learned how to parlay pro football’s big game into big crowds and bigger profits long before the Strip landed Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium.
That stance rapidly changed in 2018 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, which essentially limited legal bookmaking to Nevada. Suddenly, the idea of legalizing, regulating — and taxing — an activity already practiced by millions became politically palatable. Today, 38 states and Washington, D.C., have legal sports betting, and the NFL is in partnership with casino corporations and online sports.
Small businesses are also benefiting from the NFL’s Business Connect program designed to help local diverse business owners compete for Super Bowl vendor contracts. “Not every service industry here is an industry that is going to directly participate in the Super Bowl or the events surrounding it,” Hill says, “but any time you raise the economy in the community, it reverberates at some level throughout the community.
The biggest winners on Super Bowl Sunday will almost surely be the Las Vegas sports books on a day when the expanding nation of legal bookmakers are expected to handle a record $1.5 billion in wagers, according to the American Gaming Association. Illegal gambling on the game is expected to exceed $23 billion.
In Las Vegas, Super Bowl weekend traditionally brings a dramatic increase in public and private security. Local law enforcement has greatly increased its presence and that includes the Metro Police Department Vice unit, which increasingly focuses on sex traffickers. Although visitors might be astonished given all the professional sexual encounters available in Las Vegas by phone and app, prostitution is illegal in Clark County.