Crowds welcome football season at area sports books

[clevfan]

September 8, 2008


Crowds welcome football season at area sports books

BY RAY HAGAR
Reno Gazette Journal

Gil Rodriguez and Leonard Duarte renewed their friendship with an old tradition Sunday.

They have driven to Reno from their Northern California homes for at least the past 10 years so they can legally bet during the first week of the pro football season.

And they were at it again Sunday, nursing their drinks and managing their bets at the sports book at the Peppermill Casino Resort.

Their annual trek -- Rodriguez comes in from San Jose and Duarte from Fresno -- drives home a major competitive point when it comes to the rivalry between Nevada's resort industry and California's tribal casinos.

Nevada is the only state with legal betting on sports.

"At any casino there, there is no sports betting," said Duarte, who happens to be the receiving manager at the Table Mountain Casino near Fresno. "But we have the casinos in Nevada, and really, they are only five hours away, so you can't beat it."

The Sunday opening of the National Football League is like Christmas under the neon for Duarte, Rodriguez and their families.

"We like to bet and have been looking forward to the opening of the season," Duarte said. "We have family and friends who come up. Some drive. Some fly. We all look forward to it big time."

Folks like Duarte and Rodriguez have helped sports books buck the general gaming trend in Nevada.

Many indicators of Nevada's gaming health are down. For 12 consecutive months, gaming win numbers have declined in Washoe County.

But sports betting, particularly football betting, continues to thrive, experts said.

In the past 10 years, the win total for Nevada sports books (minus horse race pari-mutuel betting) has nearly doubled to $166.3 million, according to the state Gaming Control Board.

Last year, a record $2.6 billion was bet on sports in Nevada, with football accounting for 45 percent.

"We looked at the latest fiscal year numbers, and we saw that the drop in games had declined, the coin-in betting had declined and the activity on slots had declined," said Frank Streshley of the control board. "But sports betting had actually gone up 6.4 percent. So sports betting is not following the trend in other games, where there is a decline in spending."

Recent scrutiny of offshore Internet betting also has helped Nevada sports books, experts said. But the lack of sports betting in tribal casinos is a significant reason why many Reno and Sparks books were doing brisk business Sunday.

"It is forcing people to come back here and bet," said Terry Cox, manager of the Peppermill sports book. "If you go out there right now, you will find a lot of people who came up here from San Jose or Sacramento. And there are a lot of places between here and there where you can play slot machines but where you can't bet sports."

The big draw Sunday appeared to be the New York Jets, operators said. Bettors were rooting for the team's new quarterback, former Green Bay Packers' star Brett Favre.

"They are betting the Jets like there is no tomorrow, said Carel Kok, sports book manager at the Western Village in Sparks. "When they score a touchdown in one of the other games, there is no reaction in here. But Brett Favre threw a touchdown pass a couple of minutes ago, and the place just erupted."

The Jets beat the Miami Dolphins, 20-14.

The crowd Sunday at the Western Village reminded Kok of recent decades when the two Bay Area teams, the 49ers and Raiders, were among the NFL elite.

"They (49ers and Raiders) are not playing well now, but back when they had really good teams, this place was crazy," Kok said. "It was truly Raider Nation in here."

Kevin Quinn, 49, took the 3-point underdog Miami Dolphins. As a Jets fan, Quinn was rooting or Miami quarterback Chad Pennington, who led the Jets before Favre arrived this summer.

"I felt that they pushed him out of the way," Quinn said of the Jets and Pennington. "I am not a fan of the Green Bay Packer guy."