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\tBy TODD DEWEY
\n\tLAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
\n\tWant to get down on the U.S.-Russia \u201cMiracle on Ice\u201d rematch or place a wager that the Jamaican bobsled team will win a medal at the Winter Olympics?<\/p>\n
\tBettors will have to go offshore to do so, because Nevada sports books aren\u2019t allowed to accept wagers on Olympic events.<\/p>\n
\tThe regulation was passed in 2000, when the Amateur Sports Integrity Act unsuccessfully sought a betting ban on college sports, which would have been a big blow to local books.<\/p>\n
\tAt about the same time, the Nevada Gaming Commission eliminated a double standard by allowing betting on the state\u2019s two colleges, UNLV and UNR.<\/p>\n
\tAs a result, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who championed the bill, had to settle for an Olympic betting ban.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt was something that we knew wasn\u2019t a significant concession because very little action was accepted on the previous Olympics,\u201d LVH sports book director Jay Kornegay said. \u201cBut we should revisit it again. It seems to be outdated, since the rest of the world is taking wagers on the Olympics.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIn my opinion, there\u2019s nothing wrong with accepting wagers on those type of events, especially ones that have a final score or a race \u2014 basically, anything outside of a judging event.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tWhen betting on the Olympics was allowed before 2000, Kornegay said besides the Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding figure skating controversy, hockey and basketball games attracted the most interest.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cAnd it wasn\u2019t even a significant amount of wagering,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only inquiries that we ever receive are for the hockey games.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAs for NHL games taking a 15-day hiatus from the betting boards for the Winter Games, Kornegay isn\u2019t concerned.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cFor us, it\u2019s a small number,\u201d he said of the amount of money wagered on the NHL. \u201cI don\u2019t mind not having it on the board. It\u2019s not going to make or break the month.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tWhile the Winter Games begin in earnest today in Sochi, Russia, the Olympic men\u2019s hockey tournament doesn\u2019t start until Wednesday, with the gold-medal game scheduled for Feb. 23.<\/p>\n
\tThe host Russians haven\u2019t struck hockey gold since 1992, but handicapper Alex Smith (axsmithsports.com) said he thinks that drought will end soon. His best bet is on Russia to win the gold medal (plus-225).<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe Russians are, by far, the best of the NHL-heavy rosters,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThey\u2019re the home country, and they\u2019ll be walking into packed arenas with everyone cheering for them.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe U.S. is the only challenge they really face, and they\u2019ve got the speed and skill advantage \u2014 and the larger ice, especially, will be a huge advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe international ice surface used at the Olympics is 15 feet wider than the ones used at NHL rinks. Smith expects Canada \u2014 the favorite, at plus-200, to win gold \u2014 and the U.S. (plus-600) to start sluggishly because of the expanded surface, travel, time difference and subpar accommodations.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIf any team settles in quicker, it will be Russia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\tWhile NHL-leading goal scorer Alex Ovechkin and two-time NHL scoring champion Evgeni Malkin will lead Russia\u2019s offense, Smith said he thinks goaltender Semyon Varlamov is the squad\u2019s biggest strength.<\/p>\n
\tThe Colorado Avalanche netminder has been dominant in international play, going 19-3 with a 1.95 goals-against average for the Russians.<\/p>\n
\tSmith\u2019s other best bet is on the Czech Republic \u2014 led by Jaromir Jagr \u2014 to win Group C (plus-220) over Sweden, Switzerland and Latvia.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cSweden has a lot of injuries, which is going to hurt them a lot, so I think the Czech Republic will jump in front of them to win Group C,\u201d said Smith, who predicts the Czech Republic will win the silver medal.<\/p>\n
\tSmith is picking Finland, led by Teemu Selanne, to win the bronze over Canada, which won the gold in Vancouver in 2010 when Sidney Crosby scored in overtime to beat the U.S.<\/p>\n
\tSmith advises betting on two prop bets at Bovada.lv: Will Finland win a medal? (yes, plus-175), and will Canada win a medal? (no, plus-275).<\/p>\n
\tThe Americans, led by Patrick Kane and Zach Parise, are in Group A with Russia \u2014 who they\u2019ll play at 7 a.m. PST on Feb. 15 \u2014 and even money to win a medal.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThey pretty much have to beat Russia,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI don\u2019t see any chance of them medaling.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAs for the Jamaican bobsled team, they\u2019re 50-1 to win a medal and plus-300 to crash the bobsled.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By TODD DEWEY LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL Want to get down on the U.S.-Russia \u201cMiracle on Ice\u201d rematch or place a wager that the Jamaican bobsled team will win a medal at the Winter Olympics? Bettors will have to go offshore…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}