Nevada bookmakers are Super Bowl losers, too

Not only did the Giants upset the Patriots in Sunday’s Super Bowl, the New York football players and their betting fans upset the bookies, too.

Nevada gambling regulators report that the state’s sports betting operations lost a record $2.6 million on Super Bowl XLII.

Jay Kornegay, the executive director of the Las Vegas Hilton race
and sports book, told the Associated Press that "the anticipated large wagers that we expected on the
Patriots just never materialized."

The sports book losses took several forms:

• Some bettors picked the Giants to win outright on the "money line," taking home payouts of up to $475 for every $100 wagered.
• Other gamblers took the Giants plus 12 points; they won roughly even money.
• Another big segment bet a two-way parlay that the Giants would cover
  with the point spread and that the total points scored in Sunday’s
  game would be under 54. That payoff was more than 2.5 times the bet.

The total amount bet at Nevada’s 174 sports books was $92.1 million,
the third-highest amount ever, but down for the second consecutive year
after a record $94.5 million was bet in 2006.

The last time the casinos lost money on the Super Bowl was in 1995,
when the San Francisco 49ers blew out the San Diego Chargers, 49-26. That year Nevada books lost $400,000, according to the state’s Gaming Control Board.

Even if you adjust if for inflation, I’m betting that the ’95 loss is no where near the beating bookmakers took this year.

Read more about the tough times for Vegas, Reno and other Nevada sports book operations at Reuters, the Los Angeles Times, Casino Gambling Web, Bloomberg, Gambling911, the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Las Vegas Sun.

Sharing with the IRS: As I mentioned pregame last week (here), gambling winnings are taxable federal (and in most cases, state) income. So before you spend all of your big payout, take some time to make tax plans so you don’t find yourself owing a big 2008 IRS bill.

If you were one of the big Nevada winners, next year about this time you’ll be getting a Form W-2G detailing your good fortune.

But before that arrives, you might want to think about making estimated tax payments to report your unexpected income and pay the taxes on it in a timely fashion.

OK, I apologize. It wasn’t unexpected; you knew the Giants were going to win.

And if you continue to bet in 2008, keep track of your losses as well. You can use the bad days at the casino, poker table or horse track and even those losing lottery tickets to offset your big winnings and lower your tax bill a bit.

This story has a bit more on the ins and outs of reporting your gambling winnings.