High rollers are not just hanging around at the card tables in Las Vegas anymore.
Aria in the new CityCenter complex in Las Vegas boasts $5,000 denomination slot machines with a max bet of 1 credit per spin.
Dig deep and just maybe you too can have a thrill!
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Las Vegas visitors reportedly wagered less in 2009 than in previous years- more than $50 less. 
A Las Vegas Visitor Profile released by Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority found the average gambler budgeted about $481 per trip last year. That compares with almost $532 in 2008, more than $555 in 2007 and nearly $652 in 2006.
Gambling was just the tip of the economic iceberg: lodging, dining, shows and shopping were also casualties. The study found hotel spending per night was down 25% in 2009, to about $76; the average cost of a tour package was down 14%, to about $640; and the total spent on restaurants was down 8%, to about $250. Spending on shopping was down 16%, to about $102. Visitors spent an average of about $40 on shows, down 23%.
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What does the very popular Austrialian vocal group Human Nature when they’re not performing at Imperial Palace in Las Vegas? Gamble. What else? It’s Sin City! 
Human Nature, who formed as a doo-wop band in 1989 in Sydney, Austraila, has now been performing “The Ultimate Celebration of the Motown Sound” to rave reviews at the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas for the past nine months.
Tight harmonies and rich vocals are what make Human Nature standout in concert. Songs like “Reach Out”; “Just My Imagination”; “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch);” The Jackson Five’s “ABC,” and the group’s moving version of Robinson’s “Ooh Baby, Baby,” are their mainstays.
Motown music legend Smokey Robinson has acted as their official envoy and presenter of the LasVegas show and its touring production. Now, it appears that Robinson has switched gears somewhat, gearing up for doing his own shows and promoting his own music including his new CD on his own label, “Time Flies When You’re Having Fun,” which is an album that embraces Robinson’s favorite theme: Love.
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Adam Meyer, who has the license plates, “Bet on Me,” on his Bentley, has supposedly been approved for a whopping $1 million Super Bowl bet at the M Resort.
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Most Super Bowl betting experts predict this year’s Super Bowl to be the biggest in terms of overall traffic and amount of bets placed at the online sportsbooks and in Las Vegas.
A Las Vegas bookmaker makes the Indianapolis Colts an early four-point favorite to beat the New Orleans Saints in the 2010 Super Bowl and the bookies (both in Las Vegas and online) pushed the line up to -5 ½. Sportsbetting.com and a few others have moved the line up to Colts -6.
Sean Van Patten of Las Vegas Sports Consultants recently told the AP that the Colts’ experience on the NFL’s biggest stage (they won Super Bowl XLI three years ago) helped them take the decided edge.
The total in this Super Bowl, with a number that has remained steady for the most part, is 56 ½, being the highest total ever posted.
“In the Super Bowl, most people don’t mind if the defense doesn’t show up as much,” Jay Rood, director of the MGM Mirage’s Race and Sports Book in Las Vegas, said in a telephone interview last week with Bloomberg News Friday. “For the most part they like to see a track meet back and forth. This one could deliver.”
John Avello, the race and sports book director at the Wynn Las Vegas, said he can envision several scenarios that would keep this year’s game from being a high-scoring contest.
“For the most part I’d believe that the weather will cooperate, but there’s always the chance it won’t,” said Avello, noting that both clubs played their first two playoff games in domed stadiums. “Second, the Colts’ defense is a lot better than people anticipate and the Saints’ defense showed they can get to the quarterback. This game may not be quite the shootout that’s anticipated.”
“This is clearly the highest total for a Super Bowl we’ve ever had,” said Jay Kornegay, executive director of the Hilton Race and Sports Book. “People like to bet on offense and it’s shaping up to be an offensive game.”
Despite the high number, nearly 75 percent of those betting the total were still backing the OVER heading going into the contest.
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More than offering just pocketcasino sports wagering, which Cantor Gaming launched at The Venetian last September, Cantor Gaming, an affiliate of the global financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, has announced yesterday that their pocketcasino (only available on the Las Vegas Strip at The Venetian and The Palazzo), is now offering casino style games in addition to in-running sports wagering incuding traditional casino games such as blackjack, video poker and slots.
Included in the new choice of casino games are innovative games including XtraOdds Blackjack and XtraOdds Baccarat. These games offer extra propositional bets that dynamically calculate odds based on the cards dealt, giving an extra opportunity to press or hedge your bets.
Pocketcasino gaming promises a dramatic increase to business revenues while allowing casino patrons to multi-task and gamble like never before, including allowing patrons the ability to play casino style games while roaming throughout the high limit slot salon, Grazie gold lounge, race & sports book, and designated public areas currently including bars, lounges and restaurants at The Venetian and The Palazzo in Las Vegas.
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A group of Las Vegas casino operators are planning to pool their sports book bets so their books can handle heavier betting action.
South Point owner Michael Gaughan received preliminary approval from Nevada’s Gaming Control Board to pool sports bets with the Palms, both Cannery casinos and the Rampart Casino at the JW Marriott in Las Vegas.
Pooling will allow the books to accept larger bets on all sports, but the casino operators really want to capture a larger share of college and pro football bets when the season begins in September.
The arrangement will allow these casinos to compete more effectively against larger casinos that run multiple books, including Station Casinos, Boyd Gaming Corp., MGM Mirage and Harrah’s Entertainment.
The properties, however, can’t begin taking bets under the proposed system until the Nevada Gaming Commission approves the plan. They plan to consider the proposal at their Aug. 20 meeting in Carson City, Nevada.
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It used to be that the Super Bowl was the zenith of all sporting events for Las Vegas 
sportsbooks. However this winter’s celebration of the professional athlete is finding a fierce challenger in the March playoff celebration of collegiate basketball.
Over the last 20 years there has been a steady increase in the number of visitors booking rooms in Las Vegas during March Madness. In 2008, February basketball betting was $116.7 million compared to $238.9 million in March, more than doubling the money wagered in Nevada casinos.
Will this trend continue this year? Can March Madness help boost the Vegas economy yet one more time?
The answer for right now seems to be – yes and a guarded yes. Major Las Vegas sports books at Caesars, Mirage and the Hilton reported late last week that more men than last year showed up for the start of March Madness, while taking the time to lounge in comfy chairs, and more importantly for the Las Vegas economy, drink and eat.
Though this year’s Las Vegas sports books are taking in a greater number of bets, both men and women are betting fewer dollars per wager- so far.
“I’m pleasantly surprised in light of the economy,” said a beaming Jim Pedulla, director of Caesars’ race and sports book. He arrived to work last Thursday and had to immediately find an extra 160 seats for the more than 1,000 people who packed his book by 5:30 a.m.
While great hotel and restaurant deals in Las Vegas are abundantly available both on and off the Strip, all the Las Vegas hotel sports books are definitely bustling with the brisk post-St. Patrick Day-pre-Spring Break-currently-celebrating March Madness crowds.
Will this bristling activity be eventually translated into happy – not maddening – Las Vegas revenues?
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The Pittsburgh Steelers are favored by 6 ½ to 7 points over the Arizona Cardinals in Sunday’s Super Bowl XLIII 
contest at Tampa, Florida. Most of the early wagering at Las Vegas sports books has been for the underdog Cardinals.
Wynn Las Vegas has the Steelers has a 7-point favorite. The Las Vegas Hilton has moved the line to 6 ½ and minus- 110. Lucky’s sports books lowered Pittsburgh’s money-line price to minus-215 and, to attempt to dramatically boost the Super Bowl handle, posted about 165 proposition bets at seven sports books.
The ‘dog is definitely receiving the lion’s share of wagering action.
But there is no speculation about the Cardinals-Steelers matchup drawing a much needed $100 million revenue haul for Nevada.
A Super Bowl-record $94.5 million was wagered in Nevada in 2006, when the Steelers upended the Seahawks, 21-10. Nevada’s total wagering for last year’s game was $92.1 million.
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Despite our continuing gut-curdling economic crisis, through it all, Las Vegas sports betting operations have 
remained strong, resilient, and, some say, even recession-proof. It remains one of our few local business saviors. Gaming wagering profits accruing from the Super Bowl plays a crucial and pivotal role in our continued success.
Last year’s hotly contested forty-second Super Bowl match up between the New York Giants and New England Patriots lost $2.6 million when pooling the net results accruing the from the total $92.1 million wagered at Nevada’s 174 sports books. Ely Manning’s Giants, who closed wagering as 12-point underdogs, managed to upset Tom Brady’s Patriots, 17-3.
But that was only the second time in 18 years that Nevada sports books lost on Super Bowl wagering.
Looking back just a year earlier, a Super Bowl 2006 record draw of $94.5 million was wagered in Nevada, when the Pittsburgh Steelers were the victors against the Seattle Seahawks, 21-10.
Even with our nation’s economic collapse, this year’s February 1 contest at Tampa, Florida between the debutante, Cinderella-team Arizona Cardinals and the 900-lb gorilla on the block, Pittsburgh Steelers (six Super Bowls, with five wins) has, and is, drawing strong bettor interest. Will David – reincarnated as the Cardinal’s Kurt Warner, with two Super Bowls and one win as a St. Louis Ram quarterback under his belt, pull off the ultimate coup and slay the Pittsburgh Goliath?
The Steelers start as a 7-point favorite from most Las Vegas gaming venues and oddsmakers. But most analysts this year doubt they will write over $100 million. MGM Mirage sports book director Jay Rood, mirroring the majority sentiment of his peers, anticipates more wagering support for the Steelers, adding the take when all is done and said will probably fall somewhere between $85 million and $95 million.
Hoping to dramatically boost this year’s gaming revenues, many gaming analysts predict a dramatic rise in the team, game, and player “prop” (proposition wagers) offerings. They are rolling out many of enticing wager opportunities, ranging from the common, to the offbeat: Will either team score three consecutive times without the other team scoring? Will either team score in the final two minutes of the first half? Or one can bet on Kurt Warner’s and Ben Roethlisberger’s pass attempts and passing yards. And bettors can lay their money down on Edgerrin James’ and Willie Parker’s rushing yards.
Is Las Vegas sports betting really recession-proof? Many hopes and dreams – Las Vegas’ very economic survival – are riding high on this year’s Super Bowl revenue results.
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