Bettors’ Guide for the First Super Bowl in Las Vegas

The Big Game is in the gambling capital of the world for the first time ever. Read up on how to bet on it if you’re in Las Vegas this week for Super Bowl LVIII.

The Super Bowl is the single biggest betting event on the sports calendar and Las Vegas has long been a gambler’s paradise. The Big Game and Sin City are a match made in heaven — or at least in a Las Vegas chapel.

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to make the pilgrimage to Las Vegas this week for Super Bowl LVIII. If you’re among the Kansas City Chiefs supporters, San Francisco 49ers fans, Swifties or plain old sports enthusiasts who are headed to the oasis in the desert ahead of Sunday’s game at Allegiant Stadium, there are a few things you need to know before you hit The Strip with intentions of placing a wager.

Nevada is, of course, among the 39 states that offer legal sports betting -- it was the first to legalize it and the only one to offer it until 2018, when the floodgates opened. Online betting isn’t as straightforward in Nevada as it is in some other states, though.

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Bettors must register in-person at a casino before they can bet online. So if you want to throw $10 on Patrick Mahomes to win Super Bowl MVP at Caesars Sportsbook, you’ll first have to visit one of their Nevada locations to sign up and deposit funds — the same goes for other sportsbook apps and their brick-and-mortar counterparts.

FanDuel and DraftKings, the industry leaders in online sports betting, are not live for mobile betting in Nevada. FanDuel does, however, have a retail sportsbook at the Fremont Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

Of course, a huge part of the Las Vegas experience is walking into one of the iconic sportsbooks along the Strip and placing a bet in-person at the counter. But once you’re registered at a casino, you’re free to place mobile bets on the Big Game where it’s legal to do so.

That is, unless you’re an NFL player. Members of the Chiefs and 49ers are not permitted to engage in any form of gambling while in Las Vegas. And while visiting players from the league’s other 30 teams can play casino games, they are prohibited from betting on the NFL at any time and they are not even allowed to step foot in a sportsbook until after the Super Bowl is over.

The league has suspended multiple players over the last few years for violations of its gambling policies and the guidelines are clear for the first Super Bowl in Las Vegas.

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