Casinos See Big Super Bowl Weekend

Las Vegas will get a much needed economic boost this weekend as 295,000 people are expected to watch NFL Super Bowl in Las Vegas. The fact that one of the teams is from the southwest may have helped the number of people coming to town.

The amount of visitors is expected to be down just 1-percent. In fact, almost three times as many people are expected here than will go to Tampa for the actual game.

Las Vegas sports books say they have seen a lot of money bet on the Arizona Cardinals. MGM Mirage Sports Book Director Jay Rood says that's because of how close Las Vegas is to Arizona. He expects the money bet on Pittsburgh to go up dramatically based on Steeler fans converging on Las Vegas.

The most important thing for casinos, restaurants, and workers around Las Vegas is for all of the fans, like Peter Shannon, to be spending money, "We got a lot of things organized. We are always trying to spend some money and have some fun -- get away from the real world for a little bit."

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority says the amount of visitors may be down just 1-percent, but the estimated amount they will spend in non-gaming revenue will be off 6.5-percent. That means close to the same amount of people as last year will buy cheaper dinners or maybe not see a show.

That's bad for our economy.

But there are a number of deals being offered. Hotels are offering restaurant coupons in hopes of getting more people in. Casinos say they underestimated the impact of New Year's Eve this year and hope the same phenomena happens -- the visitors spend more money than the LVCVA thought.

Betting on the game is also expected to be lower by about $2 million.

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