{"id":27479,"date":"2020-07-07T07:55:54","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T15:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=27479"},"modified":"2020-07-08T07:02:31","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T15:02:31","slug":"big-bellagio-blunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/big-bellagio-blunder\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Bellagio blunder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Given the dearth of major-league sports in the U.S., Nevada<\/strong> sports books have reluctantly turned to South Korean and Chinese baseball for betting fodder. This led to a novice mistake in the wee hours of June 28, when one could be understandably bleary, a blooper that could cost MGM Resorts International<\/strong> as much as $250K. The Bellagio<\/strong> sports book system took bets on games that had already started<\/a>, a particularly costly mistake because one savvy gambler scored $137,107.38 with a 10-game (!) parlay. That’s a nice return on a $250 wager<\/a>. Another, eight-game parlay brought home $11,156.60 on a $100 bet. Las Vegas<\/strong> bookies were taking it in stride\u2014and no wonder. The odds are stacked in their favor. Several told the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> that the winners could get their money in return for agreeing to be permanently 86’d from the casino. The alternative is to grab your ankles and let the house keep the dough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s happened to all of us,” shrugged Westgate Las Vegas<\/strong> sportsbook supremo John Murray<\/strong> to ESPN<\/strong>. \u201cI think every sportsbook probably since the beginning of time has dealt with this at some point.\u201d However, that also means\u2014due to the enormity of the error<\/a>\u2014a Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong> investigation. This may give punters cause for hope. \u201cWe had [regulators] come out several times,\u201d said Robert Walker<\/strong> of USBookmaking<\/strong>. \u201cWe got ruled against most of the time.\u201d As the rules says, there’s a “prohibition against rescission of wagers. A book may not unilaterally rescind any wager without the prior written approval of the Chair.” Amen to that. There’s no reason sharp players should be penalized for a casino’s obtuseness. And you can bet that the next time the Rakuten Monkeys<\/strong> face the Uni Lions<\/strong>, Bellagio employees will be keeping a much closer eye on the clock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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July Fourth weekend was a disappointment for Las Vegas, at least according to JP Morgan<\/strong> analyst Joseph Greff<\/strong>. He writes that “while visitation has been fairly steady in Clark County<\/strong>, Nevada and across various states, we would have expected an uptick this past week given it was a holiday and July 4th<\/sup>\u00a0fell on a weekend.” In Clark County, traffic was only at 61% of pre-Coronavirus<\/strong> levels. He added “little changed from the prior two weeks\u2019 ~61 and 62%, and in spite of additional LV Strip properties opening over the prior few weeks.” (This raises substantive questions over whether MGM’s much-hyped flurry of reopenings is a genuine response to demand.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In such regional markets as Louisiana<\/strong>, Mississippi<\/strong>, Missouri<\/strong> and Iowa<\/strong>, business ticked up to 77% of prior-year levels, better than the previous week’s 74% but a decline from 80% observed between June 14-20. Players are staying 9% longer in Clark County, 11% shorter in Louisiana, with everybody else somewhere in between. Greff notes that credit-card spending is down and Covid-19<\/strong> cases are up, so the gaming data hardly comes as a surprise. Gaming stocks, however, continue to outperform the S&P Index<\/strong>, +21% compared to 11%. Greff concludes that “Since U.S. casinos began reopening to well-publicized levels of strong pent-up demand, visitation levels have been generally been moving higher, though not in a linear manner. In the past two weeks, visitation levels have been mixed.” One might call it a hesitant recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jottings<\/em><\/strong>: Table games at Don Laughlin’s Riverside<\/strong> have been temporarily closed, due to the resurgence of Coronavirus … Will casinos ever<\/em> open in Japan<\/strong>? Nagasaki<\/strong> won’t even begin considering<\/em> potential partners until the end of this months. Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> looks sagacious for getting out … A leaked Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> memo from CEO Anthony Rodio<\/strong> says that it’s “grounds for termination” if an employee is found without their mask on. That’s the spirit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given the dearth of major-league sports in the U.S., Nevada sports books have reluctantly turned to South Korean and Chinese baseball for betting fodder. This led to a novice mistake in the wee hours of June 28, when one could … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[244,14,283,171,49,84,245,25,243,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27479"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27480,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27479\/revisions\/27480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}