If you are going to play the game, you have to know the rules… even when they become complicated, even when they don’t make much sense.
Wagering on sports in legal in the State of Nevada if you can figure out how to do it and have patience. Tales of waiting in long lines and encountering surly wagering clerks abound. Las Vegas has never really been tops in customer service anyway.
Nowadays even the local guys, who have been living and wagering in Vegas for years, are looking for wagering alternatives. Some are openly critical of the way things are currently being done in “Sin City”… at least where getting a bet down on a game is concerned.
Sportsbooks in Nevada are required by law to post the house rules where players can see them. Patrons can even ask for their own copy of the rules at the wagering counter. The six page book of rules covers everything from teaser odds to rain-shortened baseball games and some are not so easy to figure out.
Jay Kornegay of the big LVH SuperBook in Las Vegas says, “Unfortunately, a lot of people just don’t know the rules. It’s kind of a buyer-beware situation, because you should know the rules that you are betting into. The point of our rules is to make it where it’s not subjective. We go by the rules. People always say, ‘You only did that because you were going to lose a ton.’ Of course, that’s not true. Whatever the rules are, that’s what we go by.”
Here are a few of the basics… just in case.
A football game, be it NFL or NCAA, must go 55 minutes to be considered action. Should the game be stopped for any reason, including weather, before the 55 minutes have been played, neither the sides or the totals are considered action.
For basketball, NBA games must last at least 43 minutes and NCAA games must go 35 minutes to be considered action. Hockey games must last 55 minutes.
In all Motor Sports, the listed driver must start the race for action. The wager is on the driver only, not the team or the car.
Baseball games must go 5 innings… or 4.5 innings if the home team is winning to be deemed official. However, Major League Baseball games must go the full 9 innings (8.5 if the home team is ahead) for run line and totals wagers to be considered action.
