questions about going to vegas sportsbooks for first time

[crockpot]

i'm wondering about:

- what's the best way to make a reasonable-sized deposit at the book?

- if you said cash, how easy is it for me to go to my bank and ask for five figures in cash? i assume i should do this in vegas so i don't have to worry about losing it on the way. my bank is citibank.

- how much walking is involved in hopping between the major books to check lines? i've never been to the strip.

- are there any websites that have the major book odds posted? i'm mainly looking to bet obscure things like mlb futures and season wins, so the site needs to be comprehensive.

- speaking of mlb futures lines, anyone know if vegas books have them up yet? most of the gambling sites are very late on these this year, but i assume they'll come soon with the super bowl over.

- any clue what the book limits are on something like betting a team to win its division or the world series, or season win totals?

i think that's all, but i could be forgetting something. thanks in advance to those who reply.

[Performify]

You don't make a deposit at the book. you basically "buy" a ticket for whatever wagers you want to make at the time. You don't walk in and open an account or anything... its just a counter with a big board behind it with all the lines. You walk up and say "$100 on the yankees to win the pennant", hand them a c-note, they take the money and hand you a printed ticket with your bet and payout and a barcode on it.

There's quite a bit of room between casinos on the strip. Depends what you consider the majors. here's a map: http://www.lasvegasmaps.com/stripmap.html

Tropicana to Flamingo (Caesers to MGM) is a bit over a mile. Probably a mile and a quarter door to door.

The green tube on there is the monorail. buy a 10-trip pass or a 24-hour all you can ride pass if you're really going to be hopping a lot.

Its vegas. the bank isn't going to blink at you walking in and wanting to withdraw five figures, assuming the money is free and clear in your account. Citibank has a huge presence in Vegas, just locate a branch and take a cab.

[dankhank]

if you want to withdraw over 9.9k then do it in two seperate bank trips. less paperwork and no mandatory form submitted to the government whenever a person withdraws 10k or more.

[Thremp]

[ QUOTE ]
if you want to withdraw over 9.9k then do it in two seperate bank trips. less paperwork and no mandatory form submitted to the government whenever a person withdraws 10k or more.

[/ QUOTE ]

This will land you in jail and you'll have separate reports that get filed anyway.

[Performify]

Per Thremp, intentionally structuring transactions for the purpose of bypassing the 10k Suspicious Activity Reporting limit is indeed not recommended.

But if you pull out $5k one day and $5k cash the next, the bank's going to file a SAR anyways.

Maybe not a Vegas bank.... [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Thremp]

Yeah they'll file a SAR for skipping the 10k max. I forget what the other report is. But regardless it isn't a huge deal. If you're that worried, break it up over various locations/weeks.

[tippy]

Only 3 MLB futures were up that I could find last week. Just about every sportsbook had the odds to win the World series and the odds to win the NL/AL pennant and odds for each division. I went to Vegas and was hoping to get a bet in on my Cubs, but someone beat me to them. Opening odds for winning the WS were 75:1, but had fallen to 8:1 by last week. 8:1 just wasn't enough for me to bet the Cubs.
Even the odds of 3:2 for the Cubs winning their division were pretty crappy. I couldn't find any MLB futures for over/under on number of games won.

[crockpot]

[ QUOTE ]
Only 3 MLB futures were up that I could find last week. Just about every sportsbook had the odds to win the World series and the odds to win the NL/AL pennant and odds for each division. I went to Vegas and was hoping to get a bet in on my Cubs, but someone beat me to them. Opening odds for winning the WS were 75:1, but had fallen to 8:1 by last week. 8:1 just wasn't enough for me to bet the Cubs.
Even the odds of 3:2 for the Cubs winning their division were pretty crappy. I couldn't find any MLB futures for over/under on number of games won.

[/ QUOTE ]

any chance you remember odds for any other teams, or how they compared in general to the ones available online?

i have a check from pinny that i haven't deposited yet. if i ask for more than 10k of that in cash, will that send up a red flag? what if i withdrew 9k before leaving and another 9k in vegas?

[beetman]

I always get my money before I leave and keep it in a fanny pack. A trip bankroll of around 10k has always been sufficient for me and it's easy to keep that much in a fanny pack.

Re: walking around, you'll want to get a list of which books are owned by which companies so you avoid duplicating your effort. Leroy's, Harrah's, and MGM/Mirage's lines are all duplicated at a bunch of sportsbooks, ex. the Sahara, Hooters, and the Tropicana all have Leroy's outlets.

The strip itself is quite long, probably about 5 miles, and you'll do a lot more walking than that if you actually walk up and down the strip because a) crossing the streets often requires walking up stairs, crossing a bridge, and walking down stairs and b) most casino's sportsbooks are in the back of the casino, so you'll do a lot of walking inside the casino. And, some of the good books are a bit off the strip, i.e. the Palms and the Hilton. (Both have independent lines and are nice places to watch the games.)

Two things I've done to save time--1) use the monorail. An all-access monorail pass that's good for 72 hours is $45, and the monorail has 6 stops up and down the strip, including ones right inside certain casinos, including the Sahara, Hilton, and MGM Grand. When I was there last spring for the NCAA tourney, I got some NIT game +6 at the Hilton when everywhere else had +5.5 or +5. The game landed on the 6, so that one bet paid for the monorail pass and then some. 2) take advantage of free trams and shuttles. For ex. there's a free shuttle from the Barbary Coast to the Orleans (off-strip), shuttles that go to the Gold Coast (which I think is right across the street from the Palms), a shuttle from the convention center monorail stop to the Wynn, a tram between Mirage and Treasure Island, a tram between Mandalay Bay and Luxor, etc. A lot of the free shuttles just take you between properties owned by the same company (so those properties will have the same lines) but the shuttle might still save you time if you're going to a casino near one of the properties.

Re: websites with odds, Vegas Insider has some:

http://www.vegasinsider.com/nfl/odds/las-vegas/

There are links on that page for other sports. They have some future odds listed, but no MLB season wins. As a general rule of thumb, future odds in Las Vegas of the form "odds to win division" or "odds to win world series" are absolutely atrocious with a ridiculous hold. I don't know what odds are currently up or at what limits.

[youtalkfunny]

[ QUOTE ]
This will land you in jail

[/ QUOTE ]

Please name one person who "landed in jail" for withdrawing money from their bank account.

(EDIT: Wait a sec, I thought I had you on "ignore". How did I read this?)