ARIA In USC vs UTAH Sportsbook Payout Fiasco

 RateVegas posted on Monday, 12th September 2011 - 6:26 pm

I got an email from a VM user today asking why this story wasn't in the app (we usually don't include sports stuff) so clearly it's pissing some people off.

 Halton posted on Monday, 12th September 2011 - 6:53 pm

First of all, sportsbooks are often an important part of a Vegas trip and I'm not a sports fan. However, the fact is what do you do when you only have $20 left but need to kill some time? Sports. Take that $20 and you can have hours upon hours of fun. One thing to note is you don't actually have to be in the sportsbook to have fun. For example, if at Mandalay Bay, place your wager and then exit the sportsbook and go straight about 40 feet to House of Blues. There is happy hour from 3-6pm every day where you can get $2 domestic beers and watch the game from the bar. Bamm! Now that's gambling/drinking on the cheap but it's a nice crowd.

Oh yeah, back to the news. First of all, I found Aria's sportsbook and didn't trust it. It feels like someone said, "Hey, casinos on the strip have a sportsbook. Someone stick a sportsbook in that corner." Oh yeah, back to the news. This happens a lot in horse racing. After a race is finished and it is posted as "final," some sort of penalty can be seen but since judges determine it is final, usually just a few minutes after the race, tickets are paid. What's odd about this though is the league changed the score far after the game. It is 100% up to the sportsbook to decide whether or not to pay.

What we also know about this is Hilton wins the award for most player friendly sportsbook. They are paying everyone who already cashed Utah tickets PLUS anyone who had USC. Pretty cool.

 Halton posted on Monday, 12th September 2011 - 7:05 pm

Mirage also paid out both according to this: http://beyondthebets.com/2011/09/11/pac-12-office-changes-utah-usc-final-score-trojans-win-23-14-but-hold-your-tickets/

Wait...Mirage is MGM and so is Aria. I guess I assumed they all shared the same book. Guess I'm wrong.

 AccessVegas posted on Monday, 12th September 2011 - 8:25 pm

I'm a huge football fan and bet when I see good opportunity. College football introduced an entirely fucked-up rule this year:

If a team celebrates are taunts regarding a pending score (IE, the player has broken away on what will clearly be a touchdown run and he starts to celebrate or the team starts streaming on field) BEFORE the touchdown actually occurs, they take away the score.

That is what happened in this game as the USC team started streaming on the field after the blocked punt (makes sense, with no time left they knew that they had the victory) but before the ball being returned was across the end zone line and deemed a touchdown.

Up until this year, the play would have been flagged as a penalty but the score would have stood.

I agree with @Halton: Sports betting is about the cheapest form of entertainment there is. Even if you put $110 on a game (you must bet $110 to win $100), you're getting three hours of entertainment where you are hanging on every play. On top of that, you have a nearly 50% chance of winning your bet. Those of us who live here will sometimes make "TV bets" where we don't care about either team, but the game is on TV (like Monday night football), so we'll pick a side and toss down $44 and go along for the ride.

 Duffman posted on Tuesday, 13th September 2011 - 12:00 am

Along with what Access said, if you lay money you usually get free drinks. At least the last time, 2 years, I was there, Bellagio was giving out top shelf liquor and shots even for minimal or no bets.

 HarmyG posted on Tuesday, 13th September 2011 - 10:43 am

"I found Aria's sportsbook and didn't trust it" WTF?

 Rudemeister posted on Tuesday, 13th September 2011 - 12:50 pm

If I remember correctly, all MGM sportsbooks pay each other's wagers. Theoretically, could someone go to Mirage and have them payoff an Aria wager that Aria wouldn't honor?

 Halton posted on Tuesday, 13th September 2011 - 1:47 pm

@HarmyG, that came out wrong. I didn't mean to imply they were dishonest. Referring to my subsequent sentence, I didn't trust it was right for me or I would have a good time.

 jinx73 posted on Tuesday, 13th September 2011 - 2:00 pm

Rudemeister, to my knowledge, no you can't cash a sportsbook ticket at another resort located in the same corporate family. Similar to a slot ticket.

 BillDonovan posted on Tuesday, 13th September 2011 - 8:13 pm

We eat, sleep, and breath sportsbook gambling, and this has actually happened before, (engaging the way back machine), where a disputed call in a b-ball game resulted in the book paying out one side of the ticket, then reversing course and paying out the other shortly thereafter. If you weren't in the sports book when it happened, you missed it.
Note, love the new college rules to try to stop the excessive or early celebrating. Do Love it when the players celebrate with their teammates. Hate it when they look at the crowd and do a dance by themselves looking for individual recognition.
It seems that so many players these days are more interested in looking at the crowds and sticking their arms up in the air and starting a dance. And they do this at every opportunity during the game that they can come up with. And they even start celebrating, on the way to a score, before they actually do score. Which is ridiculous. In football, someone makes a catch, or makes a tackle, or makes a 1st down, and the player immediately jumps up and runs off away from everyone for a celebration, with gestures and dances that basically just scream "Look at me! Look at me!" And the NCAA is trying to stop those kinds of things, and we agree with this. Football, basketball are supposed to be team sports.

 sctrojan22 posted on Thursday, 15th September 2011 - 12:04 am

Hey there. I was the one tweeting it over the weekend, my twitter handle is @sctrojan22 (you guys forgot the 22 on the article above) and it is slightly more complicated than what is described. I have written letters to Mr. Jay Rood, VP of Sports and Race book at Mirage (in charge of all MGM sports books). I am also the one quoted in Oskar's article above. I also have formally complained to the Nevada Gaming Control Board and they have opened an investigation. Mirage Sports Books have a "house rule" that says that they don't accept "overturned decisions" for games. What my biggest argument is, is that the score was never changed or "overturned." The refs of the game said that the final touchdown counted, saw the score on the scoreboard when they went off the field, but someone in the press box took the points off for some unknown reason. The refs wrote the game report with the 23-14 score and later learned that the media had been reporting it as 17-14 and let them know it was wrong. It is throughly discussed in this LA Times article: http://www.latimes.com/sports/college/usc/la-sp-0913-usc-football-20110913,0,1391158.story and I fully intend on taking this as far as it has to go so that I get paid. God knows that the casinos already have house odds on everything without them looking to make up their own rules after the fact, too!