Betting in the US | What a sportsbooks looks like at US Casino's

So when you think of Nevada you think of, gambling what place do you immediately think of well I bet you most of you were thinking Las Vegas but there is also another place that's considered a bit of, a gambling capital and that is Reno Nevada so what brings me here well it's, difficult for somebody who is involved in gambling not to check out a town that was sort of has a big part of its history on gambling as well but also I've read loads of books from people like Ed Thorpe I also read a book called, the Newtonian casino where they plied their trades all around here so you know, just curiosity overwhelms me to come here and actually have a look and see, what it's all about but also I'm really interested to see what they do with. their sports betting side of things as well because it's very different over, here from the rest of the world and also you know they're quite ante online stuff as well so there was a casino along here somewhere I can remember which one it is. off top my head that was fined for linking to an online sports book so yeah, I want to check out and see what the sports books are like how they're run. inside the casinos you know you may find an opportunity probably not but I think, just out of curiosity it's worth having a look at how they do sports betting. over here so here's a little bit of history about Reno for you it was, founded during the gold rush era as a lot of towns were in California and. Nevada and a disillusioned gold worker gold miner a speculator however you want, to call him I was coming back across from California and from the mountains, realized that people needed to cross the Truckee River which is just behind me, here and built a toll bridge and that was pretty much the start of Reno Nevada, now from there he built an inn and the town started to develop from there and one of the things you realize around this area is that it's quite remote there isn't much around here especially you know you've got the mountains in one. direction and desert north south east and west and as a consequence and you. tend to find that it's a sort of place that people would probably stop on a, longer journey so it began to establish itself a little bit further from there now when the state of Nevada legalized gambling Reno stepped up to the plate I mean you're a sort of a town in the middle of nowhere you need to attract, people in and gambling was illegal in California so Reno saw the opportunity, it's right on the border very near to California to get a bit of custom over. the border as it were and they set up a number of casinos when the gambling was legalized and that's sort of how Reno made its name around that particular era. because people would travel in from across the state line and come here to have a little bit of again so when you visit all of these casinos. they're fairly similar in terms of the structure plenty of bars I was surprised. to find that you can actually smoke in Nevada I wasn't aware of that so that. was a bit of a surprise to me but there are also plenty of other surprises in. the casinos as well so you're trying to make a decision on how you would like to place a bet what's the best way to do it well have a few. beers and then place a bet from there so remarkably when you look at these casinos you can actually find gambling machines placed right on the bar to tempt you in a little bit away from the bar you have a more traditional casino with gaming tables that you'd expect to find but one of the things I didn't, expect to find was the prevalence of William Hill there were a significant. number of William Hill outlets in and around Reno and particularly as later, research would provide in Nevada itself so yeah obviously geared around the. sports book but they had a very significant presence and if you've never, seen a traditional sports book in the US this is what it looks like not like your. typical bookmakers back at home large screens desks and plenty of information, I'm scattered around all over the place all with the desire to tempt you into a.

bet but all of the slips you'd pick up basically from the William Hill counter and then you'd get the odds displayed on a large screen he may think that's familiar with the UK but of course in the US and you get them next to a bar so, yeah large screen with all of the sporting action on all of the odds and. then you pick up a coupon and go and place your bet much in the same manner. you would with a traditional bookmaker so outside that wasn't much in the way of shopping however it was very interesting to see that they had. convenient and placed a pawnbroker when you look at most of these casinos from the outside it's of stark contrasts to what you find on the inside from the outside a lot of these casinos really look pretty bland there's not an awful, lot going on and you tend to find that the casino has a lot of activity on the. lower floor and then as you go up through several different tiers there. are different forms of entertainment and available to you so yeah very different. when you look from the outside in here we're looking at downtown Reno and the. interesting thing to know here is as we pan across you can see what looks like a. variety of shops and apartments but ultimately this is all one giant casino. they're themed individually into individual different types of casinos. but you can actually walk through on the top floor between individual casinos, into different themed areas so I thought the move out of downtown and go to. pepper mill this is something that was recommended to me this looks a bit more. sort of legacy style in terms of being a huge hotel a spa and a casino so let's go inside have a look so peppermint is very similar to all of. the large casinos they are probably familiar with in places like Vegas very. very large floors absolutely stuffed full of gaming machines left right and. center and it's always something I've struggled with because gaming machines I struggle to see the appeal of really however when you go into those casinos they also have traditional games areas such as poker and blackjack but also very large restaurants so that if you wanted to do something other than semi gaming machine you can do that but the interesting thing is the dominance of, gaming machines in these style of casinos however the thing I was really. interested in was having a look that's the sports book and Peppermill had a very large sports battalion so there's plenty of information, available for people who are wagering at these sports books but there's you know, nothing particularly interesting you can scan a QR code and look at some more form in greater depth but a lot of these things are printed out on the individual. day I wondered whether there was an opportunity with the odds that were. being printed out to exploit some sort of form of arbitrage but the fact is the. was so large that wasn't really a distinct possibility but yeah it was. interesting to spend a bit of time here having a look at the markets from this perspective Oh so I'm hoping you can hear me but it's, actly so wait in here knowing that these people are the other people on the other side of bands really wait you come to places like this you see lots people gambling and for me gambling is about skill and judgment and you against others and if your skill and judgment is better than that then you would expect to earn money over a period of time which is exactly what I've done, for the last two decades and I get a lot of pleasure out of that I get a lot of pleasure of trying to solve those unsolvable problems and trying to really. get to grips with how I can overcome those issues and also do it better than. anybody else I you know I get a real sense of achievement out of doing that you know if I sat on a blackjack table I would probably enjoy that here because you know there is a demonstrable chance I could win it's me against the dealer. okay the odds aren't fantastic but the you know it is a potential win there so, I'd probably enjoy that I probably even enjoy sitting at a roulette wheel I know

that I would lose money but if I had some friends there and we're having a drink and a laugh I would probably enjoy that I'd be willing to pay for that experience but when you look at these machines down here these slot machines. these video games and variants they're off that we see here I mean these are, just out and out of money losers wouldn't gain any pleasure from sitting, down on their I tried to do it earlier and I just couldn't bring myself to do I. couldn't even put $1.00 in any of these machines because I just thought this is, pointless I don't understand why anybody would do this and yet when I was walking. the floor I saw somebody here that was playing two at the same time and I, wanted to jump in and just say stop you know you're gonna lose money twice as fast what are you doing are you stupid the more you play them and the longer, you play them the more money you're gonna lose and if you're having a bit of, alcohol and you're being sort of encouraged for want of a better word to. sit down for longer then it's just a one-way street and I don't understand or get pleasure or how understand how people get pleasure they obviously do the other words they wouldn't do it but for me I think gambling has always been, a case of a game of skill and trying to be your opponent and being. better than your opponent and that's where you're gonna get your edge that's, what I enjoy I don't enjoy just throwing money away for the sake of it so yeah not for me but maybe I'll I'll sit down at some of the tables and having previously learned many many moons ago how to card count I. could probably pick up a couple of decent opportunities on some of the tables but but it then again you know you could you still can't win over the. long term but I would actually enjoy the challenge of sitting at the table and, trying to do the best that I can so as I mentioned at the beginning of this video, Reno was one of the first places in Nevada to legalize gaming and gambling. of all sorts but obviously over time that sort of declined because not only did you have Vegas rise to prominence but you also have Indian reservations in, other areas where gambling can take place so you know it sort of went on the decline a little bit but when you come to places like pepper mill these are. much more like the sort of places that are likely to see in Vegas downtown Reno, is a bit old-fashioned it feels a bit dated to me but pepper mill feels very, much like a Vegas style casino but also there are other benefits to Reno as well. so you know if you if you go to Vegas you can go to the Grand Canyon but if, you go to Reno you can go to Lake Tahoe and the mountains that's around here so great for winter sports or in the summer you can go hiking I've been up to Lake Tahoe I've done a tour around the lake have done a bit of hiking been down to. the lake up a few mountains and just did all of those sort of things and in the winter obviously you can go skiing and snowboarding and stuff and there seem to. be an almost infinite number of ski runs around Lake Tahoe so you know well Reno. may not be Vegas in Vegas you go down a giant hole in the ground the Grand, Canyon but in Reno you can go up some spectacular mountains above a spectacular lake so I think you know Reno does have its benefits it's, may not be as big as Vegas now but certainly for people in California or a, little bit further north in Vegas I think it's a suitable determine if especially if you're into winter sports or you're into hiking where you fancy, going up some mountains or going on the lake the lake is big spectacular and I think you know you could probably get the benefit of doing that and nipping, down to Reno or coming into Reno I'm going up and doing that so a little bit. different from Vegas maybe not quite as spectacular but things like Peppermill are very similar and very familiar with people who've been to Vegas in terms of this sort of casinos that you're likely to see there so yeah that is arena Nevada you,