Sports books dodged a bullet with UNLV loss
Get a grip, Las Vegas. The UNLV Rebels lost a football game, nothing more. Granted, it was one they should have won — and for that they deserve a little egg on their face. Unless they can shore up the defense, I would guess they will lose a few more of these winnable games.
But let’s forget about the line or spread. It has nothing to do with how teams play. It’s for betting purposes, designed to bring money in on both sides of a proposition. But the yoke (pun definitely intended) is on the sport books for putting up a ridiculous number on a team that has struggled to win more than two games a season for the past six to eight seasons.
It would have been no laughing matter if the East Coast wiseguys had jumped on this game. That number was like blood in the water; the sharks should have been circling. A $100 Howard bet on the money line paid $5,500. A hundred grand bet returning $55 million would have broken the bank at most local hotels. Two hundred big ones could have bankrupted the town.
True, UNLV lost a football game. But this town could have lost a hell of a lot more.
