Byline: Stephen Nover Vegas Insider
LAS VEGAS -- When figures are released later this week, it's expected that Super Bowl XXXII will have the biggest handle of all time.
The record for most money wagered in Nevada on a Super Bowl, $70.9 million, was set two years ago on Super Bowl XXX when the Dallas Cowboys beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 27-17.
``Overall it was a public game,'' Caesars Palace race and sports book director Vinny Magliulo said in explaining who did most of the wagering. ``The majority of the money-line wagers (a bet that a team will win a game outright, without a point spread) were on the Broncos.''
The first bet at The Mirage was a $200,000 parlay on the Denver Broncos and ``over.''
Typically, the preferred method to parlay is the favorite and ``over'' the total points scored by each team or the underdog and the ``under.'' But not this gambler. Using this unorthodox parlay, he won $720,000.
And he wasn't even the big winner.
Thanks to the Broncos' 31-24 victory over the Green Bay Packers, a bettor at the Las Vegas Hilton came away with $1.5 million. This bettor made a $500,000 money-line wager on the Broncos at 3-1 odds.
Another gambler, this one at The Mirage, pocketed a six-figure amount by betting Denver would score exactly 31 points.
So it's not surprising many sports books lost money on the Super Bowl.
But what is surprising is that some sports books managed to win a little on the game, despite most bets being placed on the Broncos.
``All things considered, it was a narrow escape,'' said Robert Walker, The Mirage's race and sports book director.
The Mirage actually won some money on the game, despite having nearly a 3-1 ratio of tickets written on Denver, Walker said.
One unlucky bettor helped The Mirage by making a $500,000 money-line wager on the Packers.
Though the books lost most of their straight wagers, they beat bettors on parlays, proposition wagers and on the halftime line.
``We won on the props,'' Imperial Palace race and sports book director Jay Kornegay said. ``They more than got us out of the hole.''
The most successful prop for the Imperial Palace was whether there would be three consecutive scores. Nearly everybody bet on the ``no.''
After initial Green Bay money drove the opening number as high as -14, the books were bombarded with Broncos wagers until the weekend, when wagers on the Packers resumed.
``All the money Sunday was on Green Bay, but it wasn't enough to save us,'' Binion's Horseshoe sports book manager Nick Bogdanovich said. ``We had gotten so much money on Denver on the money line it was tough to fade.''
``We took a beating, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be,'' said Rob Terry, race and sports director of Sunset Station. ``The company took a lot of late Green Bay money to bring a diaster down to just a mild storm.''
