Economic Effect of Football Betting at Las Vegas Casinos

Sports betting definitely has an effect on an peoples pockets, but Las Vegas’ legal sports betting is have a a nice effect of their economy. At face value it’s a little lower than one might think.

Last October, for example, Clark County’s 109 sports books accepted about $59 million in straight-up wagers on football (both pro and college) a week. They took about $2.9 million more in parlay-card action per week. The books kept more than $2 million a week of the nearly $62 million wagered on football. Multiplied by the 17 weeks of the NFL regular season, that’s more than $34 million of football sports-betting revenue—and that doesn’t include the playoffs.

The vig alone on sports betting at casinos is 10%, so if the books are able to get even money on both sides they should see a nice profit from sports betting. The current pace is well below that at about 3.4%. Still the casinos are making significant money and the winnings should go back to the norm at some point.