Why March is a good month for Vegas’ sports books

By Jeff Haney (contact)

Monday, March 10, 2008 | 2 a.m.

If recent history is an indication, this month’s NCAA basketball tournament should provide a minibonanza for Nevada’s legal sports books.

A spike in profits for the casinos is expected to come not only from the increased handle the tournament produces, but also because books typically “hold,” or win, a larger percentage of the money wagered in March than at other times in the basketball season.

In short, the gambling public bets a lot more money on basketball in March — and loses it at a greater rate.

Consider:

• Last March, bettors in Nevada legally wagered more than $228 million on basketball and the sports books “held,” or won, 7.3 percent of the total, or $16.7 million. That’s higher than the casinos’ 5.4 percent hold rate in basketball for the 2007 calendar year. Casinos held $37.4 million of the $687.19 million bet on basketball in 2007, according to the state Gaming Control Board.

• In March 2006, bettors in Nevada wagered $195.5 million on basketball and the sports books held 10.4 percent of it, winning $20.3 million. That’s higher than the casinos’ 7.2 percent hold rate in basketball for the 2006 calendar year, when the books held $46.1 million of the $635.3 million wagered.

• In March 2005, bettors wagered $170.8 million on basketball and the books held 9.5 percent, winning $16.2 million. That’s higher than the 6.6 percent hold rate the casinos achieved in the 2005 calendar year, when the books held $38.3 million of the $579.3 million wagered.

The increase in the books’ hold percentage in March is easy to explain. A different breed of bettor fills the city’s sports books.

Forget the daily Las Vegas sports betting grinders racing each other to whack out that juicy-looking Middle Tennessee State plus-7 1/2 before it disappears. For the NCAA Tournament, which begins next week after Sunday’s bracket draw, the books draw legions of fans looking to party and likely to eschew teams’ betting numbers in favor of simply telling the ticket writer, “Gimme UCLA.”

Most sports books officials are too polite to call them “unsophisticated” gamblers or use the classic Las Vegas gambling slang term “squares.”

They don’t have to, because those Gaming Control Board stats speak for themselves.

All figures include betting on pro and college basketball combined. The Control Board does not distinguish between the two.

Last year, for example, the record-high $228 million risked on basketball in March was an increase of $121 million from the $107 million bet in February.

Assuming betting on basketball outside of the NCAA Tournament is divided about evenly between pro and college, as some experts estimate, the handle on college basketball could well have exceeded $150 million last March. That figure would include some regular-season games and conference tournament action as well as the championship tournament.

By comparison, the handle on last month’s Super Bowl declined in Nevada for the second year in a row, checking in at $92 million for the Giants’ 17-14 victory against the Patriots after reaching a record $94.5 million in 2006 and falling to $93 million in 2007.

Although the Super Bowl remains the state’s biggest single day of sports betting, no sports gambling event can match the energy generated by the NCAA Tournament, according to Art Manteris, vice president of race and sports book operations for Station Casinos.

“If I ever retired or moved out of town, the time I would come to town every year would be during the first four days of the NCAA Tournament,” Manteris said. “To see four regions playing simultaneously and having decisions on all the games is just an unbelievable feeling. Every year there are upsets. Every year there are buzzer-beaters. It’s an incredible time to be around the sports books.

“You can go to sports bars in any city in the country, and that’s fine, but it doesn’t compare to being in a Las Vegas sports book and maybe having a financial interest in the outcome of the game — which obviously magnifies the excitement.”