Sports Books Hope for Postseason : Las Vegas: Loss of regular-season games pales compared with $240 million that is bet on playoffs, Series.

Before the baseball season, when Las Vegas sports books posted the over-under line for regular-season victories, they also posted a disclaimer that teams must play 160 games to have action on that wager.

“Once a formal announcement is made as to the length of the season, then the determination will be made whether or not to refund, but obviously if 160 games are not played, money will be refunded,” said Vinny Magliulo, director of the race and sports book at Caesars Palace.

“The same with the pennant and World Series, if there is no postseason, than those monies will also be refunded.”

Meanwhile, Magliulo is taking bets on the triple-A International League. But he, along with other sports book operators, says there is little monetary impact on casinos with football already being played. Losing the postseason, though, would be costly, because 20% of the baseball handle, which was $240 million statewide last season, is bet during that time.

“Traditionally, we have not done well in the final month in baseball anyway,” said Art Manteris, director of race and sports operations at the Hilton and author of the book “Super Bookie.” “There are a lot of circumstances, teams are playing rookies or they are out of contention and it’s hard to keep track of what is going on.

“I would like to have the opportunity to book the World Series and lose the last month of the season.”

Last year there was more than a billion dollars legally bet in Las Vegas on sports. Overall, the casinos and race and sports books reported a profit of more than $6.6 billion. Of that amount, sports books, which exclude racing, won $85 million, with baseball accounting for more than $17 million and football for more than $36 million.

“I think, honestly, that betting on baseball is just a way to connect football seasons,” said Mike Tenay, a race book manager at the Gold Coast.