Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale flew to Colorado to place a $3.4 million bet on the Bucs +3.5 in Sunday’s Super Bowl, joining the 23.2 million Americans who will be betting on the big game.
Covid is limiting the ability to place bets for some football enthusiasts without access to private planes able to fly to states that allow betting, the American Gaming Association expecting a 37% drop relative to last year.
Some of that decline is likely caused by a decrease in the number of casual bets and office pools because so many offices hollowed out this year.
“The number you are hearing may be low but it could be even higher offshore, because it’s all online bets anyway. The brick and mortar, which means in person, is going to drop heavily,” says Matt Severance, who runs the news desk for Sportsline.com and is a handicapper for the site.
Since last year’s Super Bowl seven more states/municipalities have opened up sports betting, however Texas is not among them: Colorado, Michigan, Montana, Virginia, Illinois, Tennessee and the District of Columbia.
“With Covid obviously there won’t be people going to books in person, but online betting is going to skyrocket. Some people lost their jobs and there’s not a lot of discretionary income, so it’s definitely going to go down,” Severance adds.
$4.3 billion is expected to be wagered this year, down from $6.8 billion last year.
photo: Getty Images