ONLINE GAMBLING AND CASINO GUIDE

Thinking I was tired of being a gambling ‘dummy’, I thought it was maybe time I got a bit of an education in gambling. I chose the sports book as my first plan of attack against my lack of knowledge. Where better to learn how to bet on something than in the sports book? That’s all they do in there, right? Right!

I met with Jay Kornegay, the Executive Director of the Hilton’s Race and Sports Book today to let him explain to me what all that jumbled up, apparent nonsense on those big, lit up boards they have in every sports book. To me, it just looks like some alien language. I see some things I recognize, but the majority of it is just numbers and junk. Surely it all means something to somebody. Well, hundreds of somebodies right there in front of me apparently. It is an entire industry and I’m the outsider. I might as well be baking cookies in the kitchen and serving those in the know. Today that all changed. Okay, some of it changed.

I told Jay that I really know nothing about gambling and I was here so he could explain it all to me. He handled the news well, but later admitted that he wasn’t quite sure where to even start to explain it to me. Actually, he laughed and said, “There is a lot of stuff on that board!” We chipped away at the details, taking one section of betting at a time and I actually began to get it.

The first thing I didn’t know was that the Hilton’s Sports book is the world’s largest racing sports book. I had no idea. I had heard from several people in the past couple of years that their favorite sports book was the Hilton. So, naturally, when I decided to check out a sports book, I went to the Hilton. As it turns out, I inadvertently started at the top. Well, why the hell not?

This particular sports book handles all the major sporting events. They do all the professional teams and the college teams, the horse tracks and dog tracks, but they also do the second and third tear stuff that other sports books do not do. That makes them special. If you want to bet on something that isn’t carried in another casino’s book, then you go to the Hilton to bet because they will probably have it. Or better yet, you just start at the Hilton in the first place.

The Hilton’s sports book is open during the regular season:
Monday – Thursday: 8am – 10pm
Friday: 8am-11pm
Saturday: 7am – 11pm
Sunday: 7am -10pm

In the football season it is different:
Monday-Thursday: 8am-11pm
Friday: 8am – 2am
Saturday: 7am – 2am
Sunday: 7am – 11pm
It seems they do vary those hours, though, if there is some event going on that they are covering. If it is important and it is on, it looks like they are open and ready to serve.

I have always heard “you can bet on anything in Vegas!” Not true! You cannot. If I want to bet on whether or not Brittney Spears is going to be wearing panties on her next trip to the Las Vegas nightclubs, I’m just shit out of luck. You cannot bet on that in Vegas. I was crushed. My hard earned cash went right back in to my pocket. You also cannot bet on any political stuff either. There goes my bet on the new president making it to the end of his term.

The annoying as hell deal behind not being able to bet on all the really fun stuff for me, is that you cannot bet on anything that is voted on. It is actually a law by the Nevada Gaming Control Board that they can only take bets on certain sporting events. So, American Idol gamblers, you’re out of luck too. No betting is allowed because it is voted on. Somehow this ties in boxing with that rule, but an exception was made for it. I don’t know how Brittney’s panties get in there, but basically you can only bet on sporting events. Period. If you want to bet on Brittney or American Idol you’ll have to go offshore. I expressed my disgust, but Jay seemed to have already accepted this many years prior to me showing up at his desk. It wasn’t bothering him nearly as much.

“Odds are an art form,” says Jay. Yes, indeedy. They have a whole room dedicated to controlling all those sixty televisions including the twenty-eight giant monitors you see in the sports book, and a 15’x20’ massive screen. Also what goes on in that room with the geeks sitting behind their computers is that they are controlling the odds on the boards you see lit up in the sports book. They tap away, sometimes tapping in a future fortune for you and sometimes ruining that mortgage money you were going to win big with. The odds are not adjusted later in that room, that’s done elsewhere in another secret office.

Jay gave me the tour of the back of this place. You know, I just thought it was all magic. I walk in and stroll up to one of the nineteen wagering windows, put my two dollars on the pony with the greatest looking hindquarters and viola. I sit down in front of the biggest TV I’ve ever seen in my life and watch that filly run across the finish line and place. Easy. Nothing to it. I figured some burly guy with a whiskey/tobacco voice was at a desk somewhere in the hotel and conjured up all these odds and they took bets. Like in the movies, you know, some dark room with a phone hanging on the wall. Magic.

Part two is tomorrow.

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