Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Ready for football?

As a baseball fan Robert Montalvo gets sick thinking about the possibility that the season could be cut short with his Boston Red Sox vying for the American League wild card.

As a baseball bettor Montalvo couldn't care less about the season ending early.

"I like to bet baseball, but with football right around the corner I'll just start betting that," Montalvo said at the Stardust sports book, where he has been a regular for the past 15 years. "The answer for baseball betting is football betting, but I'd like to see what happens with the Red Sox."

Today, major league players set an Aug. 30 strike date. Bettors and sports book operators say they aren't all that concerned if a strike occurs as they look forward to football season.

"There is a natural shift from baseball to football at this time of year anyway, so we won't take that much of a hit," Stardust sports book director Joe Lupo said. "The NFL is by far the biggest money-maker for sports books.

"People are hungry for football, and baseball strike talk may make them even more ready for the NFL."

At the Palms, preseason NFL games are already seeing more of the betting action than baseball games, said Jeff Sherman, a sports book supervisor.

"There is no comparison to football in regard to just about any other sports betting," Sherman said. "For some reason everyone wants to bet football."

If the players go through with a work stoppage, sports books could lose out on about a month of regular-season games in addition to the playoffs and World Series.

The baseball regular season is scheduled to end Sept. 29, but college football would start to fill the void with early action beginning Aug. 22, and a full slate of games set for Aug 31. The NFL regular season kicks off Sept. 5.

The Stardust has already transformed for the upcoming football season with schedules piled on counters, and banners advertising football contests on the walls. While four baseball games were being played on small televisions Thursday night, the Miami Dolphins-New Orleans Saints preseason game took precedence on a huge screen with the audio play-by-play pumping through the book.

Sports book operators are confident that any loss from lack of baseball games to bet on will be absorbed by football betting, and then the return of the NBA and NHL later in the fall.

For fiscal year 2002 the Nevada Gaming Control Board determined that the state's sports books won more than $111.5 million dollars. Of that total, 34.8 percent was on football, 27 percent on basketball, 17.2 percent on parlay cards, 13.1 percent on baseball and 7.8 percent on other sports.

"The timing of it makes it something that isn't a big deal," Sherman said. "If they were to go on strike in June or July then we would feel it, because baseball is really the only thing to bet in the summer."

Of course, if the players go on strike there is no guarantee that an agreement will be reached before the playoffs or even by next season.

"I do like to bet the World Series so that would be tough," Montalvo said. "If they go on strike and don't come back for next season I don't know what I would do. I guess we'd have to take some vacations."

Another sports bettor, Tony Wright, said that he could deal with having no baseball to bet on next year if the labor dispute continues.

"If they go out on strike I hope they stay out," Wright said. "I'll just go swimming next summer instead of betting baseball."

If a work stoppage happens, future bets on the World Series, along with other season-long propositions, would be refunded, Lupo said.

"We would miss the playoff betting, but even then there is no comparison to the NFL," Lupo said. "There are only a couple of days between each World Series game, but with football there is an entire week to bet and build toward the games."

Sherman said the real losers in the event of a baseball strike won't be bettors at sports books, but fans who become emotionally attached.

"People are talking about fans leaving the game if this happens, but that doesn't have much of an effect on us or the gamblers," Sherman said.

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