The topic of betting on the Olympics is back again, with the Sochi Winter Games begin this week, and while betting on the events will take place at sports books all over the world, you won’t find a single wagering option available on the Games here in Nevada. That’s because of a small stipulation in Nevada Gaming regulation 22.120-1(a) that states no wagers may be accepted or paid by any book on ‘any amateur non-collegiate sport or athletic event’.
That specifically means no betting on the Olympics, a prohibition that resulted from a trade off in early 2001, as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) attempted to take college sports off the boards in Nevada, which would have been a major blow to every casino’s business.
McCain’s campaign gained steam because of Nevada’s double standard of not offering odds on the state’s own two colleges, UNLV and Nevada. “Why should they offer odds on all the other colleges, considered amateur, when they don’t even take bets on their own teams,” McCain must have wondered.
As silly as the whole thing sounds now, he did have a point. So the Nevada Gaming Commission went to work immediately and changed its regulations to allow betting on Nevada colleges. It also made a few other amendments to the regulation, requiring books to report suspicious activities, such as a bet ‘being placed by, or on behalf of a coach or participant in that collegiate event’. We’re talking about it now, 13 years later, because the Olympics aren’t on any Las Vegas boards. There’s no telling how much would actually be wagered on the events throughout the state, but in addition to not being able to take action on the Games, there is also lost revenue with the NHL on a 15-day hiatus.
But defining ‘amateur non-collegiate sports of athletic events’ is problematic. While athletes are not paid by the International Olympic Committee, national organizing committees – the USOC, for example – often pay their athletes medal bonuses. And there are sponsorships and endorsements. Is snowboarder Shaun White really an amateur athlete with all his marketing deals? Of course not; nor are the NHL and NBA players who participate. But the “amateur” tag sticks, and the perception is the Nevada Gaming Commission is no hurry to challenge the status quo.
Wynn Las Vegas sports book director John Avello, however, disagrees with that perception: “Don’t think that the Nevada Gaming Control Board doesn’t want to be bothered,” said Avello, “because they do listen and want to do what’s best for the state, but they need to know every angle of each separate case. I would love to book (Olympic) hockey, and while I could probably prove that a large portion of the players are professional players, there are a handful of those players that are actually amateur that I might not be able to prove.” But for now, betting on the Olympics is not permitted
