☰
Kansas is a -4 favorite over North Carolina in the NCAA Basketball Championship game. The total is 152.
Tonight’s NCAA Basketball Championship will be played at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, marking yet another step forward in gambling’s burgeoning presence in sports. Whereas professional sports leagues have been quicker to embrace casino advertising, the NCAA has been less enthusiastic. However, there’s no way to keep the Caesars name out of tonight’s game, given that it paid $138 million for the naming rights to the arena. But it's not a total victory. Caesars Entertainment advertising inside the arena has been covered up throughout the Final Four by contractual agreement.
The NFL draft will bring lots of business to Las Vegas, but it will also cause traffic problems. Portions of the Strip will be shut down beginning April 13 to allow the event set-up and continue in varying degrees through May 6. The Strip will be closed completely from Flamingo Rd. to the Bellagio entrance from 10 p.m. on April 27 to 9 p.m. April 30, with some access opened late-night on those dates.
South Carolina is a -4.5 favorite over Connecticut in today's NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship game. The total is 125.
The 64th annual Grammy Awards will take place at MGM Grand tonight. It’s the first time the Grammys have been held in Las Vegas, following a postponement from its originally planned January date in Los Angeles. The show isn’t open to the public, but will be broadcast on CBS. An aside: There are rumblings of grumblings related to the scarcity of certain assets in Vegas, such as “expert tailors” and “luxury cars” to transport the stars.
Duke is a -4 favorite over North Carolina in today's second Final Four game of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. The total is 153.5.
Kansas is a -4 favorite over Villanova in today's first Final Four game of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. The total is 132.
The 18th International Conference on Gambling and Risk Taking has been announced for May 23-25, 2023 at Park MGM in Las Vegas. Generally considered the premier gathering of gambling experts and academics, the conference is held about every three years (the most recent in 2019) dating back to 1974.
Convening in the Black Rock Desert 90 miles north of Reno for the first time since 2019, Burning Man will take place from Aug. 28 to Sept. 5 this year. Talk about pent-up demand: Tickets went on sale Wednesday at noon and sold out in one hour. Even more remarkably, there were no reports of glitches in distributing 20,000 tickets (10,000 main-sale sold for $575, up from $425 in 2019, while another 10,000 vehicle tickets sold for $140, up from $100). Approximately 80,000 people are expected to attend the dustfest over Labor Day weekend.
With apologies to Simon and Garfunkel for the headline, April is a gorgeous month weather-wise hereabouts. It's dry and mostly sunny, with daily high temperatures rising from around 74 degrees on April 1 to around 82 on April 30 and lows ranging from 52 to 61. However, after March, all high-temperature bets are off. A record high of 99 degrees was set on the 24th in 2012, the 27th in 2000, the 29th in 2013, and the 30th in 1981. A record low of 31 degrees was set on the 2nd in 1975 and the 3rd and 4th in 1955. Typically, April is the second driest month of the year, receiving an average .15 of an inch of precipitation; June is driest with .08.
Foodie website Mashed.com has issued a list of the 17 "Absolute Best Korean Restaurants in the U.S." and one in Las Vegas made the grade. Mashed didn't indicate its selection process, but predictably, L.A. (with four) and New York (with three) led the pack; Chicago came in with two and the usual suspects -- San Francisco, Houston, D.C., Denver, and Seattle -- each had one. Las Vegas' entry is Moo Woo Korean BBQ, way up in Centennial Hills near the Santa Fe. Moo Woo is "the happy noises made by cows" and one reviewer wrote, "We lived in Seoul for eight years, and this tastes like home." If you're not familiar with the Korean barbecue scene, the survey gives a little background on it. And thanks to intrepid Google explorer Canada Roy for the link.