Super Bowl numbers are in from the casinos and a disappointing $82  
million dollar handle for the Las Vegas sports books have been recorded at the Desert. The  
Nevada gaming commission reports that the overall profits are around  
6 1/2 million to 7 million, which is another disappointment mainly the  
casino disappointed with how the propositions wagers went south. The  
propositions that really gto to the casinos were the Peyton Manning  
numbers where he went over his completions and in yardage. Casinos for  
Manning positive props were about 8 of every 10 tickets written
for his Overs. "I honestly don't know one person that bet Manning
under his totals. So, I have the slightest idea where
the 20% is even coming from as I had 95% of our clients bet
his overs," Ed Slagel. The Reggie Bush number props printing 
positive tickets also put a big dent to the casinos for the propositions. One  
of the fewprop wagerss that  helped the casinos was Drew Brees  
going under his posted a total of 300 1/2 yards. However, many casinos  
lost on that as his numbers had a lot of fluctuations between 285 and  
300 yards. The Hilton stayed put with the 300 1/2 numbers
for both quarterbacks from start to finish, and Brees going under was a big help.
The Hilton offers many exotics and allowed bettors play prop cards where you
can bet multiple props for large payouts, and many had the
Manning and Brees Overs. Propositions in today's market makes up 55% of the wagers  
made for the Super Bowl and this year it accounted for 57%. When  
you don't get these props to go your way it will be a sour Super Bowl.  
However, what did go the Casinos way were the exotics. This is where the bettors lost a  
bundle. It seemed no bettor was able to hit on the exotics and  
parlays. They had many different type of parlays from the game to  
cross sport betting. And that is where they really got hurt. For  
example, people parlayed the Saints what the Cetics. A record amount of tickets
were printed for cross sports betting of parlays. That helped save the day in Vegas.
 Maybe it was the lack of patience waiting  
for the Super Bowl and people wanted action early in the day, but  
those other games on the table really hurt the speculators. Most  
parlayss got broken up some way or another. Another spot where the  
casinos really cleaned up;  in game betting. When the  
Indianapolis Colts jumped to a 10 nothing lead... Get this!!! 96% of  
wagers made when the Colts jumped out to a 10 nothing lead, yes, and 96%  
of bets made for the in game bettingwas  on the Colts to win the game at -350 odds! Think  
about that 96% and the Nevada gaming commission says the in game  
betting especially at the M. resort is what reflects the $7 million  
profit you see today.
 
All in all another disappointing handle for Las Vegas casinos here. In  
reality, what were they really expecting? It's things like these that  
we need to get back to reality. How can you set a record handles in  
the worst recession of our lifetimes? What are you expecting? Too many  
managers chagrined, this handle fell at least 10 to 12 million short.  
The good news is that sports betting is now being used as another  
speculative market instead of a taboo backstreet gambling type of  
game. It's starting to hit the wires of the white collar world and  
getting up there withs the status of many other financial markets as  
people are starting to take it more serious and actually an avenue to  
make real income. The problem with that is many will realize it is  
very difficult to make real income in any speculative market unless  
you have all the tools and able to control emotions and are extremely  
patient long term. And these markets like any other markets long-term  
means minimum of three years. How many sports bettors have the  
patience of going up and down cycles for three straight years? If they  
can. Kudos to them and more than likely will be one of the rare breed.  
We get ready for next year's Super Bowl here at the Desert, and  
hopefully by then we can be realistic and have rationale expectations for
a handle, and hope  
we will see a rebound in Nevada,and the overall economy.
 As we all know, us Nevadaians need a bounce back in  
this economy as bad as anyone else as Nevada has been hit as hard as  
anyone out there. But business goes on at the Desert.