For the first time since the Sydney games in 2000, it is legal for American citizens to bet on the Olympics, which is exciting news for Nevada’s casinos, or at least it would’ve been, were it not for a slight issue.This issue being that gamblers seem reluctant to place any bets on the Rio Olympics, making the recent efforts to allow them to do so fairly fruitless.
The proposal
A group of Nevada casinos brought forward a proposal to allow players to bet, and the casinos then prepared lines for different events in Rio de Janeiro.However, despite there having been a small number of very large bets on the likes of basketball and football, the general interest has been, sportsbook operators have discovered, disappointing at best.
USA are very good
MGM Vice-President of race and sports, Jay Rood, has a suggestion as to why this problem may exist, and it’s a fairly adorably optimistic one (although that doesn’t make it wrong.) Mr Rood suggests that the lack of interest is because US teams “are very, very good at the sports they compete in.”Rood then added:“The wagering may in fact by lighter than normal simply due to the fact that the U.S. teams are heavy favorites in a number of the events and overall to win more gold medal than any other country.”
‘Wait and see’
Jay Kornegay, VP of race and sportsbook operations at Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook said that the interest in betting on basketball and football could rise rapidly when the competitions get towards their closing stages, although he admitted that “it’s wait and see” for the time being.The eyes of the world are on Rio right now, but as far as Vegas is concerned at least, this does not translate to a great deal of betting.