Columnist Jeff Haney: 'UNLV rule' puts damper on futures betting

Jeff Haney's sports betting column appears Wednesday. Reach him at 259-4041 or [email protected]

Nevada's sports books have long been prohibited from taking bets on college games involving teams from UNLV and Nevada-Reno.

And even the most rabid supporters of legal gambling concede that the ban is a good idea. We all want "The Fixer" to conjure up an image of a character in a Bernard Malamud novel, not a character in a hot tub.

But this time of year, the "UNLV rule," as it is sometimes called, forces sports books to employ some fancy footwork in a Big Dance of their own.

That's because Nevada books are forbidden from taking futures bets on the winner of the NCAA basketball tournament as long as UNLV is part of the field.

In tourneys past, books offered a proposition bet asking, "Which team will advance the furthest in the tournament?" The Rebels, of course, were off the board. So if UNLV ended up winning the tournament, tickets on the runner-up would be paid.

Now, since that approach also has been nixed, books offer futures wagering on three of the tournament's four regionals, excluding only UNLV's. When (if?) the Rebels are knocked out, odds will be posted on the winner of the entire tournament.

It's not that the books are hurting for business because of the UNLV rule. In each of the past couple of years, the NCAA Tournament has generated an estimated $85-90 million in wagers in Nevada's sports books. That exceeds the $70-80 million wagered on the Super Bowl.

It's just that an NCAA Tournament futures book offered year-round would ignite even more madness every March.

After all, a Packers fan visiting Las Vegas could walk into a sports book today and get 15-1 on Green Bay winning the 2001 Super Bowl.

A baseball fan from Chicago could have bet his White Sox to win the AL Central at 7-1 -- in January.

Despite the enormous popularity of the NCAA Tournament, Nevada books cannot offer similar futures wagers to college basketball fans.

"There would be many more promotional tools available to us that we just can't use, because you never know if UNLV is going to be in or out," said Roger Sims, sports book director at the Rio hotel-casino.

"For example, you could start an NCAA Tournament promotion in January that would be gangbusters. But as long as there's a chance UNLV will be involved, we're prevented from doing that kind of outside-the-realm promotion."

Meanwhile, local books posted odds this week on three regionals: Michigan State commands the shortest price at 4-5 to win the Midwest; Duke is a 7-5 favorite in the East; and Arizona is the top choice at 8-5 in the West.

UNLV is competing in the South Regional.

On the offshore line, the Rebels are an 8- to 9-point underdog in their first-round game against Tulsa and a 500-1 shot to win the tournament.

"It takes the sophisticated (bettors) a little bit of time to do their handicapping, so we haven't had a whole lot of action on the regionals," Sims said Tuesday. "They're still doing their homework."

Sims said a few games with some of the largest point spreads on the board were attracting the most early action.

"The hottest team here is Temple," said Sims, who has the Owls at 2-1 to come out of the East. "They're a 20-point favorite over Lafayette, and the (bettors) are not hesitating to lay the 20. They're also laying 32 points with Duke over Lamar."

A year ago, Duke was an overwhelming favorite to win the tournament. The Blue Devils opened at even money and went off as low as 3-5.

Heading into the Final Four, Duke was a 1-7 favorite before being upended by UConn in the championship game.

"Duke is not the consistently dominant team that they were last year," Sims said. "They've had their peaks and valleys. When they were an 8, 10, 12-point favorite, the other team would give them a real tussle. They didn't blow everybody out the way they did last season."

Indeed, Duke is just 6-5 against the spread in its last 11 games leading up to the tourney. However, the Blue Devils are 5-0 against the number this season when favored by more than 20 points.

"The third hottest team here is South Carolina State -- (bettors are) taking the (32) points with them against Stanford," Sims said. "When you have extraordinarily big numbers like that, the usual pattern is that money will come in early on the underdog and late on the favorite, so the book usually ends up with balanced action.

"Other than (those games), it's been a normal Monday and Tuesday, with nominal $100, $200 and $300 bets."

Sims figures the action will heat up today and continue at a torrid pace through the rest of the NCAA Tournament. He's expecting more Super Bowl-like numbers.

"While the Final Four itself doesn't approach the single-day betting total of the Super Bowl, when you factor in the total number of games, (the NCAA Tournament) is bigger," Sims said.

* NOTABLE: 10 a.m. Thursday is the deadline to enter Boulder Station's NCAA Tournament "Bracket Blowout," which carries a $20 fee and pays cash prizes to the top 20 finishers. Details are available in the sports book or by calling Boulder Station at 432-7777. ... Among the many Internet websites offering free tournament contests are Lids.com and Rivals.com. Contestants compete for cash, cars, caps, etc. ... Website nevadaprepsports.com airs Rob Veno's Las Vegas Sports Line each noon, and the "Coaches Show" with host Alex Shelton and basketball analyst Steve Merril at 6 p.m. Thursdays. The shows are also archived on the site.

archive