Vegas bookmakers say at least $300 million changed hands with controversial NFL call

Sports bettors watch the screens in the race and sports book at Wynn Las Vegas, in this March 15, 2009 file photo taken in Las Vegas. / AP Photo/Isaac Brekken

(CBS/AP) LAS VEGAS - Las Vegas oddsmakers say $300 million or more changed hands worldwide on a controversial referee call that decided the Monday Night Football game between the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks.

Sports book chief Jay Kornegay said Tuesday that bettors at The LVH casino registered shock, some celebration, then anger when the outcome swung the game in favor of Seahawks bettors.

"We've seen regular refs blow calls. That's always been part of the sport," Kornegay said. "But this one was just a blatant bad call at the end of the game that decided the outcome of the game."

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The Seahawks won 14-12 after referees ruled that Seattle receiver Golden Tate came down with the ball in a pile of bodies in the end zone after a Hail Mary pass on the play's last game.

The Glantz-Culver line for the game opened favoring the Packers by 4?. Had the final play been ruled an interception — as many players, analysts and fans believed was the right call — Green Bay would have won by 5 points.

The officials ruled on the field that Tate had simultaneous possession with Green Bay safety M.D. Jennings, which counts as a reception. The NFL upheld the call on Tuesday.

Gambling expert RJ Bell of Las Vegas-based Pregame.com said an estimated two-thirds of bets worldwide were on the Packers, with about $150 million more bet on Green Bay than Seattle.

"Due to one call by the replacement refs, the bettors lost $150 million, and the bookie won $150 million for a total swing of $300 million on one debatably bad call," Bell said.

Mike Colbert, head oddsmaker for Cantor Gaming, which runs seven sports books in Las Vegas and provides betting lines to 90 percent of Nevada's casinos, said Cantor's books took in about 20 percent more money in bets than usual for a Monday night game after a wild weekend.

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NFL: Week 3

Colbert said that as an NFL fan, he felt for bettors who lost because of the play even though his sports books won money.

"When everything when down, I gotta tell you, I was absolutely sick to my stomach," Colbert said.

Casinos had already begun to react to replacement officials before Week 3 began, predicting the most scoring ever across the league.

Now, adjustments for replacement referees that were only talked about previously are being factored into betting lines, Colbert said.

"We've seen it now," Colbert said. "If we do see trends and we see bets, we'll move more aggressively than we did in the past."

Canadian journalist Glen McGregor said he received an email from Sportsbook.com, which decided to refund customers who had bet on Green Bay:

Such smart business: The refund notice from Sportsbook for last night's Packers officiating debacle.#NFL twitter.com/glen_mcgregor/...

— Glen McGregor (@glen_mcgregor) September 25, 2012

However, as Beyond the Bets reports, the refund apparently applied only to people outside the U.S.

[sjc_1]

$300 million could have fed 300,000 homeless kids for a year. I have NO sympathy what so ever for the gamblers.

[w_roos]

Time to end this stupid strike. Message to the NFL owners: take a couple of coins from your under sofa cushions and give 'em to the refs, and let's get back to real football again. This is past the point now of being ridiculous.

[Mick_from_Amsterdam]

When you stop to ponder the question, it would make a lot of sense for the bad guys to make a concerted effort toward bribing, intimidating or otherwise compromising inexperienced fill-in refs who, if indeed compromised, perhaps just haven't yet become adept at spotting that one critical call to quietly determine a game's point-spread outcome...so they might tend to make any hanky-panky appear more obvious.

Certain elements of the criminal fraternity would gladly pay staggering amounts...threaten and coerce countless loved ones...for far less of an edge than the tremendous, odds-busting advantage of owning the ref...remember, the replacements (and the unscrupulous bettors) both have an uncertain but definitely short window of opportunity to cash in on this potential windfall

Read the article...$300 million on one call?

Would that provide sufficient incentive to the wise guys and temptation for the refs?

You can...uh...BET on it

On the other hand...maybe they're just really inept...or suffering from rookie butterflies

After all...if being an NFL field official was that easy, EVERYBODY would be doing it

I'm not saying that any refs were actually co-opted...but if no attempts were made to somehow influence a few...certain goodfellas, edge-craving gamblers and other assorted miscreants should turn in their brass knuckles and remove themselves from goodfellahood in ignominious shame!

[bois-darc]

You pays your money and you takes your chances!

There is no such thing as a sure bet because most will not take the other side....

Do not gamble what you can not afford to lose; just as in the financial markets...

[no1blonde]

So what is it this article is implying? That the replacement refs fixed the game?

[idunnogal]

I never watch football and frankly, don't understand it very well. So being the naive one, it certainly appeared even to me this was an interception. money money

[Scimajor]

That's why it's called GAMBLING!

[hilario3]

Next will be a serious avoidable injury to a star player due to
the inexperienced refs. How many poorly called games will it take?
The worst game called is still coming up, these guys are just
getting worse and worse. NFL kingpins really did not think this
one through.

[jmn122736]

How much of that $3 million are the replacement ref's getting?

[jmn122736]

$300 Million

[w_roos]

The comish better watch out, or he might end up with a pair of cement shoes, several sizes too big. Who cares about the players, the media, and the fans -- it's the people in Vegas he oughta be worrying about.

[LtSmily]

The normal ref's get $150,000 per season for 16 games plus whoever gets the playoffs and the Superbowl, going to $200,000 per season in 2018 for 16 freaking Sunday (maybe a Monday or a Thursday night) games. The vast majority of them have jobs outside of their "football" careers. With an average football game lasting 3.2 hours, that is $8 shy (the average hourly wage of some football fans) of $3000 per hour during a 16 game season. Plus their salary for their "real" job. Besides it's the owners pressuring Goodell to NOT cave to elite pensions for a transfer to a 401K system. The owners know they have a "brand" and all the suckers out there will buy the shoes, jerseys, hats, and jackets that have their "brand" on it like good little sycophants. There is no football as a "sport" any longer, it's just a brand to sell $150 jerseys and $10 hotdogs to people who make $10 per hour and are not skilled enough to play for multi-million dollar contracts. Instead of ********, stop patronizing the owner's "brands". Stadiums are already funded by tax payers, so who the heck benefits from the pawns that go to watch these games? The Owners do, not the players, not the community, not the blue collar worker going to a -10 degree snowstorm in a January Green Bay playoff game.