Anthony Curtis’ nationally syndicated weekly column.
February 2, 2011
Super Bowl Sunday is one of the biggest days of the year for Las Vegas and this year’s “Big Game”—as it’s officially called by the casinos to avoid problems with the NFL—figures to be extra big, with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers being two of the most “public” teams in the league. Still, this year’s betting “handle” is still not expected to surpass the 2006 record of $94.5 million. The city is virtually sold out, in keeping with its reputation as the second-best place to watch the game, with the first being at the game itself. It’s a close match-up, with the Packers favored by 2.5 points.
Classic Returns: The first of the Grand Cafés to return (after they were converted to Coco’s restaurants for a while) is now open at Palace Station and it’s putting on a big push to re-establish itself. Its anchor specials are a $9.99 12-ounce prime rib dinner (4-11 pm) and a $6.95 half-pound Angus cheeseburger and fries (24 hours). Both are good. Grand Cafés will also open at Sunset, Boulder, Santa Fe, and Texas Stations by the end of June.
New Irish Pub: A new Irish Pub called Ri Ra has been announced for Mandalay Place. It will join the Burger Bar and Hussong’s Cantina in the second-floor mini-mall that separates Mandalay Bay and Luxor, and is expected to open on St. Patrick’s Day.
Binion’s Bingo: After almost a decade’s hiatus, bingo is back at Binion’s Casino. It’s one of only two casinos offering the game downtown; the other is Vegas Club.
Question: Is there a national anthem proposition bet again for this year’s Super Bowl?
Answer: For the fourth year in a row, online sports books have put up a proposition on how long it will take to sing the national anthem. The over/under time is 1:54. Last year’s, sung by Carrie Underwood, lasted 1:47, but Christina Aguilera is expected to stretch it out a bit this year. That leads to another prop for how long she’ll hold the note on “brave” at the end of the song–over or under six seconds.
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