With Super Bowl LVII less than a week away, Arizona’s attorney general wants to make sure prospective bettors use legal sportsbooks.
Attorney General Kris Mayes wants residents to be on the lookout for scammers and other illegal betting options.
“While many Arizonans participate in legal sports betting, it is important to remember there are scammers out there trying to intercept your money and your personal information,” Mayes said. “If you bet on the Super Bowl, or any sporting event, make sure you are gambling on sports and not on whether an illegal sportsbook will steal your winnings.”
Responsible gambling and sports betting in Arizona
In addition to his message, Mayes provided a few things to look out for when placing a sports bet.
For starters, make sure the Arizona sports betting outlet of your choosing is licensed. There are 18 licensed operators to pick from, including DraftKings, FanDuel, Caesars and BetMGM (among others).
Additionally, keep an eye out for sportsbooks that lack security standards or any compliance with regulatory standards. A good number of illegal sportsbooks reside outside of the country. These are called offshore books, and are not subject to the same rules and regulations that licensed operators must follow.
Because of this, reliability has been an issue on those platforms. One of the largest offshore sportsbooks, for instance, went offline for more than two days in April 2022. The site said it was down for planned maintenance, but it never gave advanced notice to its customers.
Another good rule of thumb: If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. Suspicious activity should be reported to the Arizona Department of Gaming.
Arizona could see more than $60 million on Super Bowl 57 bets alone
PlayAZ predicts that Arizona could see roughly $63 million in Super Bowl betting this year. With 18 sportsbooks to choose from, there’s no shortage of options for the big game.
And each sportsbook offers countless bets outside of basic point spread, moneyline and point total wagers. Take Caesars, for instance. In an interview with FOX 10 Phoenix, David Grolman of Caesars said the sportsbook has more than 2,000 different ways to bet on the Super Bowl.
“We come out with a prop sheet with 600 different wagers,” he said. “Everything from, ‘will the coin flip be heads or tails?,’ to, ‘will the first score be a safety?’”
The 2023 Super Bowl could do wonders for the state’s economy as a whole, not just for its gambling sector. Early estimates are that the big game could bring $600 million to the state.
Arizona previously hosted a Super Bowl in 2015. That year, an Arizona State’s W.P. Carey School of Business study concluded the game resulted in a $700 million impact.
“(The 2015 Super Bowl) is the largest economic impact of any event ever held in the state of Arizona,” the release said.
Super Bowl LVII primed for plenty of wagers across the country
Projections indicate that sports bettors could wager more than $1.1 billion on Sunday’s big game.
Should that estimate prove true, Super Bowl LVII would stand as the most bet-upon championship in league history.
It makes sense, given the rise in sports betting nationally and its movement across the country. 33 states and Washington DC offer legal sports betting.
