Nevada casinos come out on top (barely) after scary Super Bowl Sunday
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Super Bowl Sunday was a rough day for sports books -- but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
Despite a high-scoring game and a decisive margin of victory by the favored Green Bay Packers, sports books won a little more than $724,000 on Super Bowl bets, the Nevada Gaming Control Board said Tuesday.
Gamblers wagered $87.5 million on the Green Bay Packers’ 31-25 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in 183 sports books across the state. Casinos kept less than 1% of that money.
It was the slimmest winning Super Bowl for casinos since 1998, when they won $472,000. But the casinos avoided only their second losing Super Bowl Sunday in the past 10 years -- they lost $2.57 million when the New York Giants upset the New England Patriots in 2008.
Mike Lawton, a research analyst with the control board, said some casinos ended up with moderate losses this year.
“There wasn’t anyone that lost anything mind-blowing,” he said. “I think we were really worried about it being a loss — it could have been worse.”
-- Chuck Schilken
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
