vegas Hilton, said half of his business will come from proposition bets, side wagers on everything from the total number of punts in the game, to who wins the coin toss, to whether Rex Grossman will throw a touchdown or an interception first. (Oddsmakers say a pick is more likely.)
“Even though it might seem like a routine play, we know you can hear little groans or applause because some player just went over seven yards,” he said.
Alan Palmer, who trades grains and metals at the Chicago Board of Trade, said some of his colleagues are going wild over the game, putting down as much as $10,000.
And even though he rarely bets on sports, he said a small win on Sunday would be far sweeter than any big victory in the trading pits.
“I’m taking the Bears at seven (points), come on!” he said.
Source: Daily Press
War on Gambling a Boon For Corner Bookie
On Sunday, a 28-year-old Hollywood assistant named Seth plans to enjoy the Super Bowl in the same way millions of other football fans will: He’ll bet on it.
How, exactly, will he wager that $100 burning a hole in his pocket? One thing he knows for sure is that he won’t do it legally. Trekking to Vegas for the weekend is out of the question. And he won’t do it using one of the publicly traded online services based abroad that have been taking sports bets from Americans over the past few years. They have mostly stopped taking action from U.S. residents in the wake of an aggressive government crackdown on Internet wagering.
But that doesn’t mean he and other gamblers will be shut out. In fact, the government’s war against illegal online wagering may be driving gamblers back to where they started: their local bookie. And in an ironic twist, there’s a good chance the bookmaker is taking bets over the Internet, too.
“Even my bookie is online these days,” says Seth. He would be logging in to place his bet but misplaced the username and password the bookmaker gave him. “I guess I’ll just have to call him and get him to resend me the instructions, sort of a tech support for the sports bettor,” he says.
The government’s crackdown has, in recent months, targeted executives at offshore Internet-gambling outfits and the foreign credit-card-processing companies that facilitate the transactions with U.S. bettors. But while it may have dented the $12-billion-a-year online-gambling industry, it didn’t break it.
No one thinks that American gamblers’ appetites have waned either. Last year, about $94.5 million was legally wagered on the Super Bowl in Nevada casinos, the only place in the land where it’s lawful to bet on sports. Illegally, the American Gaming Association – a casino-industry trade group – figures that Americans bet between $5 billion and $6 billion each year on football’s marquee event.
“The likely impact is that people who previously wagered on legal, regulated sites… will now call a local bookie or bet on an unregulated site,” says Alan Feldman, a spokesman for casino giant MGM Mirage.
It’s true that many of the publicly traded online-gambling sites have pulled out of the U.S. market since last summer. Some have folded entirely. And the Justice Department served subpoenas to a number of investment banks that allegedly helped underwrite foreign public-stock offerings for some of the companies.
But as the kickoff at Super Bowl XLI in Miami gets nearer, the overall picture of Internet gambling has only gotten muddier. It’s not just that local bookies are taking bets over the Internet. For every established Internet-gambling company that has stopped accepting bets from the U.S., others have cropped up to fill the void.
“The online-gambling ban should be renamed the Sopranos Support Bill,” says Wayne Allyn Root, an outspoken professional sports handicapper in Las Vegas. “All of this money has moved to brand-new, privately held companies [that] opened overnight and [are] run by criminals engaging in fraud and organized crime.”
“The crackdown has taken the online bets out of a fairly transparent set of companies and put them into companies that aren’t transparent at all,” adds Sue Schneider, president and CEO of River City Group, a St. Charles, Mo., Internet-gambling consultancy. “Players could be more at risk.”
To eliminate paper trails and take advantage of technology, some bookmakers have apparently joined forces with offshore-betting sites and now issue their clients account numbers. Bettors log on to the Web sites like ordinary gamblers and enter their account numbers. But instead of sending credit-card data, they simply make their bets, which are linked electronically to their bookie’s name. The bookie keeps track of his clients online but still collects debts and pays winnings the old-fashioned way: in person. He likely pays a cut to the Web-site operators.
Nelson Rose, a law professor and expert in gambling law, has fielded dozens of phone calls from casual gamblers since the U.S. government went on the offensive. The No. 1 question: “Will I get arrested for betting on sports?” His response: “About as likely as the chances of their winning the World Series of Poker.” In other words: not likely.
But even before the government’s sudden interest in chasing down online-gambling companies, some sports bettors found the online experience frustrating. Most online-gambling sites required U.S. bettors to open an online account and deposit a certain sum via credit card. Betting losses would be deducted from the account and wins credited.
Seth once had an account like this, but after a few months of losses, he decided it was too laborious and resumed using his local bookmaker. Months later, he says, he still receives annoying telemarketing calls from the site.
For the Super Bowl, Seth says that if logging onto his bookie’s site is too complicated, he may just skip the bet altogether. “I don’t think I’d work that hard just to lose $100,” he adds.
Source: Sun News
Report: WTO to US: You Broke International Law
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has ruled against the US in an online gambling dispute with the Caribbean island of Antigua and Barbuda. The US is breaking international trade rules, it is expected to say.
Though the ruling is still private, Reuters has reported that the WTO has found the US guilty of not complying with a 2005 order in the case.
Antigua and Barbuda has built up a significant internet gambling industry to replace falling tourist revenue and took the US to the WTO over entry to the US gaming market.
Laws passed previously banned non-US companies from operating in the US gaming market. Antigua argued that this was an illegal trade restriction and broke a free trade pact that the US had signed.
A WTO dispute resolution panel found in Antigua’s favour in 2003. The US appealed but the Appeals Board found largely for Antigua in 2005. The WTO has now found that the US has not tried hard enough to stick to that decision.
Antigua had taken a case relating to a ban on all bets placed across state lines. The WTO, though, only ruled in its favour in relation to the narrower issue of horse race betting across state lines. It found that foreign bookmakers seemed to suffer discrimination.
The WTO has provided both sides with a preliminary report on its findings. Both parties can submit further comments to it before a final report is published in March.
A spokesperson for the US Trade Representative told Reuters that the ruling was only a minor issue. “[We] did not agree with the United States that we had taken the necessary steps to comply with that ruling,” she said. “The panel’s findings issued today involve a narrow issue of federal law.”
Since the disputed laws were passed in the US further, more stringent anti-online gambling legislation has been passed. Last autumn, the US passed laws which made almost all internet gambling illegal in the US and several online gambling executives have been held by US authorities.
The US has the opportunity to appeal the latest ruling after it is published in March.
Source: The Register
Thursday News and Notes
2007
Here are news and notes from OffshoreInsiders.com
private clipboard. They are compiled from hometown newspapers
and the team’s own press releases. The latest on the DOJ’s War on Gambling at CasinoBettingNews.com
CBB
Old Dominion-Drexel
Press Notes
Dragons and Monarchs are tied for third place in the
league with 8-3 records. Drexel is 16-5 on the season overall while the Monarchs
begin play with a 15-7 record. This will be the second meeting of the year
between the two schools. Old Dominion defeated the Dragons earlier this season
in
from the floor. Drexel committed 15 turnovers in the game and shot just
3-for-15 from behind the three-point arc. Old Dominion has won three straight
games and five of its last seven. Drexel has won four of its last five,
including a 68-59 win at Northeastern on Monday night.
South Alabama-New Orleans
Press Notes
It is Homecoming Week at the
of
hottest teams in the Sun Belt Conference.
UNO will host Sun Belt Conference leader
Alabama
team that has won eight straight games. The Jaguars (15-7, 9-2 Sun Belt) are
coming off a 90-89 overtime win over North Texas after defeating
Louisiana-Monroe two days earlier despite missing three suspended starters.
has also been boosted by 6-9 forward Ernest Little. Little, who became eligible
on Dec. 16 after transferring from UAB, has averaged
12.9 points and 8.5 rebounds per game. He missed the
game due to personal reasons, and his status for Thursday’s contest is unknown.
For the Privateers (10-11, 6-4 Sun Belt), the game begins a busy February. UNO will play eight games during the month and will play
four of the next five on the road. UNO has lost three
straight to the Jaguars but has won five of the last six games in
Orleans
St. Louis-St. Joseph’s
College Publisher
The Hawks are caught in a tough stretch of games and are
finding themselves playing good teams night in and night out. Three of the four
games were against conference opponents that were the preseason top three and
the fourth game was an always tough city opponent. St. Joe’s had a very good
win against Xavier, let one slip on the road to George Washington, had another
big win against Big 5 adversary Penn, and now the Hawks must battle
Louis
The Hawks lost four players from last year’s team, including the top three
scorers. No excuses are being made for St. Joe’s, but the Billikens
come in with an extreme edge in experience.
comes into this game struggling inside the conference. To this day they have
posted a below .500 record of 3-4 and are looking to even it out against the
Hawks. Devastating losses to
Fordham, St. Bonaventure, and Duquesne are what set back
Louis
Although the Billikens have dropped some games
against a few of the weaker teams in the conference, they do have some
impressive wins. Wins against Xavier and
bolstered their record and showed that the Billikens
do have the talent and ability to succeed. Also,
Louis
losses coming to top 25 teams in the country and the other four against
Atlantic 10 conference teams.
Washington State-Arizona
LA Times
Despite losing a stunning five of their last seven games,
the Wildcats’ Ratings Percentage Index ranking is still No. 6, so Lute Olson’s
22-year NCAA tournament appearance streak appears fine. Still, Arizona has
rarely looked as bad as it has during its recent offensive funk, going one for
23 from three-point range against North Carolina, and shooting less than 40%
from the field in three of the last four games. At 14-6,
looks tired and beaten. You can blame the nonconference
schedule Olson made, which is rated the most difficult in the country, just
ahead of UCLA’s. Or you can blame the luck of the draw with the Pac-10
schedule, which already has taken
to
State, USC and UCLA, handing the Wildcats three of their four Pac-10 losses on
the road. Other factors seem to be at work too, though. There’s
lack of depth: All five starters average more than 31 minutes a game, and point
guard Mustafa Shakur averages more than 35. The
emergence of freshman forward Jordan Hill, who logged major minutes and made a
big contribution the last two games, could help, along with the return of
forward Bret Brielmaier, who had been out after minor
knee surgery. Leading scorer Marcus Williams is expected to play after being
suspended for unspecified reasons for the
Carolina
Duke-Virginia
Scout
The early season setbacks against Virginia Tech and
Georgia Tech are now distant memories for this young Blue Devil team after
reeling off five consecutive wins including decisions over Clemson and
Duke in the standings at tip off. Meanwhile the Cavaliers have surprised many
with their run to a 5-2 start in ACC play. After all this was the same
team that lost to Appalachian State in
December. After losing to
and at
the Cavaliers have dispatched
State, and Clemson by an average of 9.5 points per game. Duke enters the game
with third year sophomore David McClure listed as questionable after the 6’6
wing fell to the ground with a hyper extended knee against
the Cavaliers are looking to get a shot in the arm with the return of 6’9
junior post player Ryan Pettinella, who suffered a
dislocated knee cap in the San Juan Shootout during the team’s final game
against the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. Pettinella was in uniform for UVa’s
win at Clemson on Sunday, but did not play. On Wednesday, he looked good in
practice, leading the way in sprints at the end of the session. He also looked
good in controlled scrimmages according to the local UVa
beat writers.