Wall of Madness

It’s overwhelming inside the sports betting parlor of the Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on the the first weekend of the NCAA college basketball national championship tournament. Eighteen giant TV screens are on a two story curved wall. Across from that wall is the wall with all the teams playing, and the various point spreads and odds in yellow, orange and red lights. There are dozens of low slung black arm chairs in a semi circle where bettors pay to sit, order drinks and watch every game simultaneously. They are surrounded by hundreds of standing bettors. Most everyone had a drink in one hand, a cell phone in the other, and a betting sheet. The room is pulsing with testosterone. The crowd seemed to be 98 per cent male. The few females included the waitresses who tried to navigate the crowd with small trays loaded with beers and cocktails. The men were all ages. Twenty and Thirtysomethings wearing backward baseball caps and college tee shirts, and middle aged men looking over their reading glasses at the betting sheets. You are at the center of the American sports betting world.

The NCAA tournament is a huge national event. The American Gambling Association estimates that $10 billion dollars will be bet on this year’s games. Nearly 25% of US adults take part in some sort of bracket pool. Workplace production is effected as people try to break away to check their phones or the neatest TV to watch the games. But in the Vegas Thunderdome, you’re caught up in the live crowd reaction. Suddenly, the crowd will roar and arms will fly in the air as a basket is made in one of the games that affects in the point spread, or puts an underdog ahead. It’s like watching a war on multiple fronts.

The NCAA tournament is different from the other big national sporting events. The NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl are spread over weeks, but all the teams compete against each other during the regular season at the same level. The NCAA tournament has schools from small conferences like 16 seed UMBC from the America East conference playing the number one seed Virgina from the ACC. A 16 seed had never beaten a number one seed until this weekend. It’s a chance for David to beat Goliath. The NBA and NHL playoffs drag on for months. The World Series is spread over seven games and ten days, but only an elimination game or a game seven raises the intensity. In the NCAAs, every game is a game seven, and they are spread over four days the first two weekends.

When we planned our trip to Vegas, we were looking to get out the cold Philadelphia weather, do some gambling and play golf. We didn’t make the connection to the dates of the tournament. But it turned out, I had a David in the fight. I went to St. Bonaventure University. The Bonnies have a long, great basketball tradition. I was there during the greatest season in their history. In the 1969-70, we had one of the best teams in the country, and the best player in country, 6-11 Bob Lanier. The tournament was very different then. The field was only 32 teams. The Bonnies weren’t even in a conference. Our dreams of a national championship crumbed to the floor, when Lanier suffered a knee injury in the Eastern Regional finals. We won and got to the Final Four, but couldn’t get past the semi-finals without Lanier.

The Bonnies are in the Atlantic 10 conference, and just completed their third 20 plus win season in a row. They lost in the second round of the conference tournament, but got a bid to play a play in game against UCLA. They won, and got to play Florida in the field of 64. So, I was excited to watch the Bonnies on the giant screen with a chance to advance for the first time in 48 years. They kept it close in the first half, even though they shot poorly. They were down by 5 points at halftime. We then walked back to Harrah’s Hotel where we were staying. Their sports betting area was slightly smaller, but their wall had 28 TVs. The second half started badly for the Bonnies, and only got worse. Florida was bigger and faster, and we couldn’t hit a shot and seemed to be rushing to catch up. While I was among hundreds of people, I felt as if I was the only one silently suffering. I’m sure most of the bettors there put their money on Florida and weren’t surprised by the result. They were probably paying more attention to closer games. While a last second shot that defeats your team hurts, a blowout crushes you slowly. As you watch the clock, you cling to hope that your team will rally, and roar back to win on that last second shot. That didn’t happen for me, as I watched my long shot team’s dream die. But, as the games progress through the next two weeks, there will be jubilation, and heartbreak for millions of other fans watching on their phones, their TVs, and for those who make the trip to the wall of madness.