Columnist Jeff Haney: Casinos shy away from ‘Super Bowl’

Wednesday, June 9, 2004 | 9:13 a.m.

Jeff Haney's sports betting column appears Wednesday. Reach him at (702) 259-4041 or haney@lasvegassun.com

BAD BEAT: A particularly tough, grueling loss for a gambler, usually a sports bettor or poker player. Example: "I charge $1 to listen to bad beat stories."

PLAYERS: Gambling industry slang for bettors, especially sports bettors. Example: "The players were backing the right team in that game."

May 12 -- Understanding baseball's dime line

May 19 -- Sabermetrics and the wagerer

May 26 -- Betting the new ballparks

June 2 -- Books rooting for the Lakers

Today -- Casinos and the Super Bowl

Next week -- The U.S. Open golf championship

Four months after the NFL forced half a dozen Las Vegas casinos to cancel or alter plans for their Super Bowl parties, there are signs that the league and the city remain, well, at odds.

Three major Las Vegas gaming companies no longer use the term "Super Bowl" in their sports books.

Since February's skirmish between the league and the city, Boyd Gaming, owner of the Stardust, has joined Caesars Entertainment and Station Casinos in banishing the term "Super Bowl" from its betting boards and printed sheets of betting odds.

Caesars and Station had done so even before this past Super Bowl -- er, make that "Pro Football Championship Game."

Oh, you can still plunk down some cash at sports books owned by those companies on your favorite NFL team to win the big game -- as long as you dare not speak its (trademarked) name.

And unlike the situation earlier this year, when the NFL fired off cease-and-desist letters to Las Vegas resorts that were planning to show the Super Bowl on giant screens or charge admission to such events, in this case the casinos are acting voluntarily.

"It didn't come from us," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said. "We don't know anything about that."

But UNLV professor Bill Thompson, who studies gaming issues, suggested the change in phraseology could indicate that tension between the NFL and Las Vegas is still simmering, even if it's below the surface for now.

"The casinos might be acting in anticipation of some future action by the league," Thompson said. "The league officially says no, we're not behind it. But maybe behind the scenes somebody is getting the word out (that) we're going to come after you later in the season, or at some point in the future.

"Maybe the casinos think, well, if we do this now, then the league won't screw around with our Super Bowl party at the end of the season."

For the past two years, the NFL refused to accept advertising from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority during the Super Bowl broadcast, claiming the ads promote gambling.

Then, just before this year's Super Bowl, the NFL advised Las Vegas casinos that their party plans could violate copyright laws. Super Bowl parties are one component of an extremely lucrative weekend for the Las Vegas tourism business. Visitors spend nearly $100 million on nongambling activities alone related to the Super Bowl, according to an estimate by the LVCVA.

Officials with Boyd Gaming opted to eliminate the use of the term "Super Bowl" shortly after the league's action, Boyd spokesman Rob Stillwell said.

The Stardust and Sam's Town, another Boyd property, showed this year's Super Bowl on smaller screens to comply with the NFL's letter.

"We (now) call it the 'NFL Championship,' " Stillwell said. "While we haven't been told specifically (by the NFL) not to use the words 'Super Bowl,' we did make the decision after what transpired this past Super Bowl."

At Station Casinos sports books this year, bettors are being asked to wager on the winner of the "2004-05 Pro Football Championship Game."

Betting sheets at Station properties inform gamblers that the "Pro Football Championship Game" will be played on Sunday, Feb. 6, 2005, at Alltell Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. -- which happens to be the same date and site as the Super Bowl.

Station sports books called the 2004 Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the Carolina Panthers simply the "championship game."

As recently as the 2003 Super Bowl between the Oakland Raiders and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, however, Station sports books were not only using the term "Super Bowl," but also were printing the NFL's Super Bowl logo on their betting sheets.

Officials with Station Casinos had no comment on why or precisely when they made the switch.

Caesars properties used the phrase "Pro Football Championship Game" throughout this past regular season -- well before the NFL's crackdown on Las Vegas Super Bowl parties.

"The words 'Super Bowl' have been trademarked by the NFL, and just as we hope people would be respectful of the trademarks of Caesars Entertainment, we are going to be respectful of the trademarks of others," said Michael Coldwell, a Caesars Entertainment spokesman.

Putting money on a particular team to win the Super Bowl even before the season begins -- a form of betting known as "futures" wagering -- is a tradition as time-honored in this city as moaning about bad beats in the poker room.

So odds to win the Super Bowl are displayed prominently in sports books throughout the year.

Most Las Vegas casinos -- from gaming giants such as the Mirage to flyspecks on the map such as Poker Palace -- continue to use either "Super Bowl XXXIX," or "39th Super Bowl," or in some cases "Superbowl," a grammatically incorrect variation, on their tote boards and betting sheets. (One casino, the Palms, is going with "SB XXXIX.")

In fact, some casinos even place the official logo of the 2005 Super Bowl on their betting sheets -- which no doubt fills the NFL's corporate offices with sheer delight.

Seeing a phrase such as "Pro Football Championship Game" rather than "Super Bowl" might jar bettors, but only for a moment, said UNLV's Thompson.

"A player (bettor) will just go up to the window and say, 'this is the Super Bowl future book, right?' " Thompson said. "And the guy at the window will just say, 'yes, it is.'

"It will give some players a sense of confusion, but it only takes them a second to get over it."

Thompson added, "Maybe we're all becoming a little too 'Super-sensitive.' "