Sports gambling establishment
In the United States, a sportsbook or a race and sports book (sometimes abbreviated as book) is a 🍐 place where a gambler can wager on various sports competitions, including golf, football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, soccer, horse racing, 🍐 greyhound racing, boxing, and mixed martial arts. The method of betting varies with the sport and the type of game. 🍐 In the US, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 allowed only Nevada, Oregon, Montana, and Delaware to 🍐 legally wager on sports other than horse racing, greyhound racing, and jai alai; the law was ruled unconstitutional on May 🍐 14, 2024, freeing states to legalize sports betting at their discretion.
Winning bets are paid when the event finishes, or if 🍐 not finished, when played long enough to become official; otherwise, all bets are returned. This policy can cause some confusion 🍐 since there can be a difference between what the sportsbook considers official and what the sports league consider official. Customers 🍐 should carefully read the sportsbook rules before placing their bets.
The betting volume at sportsbooks varies throughout the year. Bettors have 🍐 more interest in certain types of sports and increase the money wagered when those sports are in season. Major sporting 🍐 events that do not follow a specific schedule, like boxing, can create peaks of activity for the sportsbooks.
Nevada [ edit 🍐 ]
Odds boards in a Las Vegas sportsbook
Most of the United States sportsbooks are located in Nevada. In 1949, Nevada allowed 🍐 bookmakers to accept bets on horse racing and professional sports.[1] The first Nevada sportsbooks were called Turf Clubs. They were 🍐 independent from the casinos and had an informal agreement with the hotels that they would stay out of the casino 🍐 business as long as the hotels stayed out of the sportsbook business. The sportsbooks had to pay a 10 percent 🍐 tax so they charged a high vigorish to gamblers, but they still brought enough business to make a profit.
In 1974 🍐 the tax was lowered to 2 percent,[1] in 1983 to 0.25 percent, and in 1975 Frank Rosenthal, who ran the 🍐 Stardust Casino, convinced legislators to allow sportsbooks in the casinos, and soon nearly all of the casinos added them. The 🍐 turf clubs were no longer able to compete and eventually all closed.
Nevada casino sportsbooks generally feature betting windows, big screen 🍐 televisions, interactive betting stations, odds boards (usually computerized), papers with different odds for the day, and places to sit and 🍐 watch games and races.
Some casinos use third-party operators for their sportsbooks, such as Cantor Gaming, Leroy's, Lucky's, and Club Cal 🍐 Neva. In 2011, British bookmaker William Hill agreed to buy the Leroy's, the Lucky's, and the Cal Neva chains, which 🍐 would give it control of 115 of the state's 183 books.[2]
The Super Bowl is the most popular event for the 🍐 Nevada sportsbooks. They earnedR$7.2 million on theR$99 million wagered on it in 2013. Because it attracts many unsophisticated bettors, as 🍐 of January 2014 , the books had made money on 21 of the previous 23 Super Bowls, with an average 🍐 win ofR$5.5 million over the previous ten years. The most profitable Super Bowl was in 2005, when the Philadelphia Eagles 🍐 covered the spread against the favored New England Patriots, earning the booksR$15.4 million. The two losses were in 1995—when the 🍐 San Francisco 49ers defeated the San Diego Chargers—and 2008—when the favored Patriots lost to the New York Giants, costing the 🍐 booksR$2.5 million.[3]
Delaware [ edit ]
In 2009, a bill passed to allow betting on almost every sport.[4] That year, the NFL, 🍐 MLB, NHL, NBA, and NCAA filed a lawsuit against the state of Delaware, claiming their sports books were violating federal 🍐 law.[5] The US Supreme Court ruled that the law partially violated the federal law, and Delaware was only allowed to 🍐 offer parlays on NFL games.[6] Delaware's three racetrack casinos—Dover Downs, Harrington Raceway & Casino, and Delaware Park Racetrack—have sports books.[7] 🍐 Each sportsbook has multiple televisions, large tote boards and stations for people to wager. During the 2011 NFL season, the 🍐 three sports books generatedR$4.4 million in revenue for the state.[8] On June 5, 2024, the casino sportsbooks in Delaware expanded 🍐 sports betting to single-game and championship wagers on professional and college sports (excluding Delaware college teams) including football, baseball, basketball, 🍐 hockey, soccer, boxing/MMA, golf, and auto racing.[9][10][11]
See also [ edit ]
