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Las Vegas Sportsbooks

A Las Vegas sportsbook is typically located in a separate area within a casino and it is equipped with a seating area in front of television monitors that telecast live sports events. This allows all bettors to receive information on the results of their events instantaneously.

Today there are roughly 150 licensed sportsbooks in the United States, all located in Nevada casinos. Now that many casinos share the same parent company, they offer the exact same wagering choices and odds, which is a disadvantage to the astute gambler who in the past could do more shopping for better prices.

In the 1950s the first Nevada sportsbooks, called Turf Clubs, opened. They were independent from the casinos, and had an informal agreement with the hotels that they would stay out of the casino business as long as the hotels stayed out of the sportsbook business. The sportsbooks had to pay a 10 percent tax so they charged a high vigorish to gamblers, but they still brought in a lot of business.

In 1974 the tax was lowered to 2 percent, (it was lowered to 0.25 percent in 1983), and in 1975 Frank Rosenthal, who ran the Stardust Casino, convinced legislators to allow them in the casinos, and soon nearly all of the casinos added them. The turf clubs were no longer able to compete and eventually all closed.

The Stardust sportsbook became the prototype for today's modern Las Vegas sportsbooks which has a plush environment with plenty of seating space and multiple television sets. Digital odds boards replaced the manually-operated chalkboards.

By the 1970s, sportsbooks were established in other Las Vegas casinos at a rapid pace.

Modern Las Vegas sportsbooks are usually equipped with:

Las Vegas Sportsbook Rules