EDITORIAL: Las Vegas a boon for Super Bowl

The irony is apparently lost on Commissioner Roger Goodell and all the other high-ranking executives at the NFL’s New York headquarters, who are overseeing the final details of Sunday’s Super Bowl in the Big Apple: Las Vegas is the place to be on Super Bowl weekend.

The reason? Bettors of all types — the sharps and the squares, and even those who have never before stepped up to the betting window — can find something worth wagering on to make an already hugely appealing game even more entertaining.

Last year, the Super Bowl brought a record betting handle to Nevada: $98.9 million. It will be no surprise if this year’s handle is in that ballpark. This weekend’s projected numbers, courtesy of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, have 292,000 visitors making an estimated nongaming impact of nearly $114 million — both up from last year.

Indeed, Las Vegas’ legal betting bolsters the NFL’s brand.

The irony stems from the NFL’s public stance that sports betting and all things Las Vegas are bad, bad, bad. Privately, the league can’t wait for sports books to set the lines on huge games, because that’s what everybody talks about. Who’s the favorite, who’s the underdog, what’s the spread, what’s the total, and how about all those proposition bets? Such topics have been debated all over ESPN and every other sports TV and radio network in the country for the past two weeks — even on the NFL’s own channel.

Yet the NFL has taken steps in the past to prevent Las Vegas from advertising during the Super Bowl.

That has done absolutely nothing to curb the public’s desire to be in Nevada during Super Bowl weekend. With each passing year, as the NFL grows more and more popular, it becomes just as popular to head to Las Vegas, throw down some money on typical bets or any of the hundreds of props available, then party during the game at any of the city’s myriad books or other venues hosting, ahem, “Big Game” festivities. (The NFL won’t let casinos say “Super Bowl.”)

Jimmy Vaccaro, oddsmaker at the South Point and longtime veteran of the sports book scene, said he’s seen the tide turn tremendously over the past couple of decades. “Twenty-five years ago, if you’d asked 50 people if they’d rather go to the game or be in Las Vegas, 80 percent would probably say the game,” Mr. Vaccaro said. “Now, I’ll bet it’s a 50/50 proposition.”

The Super Bowl is the country’s favorite excuse to throw a party, and football is easily bettors’ favorite sport. That makes Las Vegas the perfect place to satisfy both urges. The NFL would do well to quit pretending otherwise.