This year’s Super Bowl is in Miami after last year’s stop in Detroit, but there will still be plenty of action this year not far from Ford Field — across the river in Windsor.
Legends Sports Lounge, Casino Windsor’s sports betting venue, which allows legal bets on the biggest gambling event of the year, is braced for a big boost from the Super Bowl.
On Sunday, the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts won berths in Super Bowl XLI.
“Every time there is a playoff game, you’ll see our attendance peak,” said Holly Ward, a spokeswoman for Casino Windsor. “What Legends has done is offer a unique opportunity for sports fans in Michigan and elsewhere to come here.”
During the World Series, for example, patrons of Legends had to stand in line for two hours to place a bet, Ward said.
Since it opened last fall, about 80% of Legends’ business has been from Americans crossing into Canada to place bets. Ward said Casino Windsor has become a destination for sports gamblers from throughout the Midwest.
“Legends is really reaching a new kind of customer that we wouldn’t have attracted before,” Ward said.
Ward declined to provide attendance or revenue figures for the sports betting operation.
Windsor is uniquely situated among North America’s few legal sports betting venues. Unlike Las Vegas, which has none of its own big-time professional sports teams, and unlike a sports betting operation in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Legends is quickly accessible from a sports-obsessed major U.S. metro area.
Nevada offers the only legal sports book in the United States. The Oregon Legislature voted to end a lottery game after this season that allowed football gambling.
In Windsor, the opening of Legends was part of a $400-million renovation and expansion plan for Casino Windsor that began in 2005.
Visitors can bet on professional football, hockey and baseball, as well as college football and basketball — under Ontario Lottery rules that require combinations of bets. The minimum bet is $2 and the maximum is $1,000 per ticket.
The lounge is equipped with 36 televisions that broadcast sports from all over the world, Canada’s largest sports ticker and four outdoor heated smoking shelters. Smoking isn’t permitted in Ontario workplaces, which led to layoffs at the casino this summer.
One patron, Jody Hall, says he places bets on football and hockey every day.
“I spend $200 to $300 a day betting here,” Hall, a 35-year-old car salesman from Windsor, said Friday. “I’m definitely planning on making some money this weekend.”
Hall, who says the most he’s made on two bets is about $1,800, expects Super Bowl weekend to be even bigger than last year, when the casino saw 30,000 visitors, even without the sports book in place.
“This isn’t a traditional sports betting establishment,” he said. “It’s based on the Ontario Lottery, so I think a lot more people are going to be doing this come Super Bowl.”
Source Detroit Free Press