Should casino sports owners be allowed to operate a sports book?

Maloofs' casino gets approval to take NBA bets, but not on family's Kings

LAS VEGAS -- The NBA Board of Governors voted to allow the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas to accept bets on league games, even though the Maloof family owns both the casino and the Sacramento Kings, owner George Maloof Jr. said Thursday.

Maloof told The Associated Press the unanimous vote Thursday means that for the first time the Palms will be allowed to take wagers on all NBA teams, except the Kings.

The arrangement is similar to a deal between the NBA and casino company Harrah's Entertainment Inc., whose chief executive, Gary Loveman, owns a 2.4 percent stake in the Boston Celtics. Harrah's casinos accept wagers on all NBA games except those involving the Celtics.

"The Celtics kind of opened the door a little bit," Maloof said. "We just thought it would be fair to do the same thing with us."

Maloof said he had talked to the league for some time about such an arrangement, but began a formal push about six months ago.

Spokesmen for the NBA did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Maloof said he had not calculated how much NBA betting action the Palms expects, but said the move is about keeping customers from gambling on games elsewhere.

"The fact that somebody couldn't book a bet and had to go off property drove me crazy because ... you want to provide every service for your guest and you want to be competitive," Maloof said.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3661587


I KNOW I BET THAT THE KINGS WILL SUCK OUT LOUD AGAIN

I can't count how many times I was in Harrah's properties last season and didn't remember it, unable to make a bet on a Celtics game. Understand that Harrah's is a completely different animal than Palms, which is one isolated property with a house sportsbook. Harrah's has acquired one major property after another the past few years, including Caesar's Palace. Consequently, those sportsbooks don't have lines on the Celtics games, either.

The sportsbook personnel at Venetian joked to me last season that they were taking high volume on Celtics games because patrons at nearby Harrah's and Imperial Palace were not able to wager on Boston games in those properties. The IP was acquired by Harrah's a couple of years ago.

It made zero sense to allow every Harrah's property to take NBA bets, but restrict Palms from doing so. The only difference: Palms opened while owned by the Maloofs. Harrah's was around for decades and had a sportsbook beginning in about '85, always taking NBA wagers.

This will be great for the Palms sportsbook. Every season they show nothing but hockey while the other books are booking NBA. Visitors are miffed when they are told they can't wager on the NBA games.

In the case of the Palms, that casino is isolated, not easily accessible. The Gold Coast is across a major street, Flamingo Boulevard, and the Rio is across the street and down the road. Nothing else is close. If a guest decided to cross the street to the Gold Coast to bet an NBA game, chances are he'll stay there and gamble. The Harrah's properties are generally centrally located so it's more simple to make a wager nearby, then walk back to the Harrah's property.

The gaming board has sensibly been easily restrictions lately. Until 5 or 6 years ago the sportsbooks couldn't take action on UNLV or other Nevada sports teams. Fixing is crap. Sportsbooks take a pittance, a few thousand maximum. Every major book is on screen and unusual betting patterns are noticed and investigated.

Or are the lines set by some other group? I'm not really savvy as to how this stuff gets set. If they're all carrying the same line, I don't even see why it would matter if they take bets on the Kings (or Harrah's for the Celtics).

That is called shading. If you think the line service sent out the favorite too low, you might shade it up.

I was the king of shading when I was a supervisor. :evilgrin:

I despised having the same number as everyone else. At first the sportsbook managers balked at it, but we kept score and I was coming out ahead. It meant tons of big decisions (high dollar wins or losses), since the bettors were getting a number they couldn't find anywhere else. I did great shading football and NBA but in college basketball I frequently put up weak favorites too high, shading them up when I should have been shading the other way. I figured that out long after I departed. :)

The main sports service is called Las Vegas Sports Consultants. They provide a line on every game. Then they suggest changes as the line moves or factors change like a major injury. A bell used to go off when they were sending a change. I'm not sure if that's still the case. It was like a printer that would spit out the change and the rationale. We'd go running to look at it when the bell went off. :rofl:

Individual sportsbooks may have someone they use as their own linesmaker. Plus, these days you have tons of other sources to look at. Virtually every major book is "on screen" so you can see their lines. In the old days you had no idea where other places stood, then an old chain-smoking guy named Don Best was very wise, circa 1988, and started a computer service that enabled sportsbooks to see what other spots were using. We would check the Don Best screen all day. Then he sold that service to bettors also, for a high fee. He died a long time ago but his service is still in place.

Until about 10 years ago the sportsbooks were individual joints with their own lines. Then the major mergers started, which was disgusting. Now MGM/Mirage basically owns half the town and Harrah's owns the other half. There are only a handful of casinos with independent sportsbooks. Everything else is a wimpy satellite. So that's another reason why fixed games are more and more a myth, particularly in Nevada. A bettor has an increasingly limited number of "outs." The Arizona State fixers in maybe '94 could go from spot to spot playing different lines, with other books unaware of what they were doing. Now you walk into a sportsbook and it's a huge favorite to be run by one of the 3 or 4 major corporations. In some areas you have to bypass 5 or 6 casinos before you run into a sportsbook that has a different set of lines.

Let's put it this way, game fixing is something that sounds wonderfully mysterious, particularly on the cynical internet. But when you are here and know the particulars, like absurdly low limits and one sportsbook after another having the same line, it's more or less something to scoff at.

it seems like fixing games only really works if books don't know what the others are doing. With everything connected as it is now, it sounds like it would be tough to do AND make enough money on it for it to be worthwhile.

Are you telling me there's ways I can bet without fear of a broken arm and a horse head in my bed?