Las Vegas Odds on the 2011 Oscars: Not Yet

If you are looking in Las Vegas for odds on the 2011 Oscars, you won’t find them yet.  Oscar odds should be available by next year as the Nevada Gaming Commission has approved betting on nonsporting events under a supervised climate.  This process won’t be initiated for the next couple of months.  You might be able to bet on the 2011 Miss Universe pageant while in Vegas.

Both the Oscars and Miss Universe pageant are popular nonsporting events among online gamblers already with the Academy Awards considered the third most bet on single day event of the year.

“I think it will be good for the state,” said Cantor Gaming race and sportsbook director Mike Colbert in an interview with Covers.com. “I don’t think it’s going to add all that much revenue, but anything that creates more action I’m in favor of.”

If Web traffic is any indicator, it will be better than “good”, Gambling911.com Senior Editor Payton O’Brien notes.

“We have had years where the Oscars have even given the Super Bowl a run for its money,” O’Brien says.

Gary Kaplan, founder of what was once the largest bookmaker catering to the North American populous, BetOnSports.com, once called the Oscars “a mini Super Bowl”.

We had an opportunity to visit that now defunct establishment during its early years in Costa Rica during the Oscars. 

“Its call center was fully staffed with every phone ringing off the hook,” says Christopher Costigan, Publisher of the Gambling911.com website.  That was back in 1999.

“We’ll find out how far we can go with this soon and I feel good about that, but it’s not going to happen overnight,” Jimmy Vaccaro of Lucky’s Casino told Covers. “Make no grand illusions: We aren’t going to start doing this thing in three weeks.”

Betting on the 2011 Oscars is available at online gambling sites the likes of Bookmaker.com, which included odds on some of the more obscure categories like “Best Animation Film” and “Best Documentary”. 

- Jordan Bach, Gambling911.com