ONLINE GAMBLING AND CASINO GUIDE

First, let me state that I hate the sports book vig.

Most people reading this are probably experienced bettors, but there may still be three people in the world who don’t know to what I am referring.

The vig (or “juice”) is the commission that a sports book takes for settling your wager.  In Las Vegas, the standard is about 9% which is typically represented as “-110”.

To make sense of this expression, the number after the “-” is the amount you have to wager in order to win $100.

If you take the Steelers tomorrow, and you want to win $100 if they cover the spread, then you have to bet $110  … or bet $11 to win $10, or bet $55 to win $50, etc.

If you are not betting round numbers, this can be hard to calculate on the fly.  When I am out making wagers and want an idea of what I may win, I typically just round it off to 10% in my head.  If I bet $75,  I figure I am trying to win $67.50  (75-7.50) , even though it’s a bit higher.

The spread between what you bet, and what you win, a/k/a “the vig” goes to the house.

Of course, the vig is completely understandable and fair.  It costs money to maintain the infrastructure to take bets, calculate lines, settle bets, and have enough left over to pay the employees.

I still dislike it, though.

In most other games, I’m accustomed to getting even money on a “win or lose” wager.  If I win a hand of Blackjack, I get even money.  If I bet black on Roulette, and hit black, I get even money … and so on.  Even though those games screw you in other ways, such as 6:5 naturals and two green pockets, the basic premise of winning the size of your initial bet just seems “right”.

Sure, it is purely psychological, but most things in life are.

Anyway, when you bet the point spread, you always pay the standard 9.0909% vig.

In theory, the spread itself is considered a “coin flip” bet.

The object of the sports book point spread is to try and get 50% of people to bet on one team, and 50% to bet on the other.   Even though this almost never happens, it is the ultimate goal.

When one team starts getting too many bets, the point spread is increased on that team to entice more people to bet on the opposing team, and vice-versa.

Point spreads have little to do with statistical probability, and everything to do with dividing winners and losers equally.

If this perfect 50/50 balance were to be struck, the sports book would not make any profit by paying out even money on bets.

Hence … the vig.

The vig also affects another popular practice.

Although “sports betting arbitrage” has been around for a long time, online wagering has increased its popularity.  Were it not for the vig, people could make completely risk-free bets.

In its most simple terms “sports betting arbitrage” means capturing the difference between the lines offered by competing casinos … be they online or brick and mortar.

I’ll give you an example.

Let’s say the Redskins are playing the Cowboys.

The local Vegas gambler checks the point spread of his favorite online book.  His online book is offering the Cowboys at -10.5.

Next the gambler goes down to The Strip and sees that the Hilton is offering the Cowboys at  -6.5.

If he takes the Cowboys to win at -6.5 at the Hilton, and takes the Redskins to win at +10.5 online, he has created a scenario whereby he will win on at least one of the tickets, and if the Cowboys win by 7, 8, 9, or 10, he wins both tickets. I have actually done it myself … albeit on accident.

Were it not for the vig, there would be no way to lose money on this wager combination, and the bettor could put a million dollars into it completely risk-free.

However, since the chance of losing 9.1% outweighs the chance of winning both bets, this strategy is not widely employed.

That being said, I do know some people in Vegas that actually make a living betting sports.  Each and every one of them not only frequents the local sports books, but they also have a variety of online gambling accounts.

They “arb” bets in far more sophisticated ways than I have outlined above.  They bet line variations of different casinos, and structure them in such a way that they are guaranteed to win something regardless of the outcome of the contest.

Since arbitrage nets very small margins, professional gamblers must wager very large amounts in order to make it worth their while.  Arbing a 2% advantage on book differences is not worthwhile if you are only going to be wagering $100 … or even $1,000.  The professional sports arb’ers in this town bet amounts that would make your head spin.

Back when the Hilton Poker Room was still open, we had a regular player on weekends.  He was a fairly well-liked member of our group, and he was a good card player.  For the sake of this article, let’s call him “Fred” (not his real name).  Fred was not much to look at.  He resembled the rest of us.  Fred was always a bit disheveled and never wore anything that looked even remotely expensive.  I even passed him driving out of the parking garage once, and his vehicle was a standard piece of 90′s Detroit steel.

Fred did have one peculiarity though.  During the winter, he arrived every Sunday morning with a suitcase.  Not a briefcase, but a suitcase.  Even though he was a good poker player, Fred seemed to always pay more attention to the action on the TV screens than he did his cards.  Fred bet sports … a lot.

Fred’s suitcase was a mythical and mysterious object.   The rest of us used to gossip about it, and speculate about how much was in it, but only when he wasn’t around.  As curious as we were, men typically know where to draw the line.  That line is asking other men about their business … especially when it may be of questionable legality.

One day, Fred got into a dispute with another player.  The other player was a tourist, and began running his mouth and bragging … as tourists tend to do.  Unlike in your hometown, nobody in Vegas knows you’re a douchebag until you open your mouth.

This guy was relentless.  He criticized all of our play, explained to us how only losers actually lived in Las Vegas, showed us his wristwatch, taunted us because none of us had one like it, and began telling us about the car he had just bought.

After about 20 minutes of this, Fred became visibly annoyed.  Finally … he stood up, put his suitcase on his chair, reached inside, brought out two fistfuls of neatly wrapped cash, slammed them on the table, and said “Let’s play heads-up for this!”

The tourist looked stunned, as did the rest of us.  I don’t think I have ever seen that much cash in my life.  I don’t think any of us had.  The two bricks appeared to be all $100 bills.

Man, I wish I could have taken a picture of the tourist’s face.  We all stared in silence to see what his response would be.  After what seemed like an eternity, the braggadocios tourist finally said “I … I can’t cover that” in a voice so timid that he sounded as though he had been neutered.

“Then shut the f*** up!”, said Fred.

Not only did the tourist indeed, shut the F up … but he decided that he no longer wanted to play in our particular room anymore.  Thinking back, that was one of my favorite poker sessions.  Ever.

What was the point in this little story?

There are two.

The first point is that unless you are Fred, you probably aren’t going to make much money arbing sports bets.  Beating the vig takes a large amount of time, dedication, and knowledge … and most of all, a suitcase full of cash.

The second point is that flaunting your supposed wealth back home to Vegas locals is pointless.  We’re not impressed.  Trust me, we have seen and heard it all a hundred times.  You’re all millionaires with two mansions, five mistresses, and three Ferraris … but you’re at our 1/2 No Limit table.

Sure, most of us look like slobs, but you just might be surprised.  Save that crap for online poker.  At least someone on the Internet might actually believe you.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I am off to the Las Vegas Hilton to make my own personal sacrifice to the almighty vig.

Apparently, there is some kind of sporting contest taking place tomorrow.

Remember you heard it here first.

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