This past Sunday, October 4th was a rare NFL Sunday in Las Vegas. Kickoff of gameday is always earlier in the western timezone, but not usually at the crack of dawn. Since the first game of the day was the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets game from London, England, gametime was at 6:30 a.m. Las Vegas time.
No, I was not up early enough for kickoff and I wasn’t pulling an all-nighter after waking up early on Saturday for my flight. I was up by halftime, but I talked with some Dolphins and Jets fans who were up, or never went to bed, and didn’t miss one second of the game.
NFL football kicks off at 10:00 a.m. normally in Las Vegas, and yes I had my seat to watch a bunch of games that involved teams I have no rooting interest in except for fantasy football and monetary reasons.
I spent the morning through the end of the 1:00 p.m. slate of games, 4:00 p.m. games to everyone back here in the Eastern time zone, at the Sports book at Bally’s hotel and casino.
It’s one of the bigger sports books along the Las Vegas strip and it is very popular among average sports fans who like myself don’t want to spend big bucks just to watch football.
Bally’s happens to be one of my favorite places to watch football on an NFL Sunday in Las Vegas. Their sports book has five movie screens that cover the length of the sports book, each one airing a different game.
You can be cheering with fans watching a big play happening on screen number one and arguing with the officials over a missed called on screen four at the same time. You see just about every team jersey represented by fans either just wanting to watch their team, or place bets on multiple games throughout the day.
Right across the way from the Bally’s sports book is a food court that offers a variety of football food options for a decent price considering it’s inside a Las Vegas casino.
Of course I can’t sit in a sports book watching football games without placing a couple of bets. In the early games from last Sunday, I put money on the Bills and Bengals.
Both teams were favorites at kickoff. Buffalo was minus six against the New York Giants. Cincinnati was minus three against the Kansas City Chiefs. The Bills lost so that bet was not so good, you usually don’t see the Vegas sports books miss a result by that much very often. The Bengals won easily and covered the spread.
So I am at five hundred with my betting so far, not great considering I was going to take Atlanta and I went with Buffalo instead. I doubled the number of bets for the later games. I went with Green Bay, Minnesota, Arizona and yes the Browns.
I’m sure you think I’m crazy but the Browns were getting five and a half points against the Chargers. That point spread was important because even though the Browns lost on the final play of the game 30-27, the Browns beat the spread and I won. I kept that quiet on social media because I know how many of my fellow Browns fans were very upset over the loss.
Believe it or not, I wasn’t the only Browns fan in attendance. One guy came up to me and said he used to live here in the Cleveland area and still calls into Cleveland sports talk radio every week from Las Vegas to talk Browns and all Cleveland sports.
He may have been, to put in gambling terms, bluffing me but I really didn’t care one way or the other. I was just glad I wasn’t the only Browns fans in the Bally’s sports book.
Along with the Browns, I also won with Green Bay and Minnesota. The Packers covered against San Francisco. The Vikings beat the spread against the Denver Broncos. So I finished the day with four wins in six games wagered. For me, who certainly isn’t a sports bettor, I am not complaining.
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