Gamblers not ‘over’-joyed with results

Monday, Jan. 29, 2001 | 9:59 a.m.

Las Vegas sports books chalked up a win Sunday.

It just wasn't as lopsided as the Ravens' decisive victory over the Giants in Super Bowl XXXV.

Joe Lupo, sports book director at the Stardust hotel-casino, said his property clinched a winning day when the teams' combined score went over the posted total of 33 points.

The Giants' failure to cover a 3-point spread prevented the house from really cleaning up.

"For us, the over was the biggest factor," Lupo said. "The game going over was a very good decision for us.

"We would have done better if the Giants had covered. We had good two-way action at 3 points, but we opened the Ravens at (minus) 1, and we got a lot of early Ravens money at 1 and 2."

Results were similar around the city, as bettors had jumped on Baltimore early before the line settled in at 3 points. Giants money appeared later, and even drove the line back down to 2 1/2 by Super Bowl weekend at a few casinos.

Not much late money on the over showed up, though. The total opened at 34 points and dropped to 32 1/2 or 33 at most books.

"It was a good outcome for us," said Jonathan Jester, sports book director at the Las Vegas Club. "Sure, we paid a lot of people, but there were some losers out there too.

"The team-and-total parlay situation worked out very well for us. The most popular combination among parlay bettors was the Giants with the over."

Lupo said about 75 percent of the parlay action at the Stardust was on either the Ravens and the under or the Giants and the over, and relatively little was bet on the winning combination of the Ravens and the over.

Traditionally, football bettors like to parlay the favorite and the over, though that was not the case in this Super Bowl.

"That is a little surprising," Jester said. "But the betting public can be a strange breed."

The most agonizing stretch of the game for under bettors came in the third quarter, when the teams put 21 points on the board in 36 seconds. After the Ravens returned an interception for a touchdown, the teams traded kickoff returns for touchdowns.

"You couldn't set the odds high enough on back-to-back kickoff returns (for TDs)," Lupo said. "And no, you won't see that (proposition) on the board here next year.

"That was obviously a big turning point for the over, and a big turning point for the Ravens as well."

Jester said his book was "a big loser" on two proposition wagers: the team to kick the shortest field goal (the Giants didn't kick any) and the Ravens parlayed with the under in the first half only (Baltimore led 10-0 at intermission).

Despite those setbacks, don't expect the Las Vegas Club sports book to go the way of pimentoloaf.com.

"Guess what? We're going to open up in the morning, the lights are going to be turned on," said Jester, known for having one of the finest senses of humor in the bookmaking industry. "We're going to be able to pay our bills."

Lupo said the handle at the Stardust rivaled last year's, when bettors wagered $71 million on the Super Bowl statewide. It appears this year's tally will land in the same neighborhood, falling short of the record $77 million set in 1998.

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