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At the Stardust, sports book director Bob Scucci offers the most attractive form of baseball wagering in the business. It's commonly called a 10-cent betting line, or a "dime line," and it keeps bookmakers on their toes, Scucci said. "It's certainly not something that's advantageous for us," Scucci said. "The dime line is more to the consumer's, or the bettor's, advantage." Dime lines are highly sought-after by baseball bettors, who see them as sports gambling's version of a Nordstrom red-dot sale -- an opportunity to wager at a hefty discount. In sports such as football and basketball, bettors are required to lay $1.10 for each $1 they want to win. That form of betting, the industry standard, is known as a 20-cent line. With a baseball dime line, however, the "vigorish" -- or bookmaker's commission -- is significantly reduced. Bettors can lay the equivalent of $1.05 for each $1 they want to win. Dime lines, then, are of considerable interest -- or at least they should be -- to gamblers who collectively wagered $378 million on baseball in Nevada sports books last year. That figure is 21 percent of the $1.8 billion wagered overall in the state's sports books, according to the Gaming Control Board. "If a person would always bet into a 10-cent line (rather than a 20-cent line), they would make out much better over the course of a season," said Michael Shackleford, a Las Vegas gaming consultant. Betting into a traditional 20-cent line, gamblers have to pick winners 52.4 percent of the time to overcome the vig and break even. Against a dime line like roulette strategie, they have to hit roughly 51.2 percent to break even. baccaratSo for many baseball bettors -- particularly those who are more skilled than a coin-flipper but not as talented as a professional gambler -- wagering into a dime line as opposed to a 20-cent line could make the difference between winning and losing money in a season.There are 17 distinct sports books in Las Vegas offering a dime line this baseball season. Five books are dealing a 15-cent line, and three are going with a 20-cent line. Of those offering a dime line, eight books deal the strongest version of a dime line, keeping it intact until the odds on the favored team reach the area of minus 180 to minus 200. Only then do they switch to a less favorable 15-cent line. From a numbers standpoint, these books should be considered the best places in town to bet baseball. They are: the Golden Nugget, the Stardust, Mandalay Bay, the Las Vegas Club, Casino MonteLago, El Cortez, Cal-Neva and the Coast properties. (Cal-Neva, based in Reno, has local outlets at the Tuscany and at Thirstbusters in Henderson. "It's not just whether a place has a dime line, but it's also important how far they take the dime line," said Shackleford. |
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