Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2001 | 10:44 a.m.
Jeff Haney's sports betting column appears Wednesday. Reach him at 259-4041 or [email protected].
As NFL officials continue to deliberate today on whether to postpone this weekend's games, Las Vegas sports books are taking a wait-and-see stance.
"Right now, we are proceeding as if the games will be played," said Joe Lupo, sports book director at the Stardust hotel-casino. "It's the only approach we can take until we hear something definite."
NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue is being urged by some observers to cancel the games in the wake of Tuesday's terrorist attacks.
A decision is not expected for at least another day.
"Once we hear something from the league, we would take the games off the board at that time," said Chuck Cunningham, sports book supervisor at the Imperial Palace on the Strip.
Meanwhile, visitors to sports books on Tuesday were greeted by surreal sights.
Instead of harness races or baseball games, the jumbo TV monitors at Mandalay Bay were airing chilling footage of lower Manhattan smoldering.
Right below Super Bowl odds on the book's state-of-the-art electronic tote board, the letters in lights read, "Due to today's tragedies across the country, all major league baseball games have been cancelled."
The Stardust race and sports book attracted its share of patrons -- but for once, they were not thinking about sports.
"We've had a couple hundred people in here, but they're here because of the (big-screen) TVs," Lupo said. "We have the major news stations on the screens, and we have the sound up from one of the programs.
"I think a lot of people find it satisfying to gather together at a time like this and commiserate with others who are feeling the same things they are."
The Stardust kept one betting window open, but it did not see much foot traffic.
"Obviously, betting sports is not why they're here today," Lupo said.
With horse racing and professional baseball called off, Lupo described the atmosphere in the sports book as "kind of eerie."
Cunningham said the feeling at the IP was similar.
"Everyone is just very somber in here today," he said.
As Thursday's three college football games have already been postponed, and baseball's schedule remains in limbo, sports books could be facing a few more quiet days.
Some pundits are drawing comparisons to November 1963, when then-commissioner Pete Rozelle came under fire for allowing NFL games to be played two days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Decades later, Rozelle called that decision the biggest mistake of his illustrious career.
A dark football weekend in Las Vegas would be virtually unprecedented -- and costly from a business standpoint.
Nevada sports books typically handle more than $900 million in football wagers each year, according to state reports. Individual casinos do not release dollar figures on how much action they take in NFL or college football wagering.
Football betting, however, was not on the minds of those in the small crowd at the El Cortez downtown Tuesday. All of the betting windows were closed there, and nine of the sports book's 10 televisions were turned off.
A couple of dozen patrons filled the tiny book to watch the one big-screen TV that was on, as it showed President Bush's evening address to the nation.
Behind them, the dry-erase whiteboard succinctly told the story of the day: "All major league baseball games postponed due to terrorists attacks."
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