Las Vegas
Las Vegas Even with the dark shadow of economic hardship and recession growing every day in America, Vegas sportsbooks have good news coming out of Super Bowl Sunday.

The Las Vegas Sun is reporting that this years numbers may be comparable to last year. Sources at the Las Vegas Hilton are saying that preliminary figures for Super Bowl XLIII are indicating that this year will come close to the $92 million from a year ago.

"We don't have all the numbers in yet, but early numbers indicate it should be similar to last year, which is a lot better than many had anticipated," said Jay Kornegay, executive director of the race and sportsbook. "It says a lot about the event. Despite some things being bad around us, people are willing
to forget that for awhile, put some money on the Super Bowl and enjoy the weekend."

In the gaming industry, the Super Bowl represents the first leg of the busiest time of the betting season. The Super Bowl, the Academy Awards, and March Madness are three of the gaming worlds largest money makers.

Betting on the Oscars on February 22nd is the single biggest one day non-sporting event bet on, while March Madness is spread over a few weeks beginning mid-March.

As for the Super Bowl game itself, the Steelers not covering the 6.5 points did not hurt sportsbooks as much as would be expected. Nearly 80 percent of money line bets were on the Cardinals to win outright.

This is another example of how gambling-related events can help boost an ailing economy.