Sports betting on college football debuted at the Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi on Saturday, September 1, the first day of the first weekend of college football. Sports betting analyst Danny Sheridan said, “This is SEC Country. They’re going to bet it like there’s not tomorrow.” Sports betting officially opened at Beau Rivage a few weeks earlier, on August 1, with a wager that golfer Justin Thomas would win the PGA championship (he finished six shots behind winner Brooks Koepka).
Just before kickoff, a 200-foot line had formed at the Beau Rivage’s seven ticket windows. Beau Rivage Sports Book Director Will Hall had expected this to happen and quickly set up an eighth ticket window for those wagering $500 or more. He said 1,670 bets were placed between 7-11 a.m., with 3,000 by 3 p.m. and 5,598 by close at 1 a.m. Sunday.
Jay Rood, vice president of race and sports at MGM Resorts International, Beau Rivage’s owners, said, “This is a start to football season the likes of what we have never seen before. SEC schools draw action.”
Mississippi lawmakers passed a law allowing sports betting prior to the Supreme Court’s decision to lift the federal ban. Within a few weeks of that ruling, at Beau Rivage, a former nightclub became a 245-seat sports book with more than two dozen televisions, including a theater-sized projection. The former dance floor now is a VIP section with nine leather couches, and more furniture is on the way, said Beau Rivage Vice President of Marketing Brandon Dardeau. “It didn’t show up in time, so we ran out and bought these. We wanted to get open and be the first. You always want to be the first. And we were.” A new $7 million sports book will be constructed after the Super Bowl, he said.
Imperial Palace’s sports book opened August 3, using an unoccupied corner of a sports bar for its 5-window counter. Hard Rock opened on August 17, creating a 3-window counter at the back of the casino floor and mounting monitors above it. Hard Rock Sports Book Manager Russell Schenk said, “This isn’t the final product.” The Golden Nugget’s sports book opened August 24, turning a video poker bar into a 5-window ticketing counter and hanging a bank of TVs in a former restaurant lounge.
The Golden Nugget also is the only Coast casino that offers betting kiosks: five in front of the ticket counter and a sixth is near the poker room. It’s expected that casinos soon will offer smartphone applications, as long as bets are made on-site.
Casino executives do not expect their sports books to be significant revenue streams. Slots and table games generate the most money. Hall estimated the house takes in an average of $3 for every $100 bet at a sports book. Golden Nugget General Manager Chett Harrison said bettors “come here and they eat and they drink and they might play a table game.”
