March Madness In Las Vegas: An American Spectacle

LAS VEGAS, NV - "Let's go. You want to get booze at the gift shop?" a man asks his friend. The question is rhetorical. The friend follows behind silently.

The two walk past another man who looks up at a television screen and shouts an unprintable word. Then past 20 or so customers waiting in line at a pop-up hot dog stand, where two bustling vendors sling weenies for $1.25 apiece. The line is moving efficiently.

They head towards the gift shop, then disappear into a crowd of hundreds. It's a crowd people have traveled from all across the country to join. Virginia Tech, Villanova, San Diego State, North Carolina, Texas, Ohio State, and more. Sitting, standing, leaning against a nearby rail - most are scribbling a last minute note, looking for a bit of reassurance before it's time to place their bet, or bets, on a buffet of college basketball games.

The crowd is split between those waiting to bet $5 or $10 for fun, and those who have rent to pay. Those belonging to the latter will tell you they want to win, maybe even need to win this one. What they won't admit to is the masochism required to risk one's earned wages on the Wright State Raiders men's basketball team. For those unfortunate souls, they grimace and take a silent victory even when the Raiders don't cover the 11.5 points. There's no better time of the year than March to tease such a vice.

There are hundreds of empty beer bottles, but not one empty seat. Every eye in the room is fixated on the screens as a 19-year old drives the lane and...is fouled. He's going to the free throw line and the palpable tension in the room is suspended momentarily.

Something is undeniably American about this assortment, found at the sports book inside the South Point Casino in Las Vegas. It's Thursday morning, March 15, and it's the first day of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Americans are expected to wager over $10 billion on college basketball over the next three weeks, according to CNBC.

It's safe to say Las Vegas casinos are ready to supply for that demand. At South Point, oddsmakers labored to be the first one in Las Vegas to offer a line to bettors. The reason?

"Prestige," said Chris Andrews, Sports Book Director at South Point. As soon as the tournament's opening round matchups were announced, South Point wanted to be the first place to offer bettors a line.

"We tried to be first to market with the number," Andrews said. "We were first to market on almost every single game, a couple guys might have had us here and there."

Andrews said there wasn't much incentive to hustle like that, besides bragging rights around Las Vegas.

"Most of these guys are my friends running other joints too, so it's a friendly competition," Andrews said of other sports books around town. Don't get it mixed up though. "We're certainly businessmen, we try to outdo one another," he said.

Andrews has been in the business since 1979 and has seen the event transform into the billion dollar production it has become in 2018. He says this year could be the biggest one yet.

"When you take the entire tournament, it will be interesting to see what happens this year, because in the last couple years it's been bigger than the Super Bowl. But this year we broke records for the Super Bowl, so I hope it is indeed bigger. We'll find out," Andrews said.

What's changed about his job is the quality of the teams. A No. 16 seeded matches up better with a No.1 seeded team in 2018 better than they did 20 years ago. Top seeded Kansas was a 14-point favorite against Penn in this year's opening round, whereas 15 years ago they would have been a 30-point favorite, Andrews said.

"Those kind of teams, those lower level teams have been getting better and better. Plus more exposure, there's so many games on TV. People are now more aware of a team like UNC-Greensboro, where 20 or 30 year ago they wouldn't have seen them once on TV all year. Now you might see them a couple times and realize they're pretty good," Andrews said.

The Madness is real, but plenty of people are able to enjoy it casually; like Mike Munsell from Indiana, who flew into Las Vegas Wednesday afternoon and leaves Sunday night. March Madness, he said, was the perfect excuse to reunite with an old friend from high school.

"We get together once a year. He lives in Arizona, and it's a good time to meet in a common ground and spend some time away from the family and just get away," Munsell said.

Munsell's start to the tournament saw mixed results.

"The Miami under saved me for the first one," he said. "I lost Kansas at the end. I was disappointed, but I'm fine. It's not overly sophisticated, just here to have fun."

Andrews has seen the sports book's profile rise in the past year since renowned sports broadcaster, and gambling enthusiast, Brent Musburger retired to Las Vegas. Musburger records a daily radio show in a glass-encased studio at the South Point sports book, a few feet from where customers place their bets.

"I think it's helped tremendously," he said. "I think we're going to handle a lot more than we did last year.

Andrews is looking forward to what the ultimate total will say about this year's tournament.

"I'll have to see the numbers compared to last year. It seems busier, but maybe it's just, 365 days, I forgot how busy it was last year," he said.

Can you blame him? It's Madness out there.

Images via Lucas Thomas/Las Vegas Patch