After a 15-year hiatus, Las Vegas has reopened its doors to legalized gambling on the Olympic Games.
Adam K. Raymond of New York Magazine reports Las Vegas sports books are now accepting bets on the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Betting was banned in 2001 s part of a bill sponsored by Senator John McCain after Nevada agreed to ban betting amateur athletics in order to keep betting on college sports legal. The Nevada Gaming Commission lifted the ban in 2015 in order to have a monopoly on all types of sports betting.
Raymond reports betting will give Las Vegas casinos a slight financial boost, if only because there’s nothing much going on in the sports world at this time of year.
Except, Jay Kornegay, vice-president of the Westgate SuperBook, doesn’t expect to rake in much cash. “We expect it to be very minimal,” he says. Also, he doesn’t expect to take any bets on rowing. In fact, despite the diversity of sport in the Olympics, Kornegay is certain that basketball, one of the boring old big four, will draw the majority of betting action this summer. “It won’t even be close,” he says.
Gambling on the Olympics would be a lot of fun considering the unpredictable nature of events. The Rio 2016 Olympics are even more of a crap shoot, considering the sizable number of athletes who have already pulled out of the games due to Zika virus concerns. Yes, there’s always going to be a gray area in regards to gambling, but allowing gamblers to do it legally means they won’t have to break the law to bet on the Olympics.
Banning Olympic betting, in Vegas nonetheless, was a bizarre decision in the first place. The Olympics feature a wide-range of competition and seems ripe for gambling. Doing it legally ensures its regulated. There will always be concerns athletes might throw events to fix gambling, but isn’t that possible in all sporting events?
Congrats to those players in Vegas who will lose even more money with the announcement.
