Betting on the Super Bowl: 200 options for customers to choose from

STATELINE - On Thursday afternoon at Harveys, Frank Jones is sitting at a small oval table. One of his hands is gripping a bottle of Heineken, the other is holding up two sheets of paper stapled together.

The document he is holding isn't your typical horse racing or daily betting sheet. It is the revered Super Bowl proposition sheet, displaying the various bets offered for Sunday's game between the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles. Jones, 65, has circled with a pencil every bet he likes. And he likes them all.

"I've been betting the Super Bowl since it first started," said Jones, a 65-year-old Santa Barbara resident. "I'm down overall. I've lost my wife and house and cars and jobs. Other than that, I'm doing good. This sheet has everything. I think you can even bet on the first person to go to the bathroom."

When it comes to prop bets, Jones isn't that far off. From who will win the coin flip to which quarterback will throw more touchdowns, from who will rush for more yards to which team will score first, you can almost bet on anything. In fact, you can even bet on something indirectly related to the Super Bowl.

Caesars Tahoe is offering bets such as this: Will the combined total of NBA star Tracy McGrady's points scored vs. the Lakers and New England quarterback's Tom Brady pass attempts be over or under 601Ú2?

Caesars and Harveys are offering the most variety of prop bets, with more than 200 different options for customers. The absurdity of it all is what keeps customers coming back for more.

"The biggest draw is that there are so many different things to bet on," said Steve Schorr, Harveys' full service games manager. "We try to make it as fun as possible and keep it interesting for the public. The Super Bowl attracts people who have never walked into a sports book before and to bet on the game. This is the single best event we have. Nothing else comes close."

Schorr guesses that a sports book's overall winning percentage is much higher for prop bets than the regular side bets, which included the over/under point total and spread. New England is currently favored by seven points over underdog Philadelphia, with the point total at 48.

"You do make a little bit more on the prop bets than you will on the game itself, just because some of them are a little bit more difficult than just betting a team to win or lose," said Schorr, who predicts Harveys will accept close to $1 million in Super Bowl bets this weekend. "But with these prop bets, you can have action all day long. If you go down this list, if you like to gamble, you're really having fun during the Super Bowl."

For Jones, this is what nudges him to start his individual pilgrimage each year to Nevada. He withdrew $500 from an ATM Thursday and plans on spending 80 percent of that money on prop bets. And while his wife has come and gone, as have cars and jobs, the Super Bowl has remained a constant.

"I'm making a comeback this year," Jones said. "You can't get this kind of stuff unless it's the Super Bowl. You get some stuff on Monday Night Football but not like this. It makes the entire game more exciting. It's what I like to do."