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Hack Attack Guide to Las Vegas Casino Sportbooks

The first part of this sportsbook report will focus on the basic, most popular bets and concepts. Following is a glossary listing of some of the more complex bets.

Las Vegas sportsbooks, AKA "A Vegas cabdriver's second home", offer as much excitement for the buck as virtually any other form of gambling. Putting $25 bucks down on  a four team parlay can keep you on the edge of your seat for hours...(unless you're me...my parlays seem to be shot by half time).

Despite the influx of gambling nation wide in the U.S., Nevada is still the only state that offers legal gambling on sports, creating a great situation for sports fans that want some action. On any Las Vegas cab company lot, it's "put up or shut up" in this town, especially during football season and the NCAA Tournament!

Probably the most confusing part of sportsbooks are the variety of bets offered...the types of bets can get pretty creative. The single most important thing is to have a good grasp of the vocabulary used in sports betting, at least to the point of knowing the name of what ever bet you want to place.

Once you know the name of the bet you want to make, you can just ask the sportsbook guy/gal to help you. Don't be afraid to ask...if you know the name of the bet, they won't think you're foolish at all. It's their job to help you...just remember it's also their job to help the person standing in line behind you. With just a little preparation, you'll be a "wise guy" in no time!

You can make bets for your team to win the game.  You can bet on which team will win the Super bowl (a "future"), you can make bets where you pick a number of games, (parlays) and much more.

You can get "points" which means after the game is over, you can add (or have to subtract) a certain number of points from your team's total score to see if you won the bet. This type of betting lets two teams that have different skill levels on the playing field be "even" on the "betting filed". Hey, that Super Bowl winner has to beat that expansion team by 13 points! In this example, 13 points is known as the "point spread".

The point spread, or "points" or "spread", is set by the "odds makers".  Some sportsbooks set their own lines, while others may use the line of a odds making service. The most popular "line" is the 'Stardust Line", set by the Stardust hotel/casino here in Las Vegas. Many of the other major casinos also use the Stardust line.

"Roxy" Roxborough is the most famous odds maker. He was the former odds maker for the Stardust line, before going out on his own...Now "setting the line" for USA Today in a sports column.

These guys are very skilled at what they do. An important part of sportsbook betting is to understand the job of the odds makers. Their job IS NOT TO PICK THE WINNERS AND LOSERS FOR THE GAMES!!!

Their job is to balance the bets so that the same amount is bet on each side. A casino makes money on taking a percentage from the payoff of a bet. For example, if you make a bet of $100 and win, you'll get back your original $100, plus $90 that you won. The $10 share for the casino is known as the "vigorish" or "juice".

Good spread makers know things such as the public will bet more on home teams and usually a 3 point advantage is needed (assuming the two teams are needed) to even out any home field advantage, in the eyes of the betting public. Knowing how the public will bet is a major requirement for a odds maker.

What the casino hopes to do is to pay you $100 out of the $110 I lost by betting on the other team. In essence, they are being "middle men" for betting action. They do not want to gamble!!! Although, sometimes the casinos really take a beating when they don't get the amount of money evenly bet on both sides. In reality, you are not betting against the casino, you're betting against John Doe, with the casino being the "broker".

One major change for the worse from the bettors side is that the casino point spreads do not vary as much as it did a few years back....It's much harder to shop around for a better "price". Also, a while ago, it was a lot easier to find a "middle",  where, under the right circumstances you will either tie, or win both bets. This is a sports bettors dream!

The line can "move" or change, depending on current circumstances. Let's say the Rams are playing the 49ers next Monday night. The week before the line has the Rams favored by 10 points, meaning the Rams must win by 11 points or more to win the bet.

On Friday, the 49ers announce Steve young has been secretly working out with the team and will start Monday night, while the Rams announce that Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk ran into each other during practice and are both injured and out for the season. Obviously, these events affect the outcome of the game. More importantly to the sportsbooks, these recent developments will also impact how we bettors bet the game. So, the sportsbooks adapt and now make the game even. The thinking is, to have people bet on the Rams after all the injuries, the casinos will now have to give some incentive for bettors to bet on the 
Rams. This incentive is now the Rams only have to win, not win by 11 points or more.

We now have a 10 point "middle"! Had we bet the 49ers when getting 10 points, then bet the same amount on the Rams, after the spread dropped 10 points, then we bet them at even, only two things can now happen: We either win both bets, or we win one, and lose one! This is sportsbook heaven!!!

Note: I exaggerated the example above. I doubt you will ever see a ten point middle. If you do, jump on it! Actually, significant middles are becoming harder and harder to find with the casinos using only a couple of line setters between them. Hopefully, with Web sportsbooks springing up left and right, there will be some good middle opportunities online...Only time will tell.

Remember, your bet is paid on the spread at the time of your bet, not the spread at game time. This differs from paramutual betting in this respect in that you never know the odds until post time at the track.

Typically, the vig for a "straight" bet is 5% and for parlays is between 15-20%. Future bets can be even worse. Pay attention...all the "pros" only bet straight bets. The vig (the casino's cut) is just too high on any other bet to overcome. However, if you're a small bettor, placing $20 on a parlay can be some cheap entertainment. Even at -20% on a $20 parlay ticket, your "expected" loss is $4. Not bad for an afternoon of football combined with betting action and a couple of free drinks.

Let me stress this point: If you bet a lot of money and are serious about sports betting, you can not bet anything other than straight bets!

One of the newer, more "interactive" forms of sports betting in Las Vegas is the ability to bet on individual plays of games. For example, you're watching an NFL game on Sunday at your favorite sportsbook, you may be able to bet on whether the next play will be a run or a pass.  Or, will your team get the first down on 3rd on 5? Will Jason Elam hit a 51 yard field goal or not? First, you set up an account, then you simply sit in a seat with a monitor in front of you that enables you to makes a number of bets on the outcome of just about every play during a football game.

A quirk of Las Vegas sports betting is it is illegal to place/take a bet on any game or tournament where a Nevada college is involved. For example, the UNLV Runnin' Rebels are still active in the NCAA Tournament. If Kansas is playing UCLA, you may bet that game. However, you may not bet a future that either UCLA or Kansas will eventually win the tournament as long as UNLV is still entered, as this is, in essence, a bet against UNLV. During NCAA Tournament time, the local casinos are the biggest ANTI-UNLV fans possible...not being able to take bets until UNLV has been eliminated from the tournament.

In Oct. 2000, Nevada passed a law making sports betting on the Internet with a Nevada casino legal. However, only those in Nevada will be allowed to bet online. Software is being designed to enforce these laws. There is also legislation being passed around in the US Congress that may ban betting on college sports...Stay tuned.
 

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