When you leave the hotel for the last time and head to the airport to catch your flight, you might have questions about the bet you made on the game. Did your team win or lose? Who cares, right? You’re going home either way, and you might as well have fun with it. But when you land in your home airport and look up the results of the game you just left, you’ll discover that it’s already over. The game has already been recorded, and the results are already in the public domain.
Although this might not seem like a big deal to you now, this was once considered big news. Not so many years ago, Vegas didn’t keep track of bets the same way we do today. If you placed a bet on a Saturday afternoon football game and didn’t check the results until Monday, you’d discover that your money was gone, because the casino will only honor bets up to a certain amount. This problem often caused havoc in the lives of football bettors, who’d frequently find themselves in financial difficulty. Even when they did win, the games were recorded as a loss, and they had to start all over again.
With sports betting being largely legal in Nevada and a growing industry in the state, this problem is less prominent nowadays. However, this doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s without problems. The point is that with proper planning and organization, you can ensure that these problems don’t occur and that your Vegas experience remains fun and profitable.
So who keeps track of bets in Vegas? Let’s take a look.
The Gaming Boards
Each game that is played in Vegas is tracked by a separate gaming board. For example, the sports book will keep track of all sports bets, while the casino will have separate boards for blackjack, poker, and roulette. These boards are generally made up of people who work for the casino, and they’re called gaming commissions because technically they regulate gambling in the state. They have the authority to shut down a casino for any reason, so there’s always the possibility that something might go wrong.
The gaming boards will receive a report from the casino nightly, and they’ll post the results of the day’s activities at the end of the month. This ensures that no one person or company has an unfair advantage over the others, because they’re all independently checking their own work. It also provides a level of transparency, and it prevents collusion between the different casinos. You might be wondering how collusion between casinos could happen, since they’re all independently operated. Well, if one casino was giving special treatment to certain clients or gambling openly against another, they’d be taking a huge risk of being caught by the gaming boards. Collusion is always a possibility when it comes to casinos, but it’s a risk that they’re willing to take for the sake of making a profit.
The States
Each state has its own set of regulations and restrictions when it comes to gambling. For instance, in Nevada you’re only allowed to bet on certain games, while in New Jersey you’re not allowed to bet at all. But the way the restrictions are enforced is often very different from state to state. Some states will put extra surveillance cameras in areas where gambling is allowed, while others may use pattern recognition software to flag bets made by known problem gamblers. The way the laws are enforced is often determined by the political environment of the state, and sometimes it depends on the mood of the regulators at the time. In some states, enforcing the law can be more of a hassle than avoiding prosecution because of the nature of the crime.
The Feds
The federal government also has a hand in regulating gambling. This is mostly done to ensure that the game is fair, especially when it comes to sports betting. Professional sports leagues and teams don’t really care about the legality of betting, as long as the integrity of the game is preserved. This is why you’ll frequently see them fight against states’ rights when it comes to sports gambling.
But there are ways to ensure fair play even when sports betting is totally legal. For example, NFL teams are mandated to release their roster to the public every week, and this makes it possible for people to follow the developments of the teams they’re interested in. Similarly, oddsmakers are legally required to list their bets on their public website, which provides transparency to the public. Finally, betting exchanges allow people to place bets with other professional bettors, ensuring that the results are always fair and that the competition is always kept high.
The Gaming Boards Are Key
The key to ensuring that your Vegas experience is as safe and profitable as possible is by understanding how the different gaming commissions in Nevada work. First of all, you need to make sure that you’re not violating any of their rules. But once you’re sure that you’re playing by the book, you need to educate yourself about what limits are in place and how they affect your activity. A lot of people assume that because something is legal that it must be safe or honest, but this isn’t always the case. For instance, you might be allowed to place a sports bet in Nevada, but that doesn’t mean the lines aren’t rigged or that the points aren’t being added manually by an off-camera employee.
Another thing to keep in mind is that laws are often changed without notice, so your best defense is to be aware of any updated regulations and restrictions that might come along. If you ignore the notices and stay in compliance, you’ll always be able to continue your activity in the state, but you might also find yourself in trouble for something that was previously legal. Not a pleasant position to be in when you’re already relying on the good faith of the state to allow you to conduct your business.
Where Do I Bet?
Nowadays, you don’t really have to go to Vegas to place a wager. The internet allows for quick and easy bets from anywhere, and this has opened up a huge world of opportunities for betting fans. Although watching games live in person is still the preferred method, you can get instant results and keep track of the scores from anywhere. And the best part is that you don’t have to worry about traveling to Vegas. With all the advantages that the internet offers, it’s clear why people are turning to online betting in such great numbers.
The main question is where do I bet? Well, if you’re looking for the biggest odds, you should probably look towards online betting markets, since they tend to offer the best prices. But if you want to keep an eye on the live action, you can always head to your local sports book and place a few bets there. The line at the sports book might not be the best, but it’s usually cheap and it provides the opportunity to bet on the go, if you’re traveling with a laptop. Whatever your reasons for liking or avoiding Vegas, you can bet with confidence that the legal side of gambling is well looked after, no matter where you are in the world. Nowadays, there’s no reason to go anywhere else when it comes to gambling. Vegas is just a click away.