{"id":28977,"date":"2020-12-24T08:06:37","date_gmt":"2020-12-24T16:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=28977"},"modified":"2020-12-30T07:08:50","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T15:08:50","slug":"pigskin-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/pigskin-parade\/","title":{"rendered":"Pigskin parade"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In spite of high hold percentages and no brick-and-mortar venues, Tennessee<\/strong> sports books came out of the blocks at a blinding pace. November handle was $131.5 million, the most for any first month in any state, ever. (Indiana<\/strong> debuted at $35 million, the previous record, and it took New Jersey<\/strong> four months to top $130 million.) Revenue was $13 million, of which $2.5 million flows into state coffers. In explaining the phenomenon, PlayUSA<\/strong> analyst Dustin Gouker<\/strong> said that \u201cThe best-ever launch for online sports betting is perhaps a surprise to some, but Tennessee also debuted with enormously favorable circumstances, many of which came by design. First, it debuted in the heart of the NFL and college football seasons in a region that is particularly football crazy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DraftKings<\/strong>, FanDuel<\/strong>, BetMGM<\/strong> and local Action 24\/7<\/strong> were the immediate beneficiaries of the betting surge. The New Year brings the entry of William Hill<\/strong>, WynnBet<\/strong> and BetAmerica<\/strong> but they’ll have a lot of catching up to do and none except William Hill rivals the brand equity of three of the four first movers. (It seems Barstool Sports<\/strong> is missing an opportunity here.) Concluded Gouker, “The next question is when and if Tennessee will challenge Colorado<\/strong> and Indiana in terms of overall market size. It appears sooner than anyone expected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\"\"This has been a high-flying season for the NFL<\/strong> and four of the next round of games feature over\/unders of 51.5 points. For instance, both the Tennessee Titans<\/strong> and Green Bay Packers<\/strong> are averaging 31 points per game, and they’ll collide Sunday night with an over\/under of 56. “No game has offered more points this season,” reports aggregating service TheLines.com<\/strong>. (The Packers are favored by four.) Of course, odds mean almost nothing when the cleats are strapped on. Witness the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/strong>‘ ignominious face-plant against the Cincinnati Bengals<\/strong> after being favored by 14.5 points. Still, the oddsmakers are euphoric. Even a mismatch of the Cleveland Browns<\/strong> (by 10) against the New York Jets<\/strong> is expected to generate 44.5 points. Our Las Vegas Raiders<\/strong> are expected to have their playoff hopes narrowly squelched by the Miami Dolphins<\/strong> (-2.5) with an over\/under of 47.5. If you like sheer scoring, you can watch the inept Denver Broncos<\/strong> and Los Angeles Chargers<\/strong> slug it out for a projected 48.5 over\/under. Most games are expected to be knuckle-biters, with only three quasi-blowouts in sight: Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/strong> by nine over the Detroit Lions<\/strong> (51.5), Baltimore Ravens<\/strong> rolling over the New York Giants<\/strong> by 10 (no over\/under) and the dominant Kansas City Chiefs<\/strong> putting a 10.5-point kibosh on Raheem Morris<\/strong>‘ renascent Atlanta Falcons<\/strong> (53). As for Raider Nation, well, there’s always next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve Wynn<\/strong> was wrong about tip-pooling but he was also ahead of the curve. The Department of Labor<\/strong> has amended the Fair Labor Standards Act<\/strong> to require that tips be shared with back-of-house employees. Proponents say this tide will lift all boats but there are skeptics. In its favor, the new rule excludes managers from tip pooling. Wage & Hour Administrator Cheryl Stanton<\/strong> said it \u201cremoved the regulatory restrictions on an employer\u2019s ability to require tip pooling when it does not take a tip credit and instead pays tipped employees the full minimum wage in direct wages.\u201d However, it used to be that when a tipped worker’s front-of-house duties fell below 80% of their work time, their pay became subject to the federal minimum wage. No more. The Economic Policy Institute<\/strong> contends that $700 million in salary could be lost. <\/a> \u201cThe new regulation from the Trump administration does away with [the 80\/20] protection, replacing it with vague, much less protective language,\u201d affecting as many as 243,000 employees, says the EPI. The good news for tipped workers is that the change will take 60 days to implement, giving the Biden administration time to attempt to thwart it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One more little thing … Have yourself a merry Christmas! You’ve earned it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In spite of high hold percentages and no brick-and-mortar venues, Tennessee sports books came out of the blocks at a blinding pace. November handle was $131.5 million, the most for any first month in any state, ever. (Indiana debuted at … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[277,14,278,68,255,245,248,74,243,32,295,252,233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28977"}],"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=28977"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28978,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28977\/revisions\/28978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}