i remember it..... i think it was 2002. to my understanding one of the first years you could bet on the unlv games in vegas. a shit ton of wisconsin fans made the trip to LV, and bet the badgers so hard it moved up like 4 pts. wisconsin killing unlv in the 4 q, and just before the 5 minute mark, when games are official, 'somebody' hit a transformer near the stadium knocking out all the power. all bets cancelled.
this isn't gospel, but how i remember it.
this isn't gospel, but how i remember it.
The big losers in the controversy that continues to swirl around Saturday's UNLV-Wisconsin football game ultimately might be bettors who legally wager on college sports in Nevada.
The game at Sam Boyd Stadium was halted because of a power outage with 7:41 remaining and the Badgers ahead, 27-7.
Local politicians, sports book directors and professional gamblers say the controversy that followed might help resurrect congressional efforts to ban legalized betting on college sports in the state.
Nevada is the only state where college sports betting is legal.
Fans who bet on Wisconsin and thought they had won became outraged when they learned the game was not considered official by local sports books because it did not go at least 55 minutes.
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said he expects the outcry to be used by congressman such as U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz), who has worked hard to make betting on college sports illegal in Nevada.
Goodman said he has seen nothing to support charges that the power outage was staged. He said he had a bet on the game and, like hundreds of other bettors, got a refund of his ticket.
"Certainly, there was no fix," Goodman said. "Of course, that won't stop them from using it as fodder. It will be intellectually dishonest when they do that, but that's politics. It's unfortunate, but that's how the game is played, and they play hard."
Former U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan (D-Nev.), now a local attorney, said it is unlikely the bill will be resurrected in this session because Congress will adjourn in about a month.
Bryan said that, as a result, time is one of Nevada's biggest allies. He heaped praise on Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.) for the work they did to thwart an earlier bill, but said if the bill resurfaces it will be because of continuing pressure from the NCAA.
"The NCAA calls the college presidents in a particular state and gets them all to send a letter to Sen. X or Sen. Y saying that sports betting is corrupting our youth, etc., etc., etc.," Bryan said. "It's a fairly cheap date for them. There is no major constituency within those states who are overtly lobbying against that. There are certainly a lot of sports bettors within every state who see this and think it's crazy, and in my own view it drives illegal betting, but there is not a formidable, organized lobby to make the case against it.
"Most legislators were responding to a coach of nationally ranked teams, icons like Dean Smith and Lou Holtz and Joe Paterno, who say this is terrible. They just rally around the flag. When I was (in the Senate), not many of the legislators had thought this thing through. They get a college president and a famous coach coming out, and with no lobby on the other side, it's a pretty easy vote for them."
Many bettors actually fared better by having the game called. Those who wagered on parlays of three teams or more or who played teasers that included at least four teams might have benefited. Many parlay players had Wisconsin as one of their bets, and even if all other games were losers, they still have 90 days to claim a refund.
That, though, probably won't stop those who dispute Nevada Power's claim that the outage was caused by equipment failure, not human intervention. The implication is that representatives of Nevada sports books had something to with the outage because they were fearful of taking a big loss.
But professional bettors and sports book directors scoffed at that. At least three directors said the loss at the major books would have been no more than $20,000 and perhaps as low as $10,000, a pittance to casinos that take five-figure bets on football virtually every day.
Gaming Control Board member Scott Scherer said he knows of no plans to revisit the decision to permit betting on Nevada college teams. Betting on games involving college teams in Nevada became legal last year.
Though the controversy probably won't help the state's cause to defeat a bid to ban college sports betting, Scherer said that doesn't change his opinion of permitting bets on Nevada college teams.
He said UNLV and UNR haven't generated much betting attention, making it less likely someone would fix one such game.
"I really don't see much reason for concern because the handle on the games involving the Nevada schools has been very small," Scherer said. "If there were to be a fix, it would probably not be on games involving Nevada schools because the handle wouldn't justify it.
"I wouldn't expect licensees to be involved, that's for sure. I know there is a lot of talk among bettors who say the sports books took a beating, but that's relative. Taking a beating may mean different things to a guy betting $20 on a game and to a sports book in a large hotel casino."
Professional bettor Jimmy Vaccaro, once the state's most influential bookmaker when he was at The Mirage, called reports of a fix "completely, totally and absolutely ludicrous, a complete joke."
Vaccaro, who said he bet Wisconsin, found it absurd that some are calling on the Gaming Control Board to investigate the power outage.
"Mandalay Bay had the (expansion Houston) Texans at 25-1 to win the Super Bowl," Vaccaro said. "That should be investigated. How can they put a team that has an over-under wins of four up to win the Super Bowl at 25-1? That's a joke. It's like stealing money. If gaming wanted to investigate, it should investigate that. I wish this game had gone three more minutes, but it didn't, and we move on.
"This isn't the first time this has happened. It's happened occasionally over the years because of lightning and stuff like that. For anyone to suggest that something happened in this game just shows they know nothing about the business."
Eric St. Clair, race and sports book manager at the Rampart Casino, said he got a few bets as large as $2,000 on the game, but that most people have vastly overestimated the amount of money bet.
"As soon as I heard about the outage, my reaction was that people would say the books were up to something because there were millions of dollars at stake," St. Clair said. "You just can't get to millions with the kinds of figures we were booking. But people don't know that or don't want to know that. It's more fun to believe in a conspiracy."
The game at Sam Boyd Stadium was halted because of a power outage with 7:41 remaining and the Badgers ahead, 27-7.
Local politicians, sports book directors and professional gamblers say the controversy that followed might help resurrect congressional efforts to ban legalized betting on college sports in the state.
Nevada is the only state where college sports betting is legal.
Fans who bet on Wisconsin and thought they had won became outraged when they learned the game was not considered official by local sports books because it did not go at least 55 minutes.
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said he expects the outcry to be used by congressman such as U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz), who has worked hard to make betting on college sports illegal in Nevada.
Goodman said he has seen nothing to support charges that the power outage was staged. He said he had a bet on the game and, like hundreds of other bettors, got a refund of his ticket.
"Certainly, there was no fix," Goodman said. "Of course, that won't stop them from using it as fodder. It will be intellectually dishonest when they do that, but that's politics. It's unfortunate, but that's how the game is played, and they play hard."
Former U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan (D-Nev.), now a local attorney, said it is unlikely the bill will be resurrected in this session because Congress will adjourn in about a month.
Bryan said that, as a result, time is one of Nevada's biggest allies. He heaped praise on Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.) for the work they did to thwart an earlier bill, but said if the bill resurfaces it will be because of continuing pressure from the NCAA.
"The NCAA calls the college presidents in a particular state and gets them all to send a letter to Sen. X or Sen. Y saying that sports betting is corrupting our youth, etc., etc., etc.," Bryan said. "It's a fairly cheap date for them. There is no major constituency within those states who are overtly lobbying against that. There are certainly a lot of sports bettors within every state who see this and think it's crazy, and in my own view it drives illegal betting, but there is not a formidable, organized lobby to make the case against it.
"Most legislators were responding to a coach of nationally ranked teams, icons like Dean Smith and Lou Holtz and Joe Paterno, who say this is terrible. They just rally around the flag. When I was (in the Senate), not many of the legislators had thought this thing through. They get a college president and a famous coach coming out, and with no lobby on the other side, it's a pretty easy vote for them."
Many bettors actually fared better by having the game called. Those who wagered on parlays of three teams or more or who played teasers that included at least four teams might have benefited. Many parlay players had Wisconsin as one of their bets, and even if all other games were losers, they still have 90 days to claim a refund.
That, though, probably won't stop those who dispute Nevada Power's claim that the outage was caused by equipment failure, not human intervention. The implication is that representatives of Nevada sports books had something to with the outage because they were fearful of taking a big loss.
But professional bettors and sports book directors scoffed at that. At least three directors said the loss at the major books would have been no more than $20,000 and perhaps as low as $10,000, a pittance to casinos that take five-figure bets on football virtually every day.
Gaming Control Board member Scott Scherer said he knows of no plans to revisit the decision to permit betting on Nevada college teams. Betting on games involving college teams in Nevada became legal last year.
Though the controversy probably won't help the state's cause to defeat a bid to ban college sports betting, Scherer said that doesn't change his opinion of permitting bets on Nevada college teams.
He said UNLV and UNR haven't generated much betting attention, making it less likely someone would fix one such game.
"I really don't see much reason for concern because the handle on the games involving the Nevada schools has been very small," Scherer said. "If there were to be a fix, it would probably not be on games involving Nevada schools because the handle wouldn't justify it.
"I wouldn't expect licensees to be involved, that's for sure. I know there is a lot of talk among bettors who say the sports books took a beating, but that's relative. Taking a beating may mean different things to a guy betting $20 on a game and to a sports book in a large hotel casino."
Professional bettor Jimmy Vaccaro, once the state's most influential bookmaker when he was at The Mirage, called reports of a fix "completely, totally and absolutely ludicrous, a complete joke."
Vaccaro, who said he bet Wisconsin, found it absurd that some are calling on the Gaming Control Board to investigate the power outage.
"Mandalay Bay had the (expansion Houston) Texans at 25-1 to win the Super Bowl," Vaccaro said. "That should be investigated. How can they put a team that has an over-under wins of four up to win the Super Bowl at 25-1? That's a joke. It's like stealing money. If gaming wanted to investigate, it should investigate that. I wish this game had gone three more minutes, but it didn't, and we move on.
"This isn't the first time this has happened. It's happened occasionally over the years because of lightning and stuff like that. For anyone to suggest that something happened in this game just shows they know nothing about the business."
Eric St. Clair, race and sports book manager at the Rampart Casino, said he got a few bets as large as $2,000 on the game, but that most people have vastly overestimated the amount of money bet.
"As soon as I heard about the outage, my reaction was that people would say the books were up to something because there were millions of dollars at stake," St. Clair said. "You just can't get to millions with the kinds of figures we were booking. But people don't know that or don't want to know that. It's more fun to believe in a conspiracy."
Many bettors actually fared better by having the game called. Those who wagered on parlays of three teams or more or who played teasers that included at least four teams might have benefited. Many parlay players had Wisconsin as one of their bets, and even if all other games were losers, they still have 90 days to claim a refund.
ehhhh no?
ehhhh no?
[FONT=helvetica,arial]Equipment failure or ... ?[/FONT]
Gaming board looking into UNLV power snafu
[FONT=helvetica,arial]Posted: Monday September 02, 2002 9:05 PM[/FONT]
[FONT=helvetica,arial]Updated: Wednesday September 04, 2002 11:05 AM[/FONT]
[FONT=helvetica,arial]Barry Alvarez (left) and John Robinson made the final call to end Saturday night's game. AP[/FONT]
By Luke Winn, CNNSI.com
The Nevada Gaming Control Board plans to investigate the power outage that brought a premature end -- and triggered a wave of conspiracy theories -- to Wisconsin's 27-7 win over UNLV Aug. 31 in Las Vegas, says a board official.
"It's prudent for us to investigate at this point. [The Gaming Control Board] will look to see if there is any inappropriate action related to gambling," Gary Orton, the deputy chairman of the board's enforcement division, told CNNSI.com on Tuesday.
Orton said the board had received an unusually large number of complaints in the days following the game, mostly from bettors angry that Las Vegas sports books refused to honor what appeared to be successful wagers on Wisconsin.
However, the power outage occurred -- and the game ended -- with 7:41 left on the clock, two minutes and 41 seconds shy of the 55:00 minute mark that Las Vegas sports books require to make wagers on the game official. Game-week betting on Wisconsin had shifted the spread up from 3 to 7 points in the Badgers' favor, and the score was already 27-7 when the game was called. The over-under on the game ranged from 52 to 58.
"I've been here 22 years," Orton said, "and I can't recall a situation like this.
"Originally, I thought it was only a dispute about bettors not getting paid, but since then, I've heard some complaints that are suggesting conspiracy. However, at this point, it doesn't make sense to me that anything like that occurred."
CNNSI.com learned Monday that the outage was caused by an equipment failure at a power riser at approximately 9 p.m., 1 1/2 miles southeast of Sam Boyd Stadium, according to stadium director Daren Libonati and official reports from Nevada Power.
The Sunday edition of the Las Vegas *************** reported that the outage was the result of a car crashing into a transformer near the stadium. Conflicting reports from the paper, UNLV police and Metro police led to speculation about the real cause of the outage -- including foul play -- on Saturday and Sunday.
"There was never a car accident," Libonati told CNNSI.com on Monday. He said stadium staff members were in contact with Nevada Power within eight minutes of the outage, and had received confirmation of the equipment failure minutes before coaches John Robinson and Barry Alvarez agreed to officially end the game.
Nevada Power representative Edgar Patino dismissed any speculation about a betting-related conspiracy being behind the outage. "The equipment failure was not caused by humans or human intervention or sabotage. It was a bad splice within a cable at the riser. A plain, old equipment failure," he said.
These facts, combined with a misleading report from UNLV police Saturday night that cited a car accident as the reason for the outage, led to speculation about a potential conspiracy.
"It's just nonsense. You're dealing with a bunch of overexcited fans, who maybe made their first bet on the game, and they're just bitter," Libonati said. "But we [at UNLV] are bitter, too. We had an operation to run, and we wanted to finish the game."
UNLV associate sports information director Mark Wallington laughed at reports of a conspiracy. "The coaches didn't have to agree to end the game," he said. "The officials on the field actually wanted to continue, but [Robinson and Alvarez] made the final decision for the safety of the people there and the players."
"If I could have given them the security of going live again within five minutes. I think the game would have gone on," Libonati said. Two car accidents reportedly did occur in the area Saturday night, and Metro police in Henderson, Nev., had initially claimed one of the cars hit some power equipment, Patino said. UNLV police received this report and passed it on to media covering the game, which led to the erroneous Sunday newspaper report.
"I can assure you any accidents that did happen were not in any way related to the outage," Patino said.
Nevada Power repairmen arrived at the riser at 9:07 p.m. and were able to restore power to the stadium at 4:02 a.m.
Tom Vander Hof, who sets college football lines for Las Vegas Sports Consultants, dismissed any suggestion of foul play. "There isn't really much precedent for ending a game early, like they did, but I think if it hadn't happened [in Las Vegas], it wouldn't be such a big deal," he said.
Vander Hof explained the shift in the point spread -- toward Wisconsin -- in the days before the game as merely a result of a contingent of nearly 20,000 Badger fans making the trip to Las Vegas.
Art Manteris, the sports book director for Station Casinos in Las Vegas, told the *************** Saturday that a game had never ended "so close to the 55-minute cut-off." "It's a bizarre situation, one of the most bizarre in my years of bookmaking," he said. On Feb. 7, 2001, the Nevada Gaming Commission lifted a decades-old ban on betting on Nevada sports teams, including UNLV and Nevada-Reno.
Gaming board looking into UNLV power snafu
[FONT=helvetica,arial]Posted: Monday September 02, 2002 9:05 PM[/FONT]
[FONT=helvetica,arial]Updated: Wednesday September 04, 2002 11:05 AM[/FONT]
By Luke Winn, CNNSI.com
The Nevada Gaming Control Board plans to investigate the power outage that brought a premature end -- and triggered a wave of conspiracy theories -- to Wisconsin's 27-7 win over UNLV Aug. 31 in Las Vegas, says a board official.
"It's prudent for us to investigate at this point. [The Gaming Control Board] will look to see if there is any inappropriate action related to gambling," Gary Orton, the deputy chairman of the board's enforcement division, told CNNSI.com on Tuesday.
Orton said the board had received an unusually large number of complaints in the days following the game, mostly from bettors angry that Las Vegas sports books refused to honor what appeared to be successful wagers on Wisconsin.
However, the power outage occurred -- and the game ended -- with 7:41 left on the clock, two minutes and 41 seconds shy of the 55:00 minute mark that Las Vegas sports books require to make wagers on the game official. Game-week betting on Wisconsin had shifted the spread up from 3 to 7 points in the Badgers' favor, and the score was already 27-7 when the game was called. The over-under on the game ranged from 52 to 58.
"I've been here 22 years," Orton said, "and I can't recall a situation like this.
"Originally, I thought it was only a dispute about bettors not getting paid, but since then, I've heard some complaints that are suggesting conspiracy. However, at this point, it doesn't make sense to me that anything like that occurred."
CNNSI.com learned Monday that the outage was caused by an equipment failure at a power riser at approximately 9 p.m., 1 1/2 miles southeast of Sam Boyd Stadium, according to stadium director Daren Libonati and official reports from Nevada Power.
The Sunday edition of the Las Vegas *************** reported that the outage was the result of a car crashing into a transformer near the stadium. Conflicting reports from the paper, UNLV police and Metro police led to speculation about the real cause of the outage -- including foul play -- on Saturday and Sunday.
"There was never a car accident," Libonati told CNNSI.com on Monday. He said stadium staff members were in contact with Nevada Power within eight minutes of the outage, and had received confirmation of the equipment failure minutes before coaches John Robinson and Barry Alvarez agreed to officially end the game.
Nevada Power representative Edgar Patino dismissed any speculation about a betting-related conspiracy being behind the outage. "The equipment failure was not caused by humans or human intervention or sabotage. It was a bad splice within a cable at the riser. A plain, old equipment failure," he said.
These facts, combined with a misleading report from UNLV police Saturday night that cited a car accident as the reason for the outage, led to speculation about a potential conspiracy.
"It's just nonsense. You're dealing with a bunch of overexcited fans, who maybe made their first bet on the game, and they're just bitter," Libonati said. "But we [at UNLV] are bitter, too. We had an operation to run, and we wanted to finish the game."
UNLV associate sports information director Mark Wallington laughed at reports of a conspiracy. "The coaches didn't have to agree to end the game," he said. "The officials on the field actually wanted to continue, but [Robinson and Alvarez] made the final decision for the safety of the people there and the players."
"If I could have given them the security of going live again within five minutes. I think the game would have gone on," Libonati said. Two car accidents reportedly did occur in the area Saturday night, and Metro police in Henderson, Nev., had initially claimed one of the cars hit some power equipment, Patino said. UNLV police received this report and passed it on to media covering the game, which led to the erroneous Sunday newspaper report.
"I can assure you any accidents that did happen were not in any way related to the outage," Patino said.
Nevada Power repairmen arrived at the riser at 9:07 p.m. and were able to restore power to the stadium at 4:02 a.m.
Tom Vander Hof, who sets college football lines for Las Vegas Sports Consultants, dismissed any suggestion of foul play. "There isn't really much precedent for ending a game early, like they did, but I think if it hadn't happened [in Las Vegas], it wouldn't be such a big deal," he said.
Vander Hof explained the shift in the point spread -- toward Wisconsin -- in the days before the game as merely a result of a contingent of nearly 20,000 Badger fans making the trip to Las Vegas.
Art Manteris, the sports book director for Station Casinos in Las Vegas, told the *************** Saturday that a game had never ended "so close to the 55-minute cut-off." "It's a bizarre situation, one of the most bizarre in my years of bookmaking," he said. On Feb. 7, 2001, the Nevada Gaming Commission lifted a decades-old ban on betting on Nevada sports teams, including UNLV and Nevada-Reno.
the total not the side fueled the conspiracy more in the gambling world....BW had a huge bet on over and obviously that wasnt going to get there( i think the total was 58 or so it had also moved about 6 points up)) and joke of a relative of his driving a pickup truck into the transformer surfaced and has become folklore in the bookie world.......all i know is something "special" happened that night and saved the vegas resident a huge bet
