Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Bet's the thing in March Madness
One estimate says $3.5 billion will be wagered on NCAA tourney
By TIM DAHLBERG, Associated Press
First published: Tuesday, March 15, 2005
LAS VEGAS -- Hours before the first game of the NCAA Tournament tips off Thursday, every seat will be taken in the Mandalay Bay sports book and people will be lining up at the betting windows with fistfuls of cash. Those lucky enough to grab a table won't leave until the night's final game is over -- or their bankroll runs out.
The hotel is all booked up, too, but if a room did become available it would run $599 a night.
Up and down the glittering Las Vegas Strip, the story is the same with packed hotels and fans spending the entire weekend betting on games.
But betting on the NCAA Tournament is one thing that doesn't stay in Vegas.
In dorm rooms, offices, and homes across the country, people can make a few clicks of the mouse and bet up to $10,000 or so on their favorite team.
And one out of every 10 Americans will carefully fill out their brackets, throw $20 or so in the office or bar pool and hope they can claim bragging rights and make a little money at the same time on what happens between now and April 4.
Millions will reach into their wallets to back their teams and, for the first time, some say it's possible more money will be bet on this year's tournament than the Super Bowl.
Though figures are hard to come by because much of the money is bet privately, one Internet betting site estimated a staggering $3.5 billion -- about the same as the gross national product of Mozambique -- will be bet on the 63 games that will crown a college basketball champion.
"There's a lot of people who will be betting every single one of these games," said Stuart Doyle, wagering director at the Internet gambling site BetWWTS.com.
Though this city's sports books are the most visual epicenter of NCAA betting, the $80-90 million that bookmakers estimate they'll take in on the tournament won't come near what is wagered with Internet sports books.
And that figure itself is likely just a fraction of what is put into pools at bars, offices, college campuses -- and even Major League Baseball's clubhouses.
"I think every team does one," San Diego Padres' first baseman Phil Nevin said. "I guess it's popular. We do them all year."
The NCAA staunchly opposes any betting on college sports.
"No one thinks a dollar pool is going to have an impact on the integrity of a game," said Bill Saum, the NCAA's director of gambling activities, "but our kids get so many mixed messages we don't want to send any more."
The NCAA has tried to get Congress to ban betting on college sports, but Arizona Sen. John McCain's bill to do that died quietly in the last session. It's unlikely a new bill will be introduced.
A survey the NCAA did last year found 17 percent of male athletes in Division I sports bet on college sports, while slightly more than 2 percent of basketball players said they were asked to influence the outcome of a game because of gambling debts.
Every team in the NCAA Tournament will watch a video on the dangers of gambling, and Saum and FBI agents will meet each of the Final Four teams to warn them personally before they play, telling them to steer clear of bettors and betting.
But in Las Vegas, the betting room's excitement is palpable.
"They're cheering every basket and the excitement never dies down because you always got another game going on," said sports book director Bob Scucci. "From an action point of view, nothing beats it."
