Here’s what it’s like to bet on the Super Bowl
EVERETT — Last week, asEncore Boston Harbor celebrated the debut of legalized sports betting with a celeb-packed bash on its opulent gaming floor, it also — a bit more quietly — opened its doors to gamblers somewhere else: Inside the parking garage.
The space is called the Express Sportsbook, a small betting parlor next to 15-minute parking spaces where people can pull up and gamble on the go.
It’s somewhat of a surprising move for Encore, since the $2.6 billion resort — built to bring “glamour on a grand scale to the Mystic riverfront” — already opened the WynnBET Sportsbook inside, a place equipped with lounge seating, a full bar, and a 123-foot-long “video wall.”
So why have a spot to place bets inside of a generic-looking parking garage?
I wanted to see for myself.
Earlier this week, I hopped on a bike and pedaled to the casino to meet an Encore representative in the building’s concrete underbelly.
You can’t actually ride a bike to the Express Sportsbook, I quickly learned. You can, however, leave it in the casino’s interior bike lock-up, take an escalator to the gaming floor, and walk past 80 or so betting kiosks on the way to an elevator that takes you down to the B1 basement garage.
I may be the only person to ever get there this way. Eagergamblers arriving by car had a much easier time.
After driving up the casino’s winding driveway, motorists simply followed signs for the B1 garage, parked in designated 15-minute parking spots, hopped out of their car, placeda wager, then got back on the road with a bet slip in hand — all without ever setting foot in the casino itself.
It’s a process designed to be as quick and convenient as ordering an iced coffee at Dunkin’, albeit one without an actual drive-through.
Inside isa rectangular room about the size of a convenience store, with 20 digital betting kiosks and a handful of flatscreen TVs showing sports broadcasts. A security guard was on hand to check people’s IDs.
Despite its subterranean location, the design elements are similar to what you find upstairs, including wall art, floral carpeting, and velvet ropes connected to gold-plated stanchions. An Encore spokeswoman told me the intent was to “make it five-star down here, too.”
But what’s the thinking here? Wouldn’t the casino want to entice sports bettors to hang out upstairs, where they might grab a cocktail or try their hand at the slots?
One explanation could be that it’s a placeholder for bettors waiting for mobile sports betting to launch, which could begin on March 10, at 10 a.m.
The casino already has a “bring your own device” app, which people can use to make picks ahead of time, before scanning their phone at a kiosk and inserting some cash when they arrive.
By using the app, you can take all the time you need to concoct complex bets (playing around with it, I was able to prepare a long-shot, 18-way parlay that would pay out $1.2 billion on a $10 wager. I didn’t make the bet).
In essence, it’s mobile betting — just with the added requirement that you be there in person, even if it’s for 15 minutes or less.
Still, the spokeswoman said Encore plans to keep the garage kiosks open “long-term,” even when mobile apps are widely available.
Maybe it’s an option that appeals to people who want to place bets and then watch games from the comfort of their couch or local sports bar, but prefer using cash in person instead of firing up an app.
Or maybe the Express Sportsbook is a way forWynnBET to get customers used to betting with the brand, and then sticking with it by downloading their app later on.
That was the opinion of Les Bernal, national director of the group Stop Predatory Gambling, which dismissed the garage kiosks as merely a “lure” for smartphone betting.
Either way, for now, drive-up betting has found its audience.
Gamblers who showed up while I was there said they planned to use it often.
“It’s so easy,” said Aaron Boise, 22, who arrived from Hanover wearing a Celtics hoodie.
Before last week, Boise, who bets on sports regularly, had to travel to Rhode Island to do it.
“I was in and out in five minutes,” he said, as he walked through garage.
For some, the convenience has already inspired repeat trips. Kevin Sanchez, 29, of Mattapan, said he’d already been to the Express Sportsbook three times.
“If you just want to place a quick bet, this is perfect,” he said. “I love it.”
Jim Slayton, 45, who lives down the road in Melrose, said he came by on Tuesday to pick the Philadelphia Eagles to win the Super Bowl, but came back the next day to bet on them again.
“My wife wanted to put something down, too,” Slayton said.
Before I left, I made a wager of my own. I slid $20 into the machine and also bet on the Eagles winning. The kiosk spit out my ticket, and I was on my way. (If I’m right, I’ll be up $16. Cha-ching.)
With a car, I could have been in and out in about a minute flat. But I needed to get back to the bike storage, so the Encore rep and I decided to take a short cut on foot through the garage itself.
This ended up being a bad choice, as there were no sidewalks, forcing us to press against the garage walls to let cars pass by. Several minutes and few close calls later, I was back on the bike and headed home.
It may have been the least convenient trip possible to the most convenient legal betting option currently available. But at least now I had some skin in the big game.
