Day 6: Big Road Trip Takes on Vegas

By: Justin Thompson-Gee Facebook | Twitter

Posted: Jan 31, 2016 9:50 PM CDT

The CBS 58 Big Road Trip is slowly drawing to a close. After today there are only two more days of traveling and stories before a week of Super Bowl prep. Sunday was the only travel free day of the trip. After arriving in Las Vegas Saturday night at midnight (2 AM central time) we slept in before getting a start on our story for the day – betting on Super Bowl 50.

We went to two hotels, the Westgate and Mirage to see their Sportsbook and talk with managers and those betting about Super Bowl odds. It was very interesting to see the whole process of how they come up with betting numbers. I was astounded by the number of bets you can make on the game. No longer do you just bet on an over under or the final score, but now there are proposition bets, things like which player has the longest reception, how many touchdowns does someone score, first to score a touchdown, etc. As one of the managers said, it makes the game interesting for those betting even if it turns into a blowout.

So far at the Mirage, the biggest bet for Super Bowl 50 has been $500,000 in favor of the Panthers. The biggest bet they have ever taken was $2 Million two years ago on the Super Bowl. Although Vegas is relatively quiet now, everyone expects it to be rocking next weekend for Super Bowl 50. Some say that if you can’t be at the Super Bowl, Las Vegas is the next best place to be.

And for you Packers fans we learned that the bookies have been taking in the most money for people betting on the Packers to win the Super Bowl in 2017!

Now about Vegas - as someone who has never been to Las Vegas, when we drove in at midnight I was astounded. I knew it was extravagant, but I didn’t expect every detail to be a 10 out of 10. Every single thing counts in the hotels, the sidewalks are scraped clean and even the people are well dressed (we felt very under dressed walking in with jeans).

On Monday we hit the California traffic on our way to Los Angeles. Our stop in LA is the LA Coliseum, the home of Super Bowl I where the Packers won their first Super Bowl.