Golden ticket not so golden anymore
The Monte Carlo sports book betting slip that Tyler Andrews holds showing the San Diego Chargers with 500-to-1 odds on winning the Super Bowl is no longer worth the paper it was printed.
Although Andrews' potential $10,000 payday went away when the Chargers lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers 35-24 in the AFC divisional playoff game Sunday, it was fun while it lasted.
Andrews, an attorney with the Las Vegas office of Greenberg Trauig, owned one of the "golden tickets" I wrote about in my Jan. 5 Las Vegas Business Press column. When the Chargers fell to 4-8 during the NFL season, MGM Mirage dropped the odds of preseason favorite San Diego winning the NFL championship to 500-to-1.
Andrews, a life-long Chargers fan, noticed the future odds while at the MGM Mirage-owned Monte Carlo. The team was 6-8 and getting ready to play Tampa Bay.
"It was like the sports book was saying, ‘your team has no mathematical chance of winning,'" Andrews said. "I thought it was worth the chance."
Andrews placed a $20 wager on the Chargers and spent the next few weeks dreaming about what he could buy with $10,000. The Chargers defeated Tampa Bay and Denver to reach the playoffs, then, knocked off Indianapolis to keep Andrews' dream alive.
But it ended Sunday.
Through a friendship with the son of Steelers defensive coach Dick Lebeau, Andrews landed a ticket for Sunday's game. He sat in freezing Heinz Field, wearing his powder blue Chargers Antonio Gates jersey among a throng of black and gold-clad Steelers fans. A friend snapped a photo of the dejected Andrews right after a muffed punt in the third quarter practically sealed the game for the Steelers and turned his "golden ticket" to ordinary paper.
"I still have the ticket," Andrews said. "It's not worth anything, but it's a fun thing to own."
