NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The Super Bowl game will bring more visitors to Las Vegas this weekend than to Houston, where the football championship is being played.
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But the estimated 275,000 visitors filling Las Vegas hotel and motel rooms won't necessarily be as big an economic boon for Sin City's casino and tourism industry as Houston's 250,000 expected visitors will be for that city.
That's because Houston will see about twice its normal number of tourists this weekend, while the weekend will be close to normal in Vegas. The estimated 91.7 percent occupancy rate in Vegas this weekend is actually a touch less than the 93 percent the city averaged over the last year.
Many of the visitors are obviously coming to place Super Bowl bets at the casinos, since Nevada is the only state with legal gambling on athletic events.
Estimates are that $70 million was wagered in the city on last year's game. This weekend also brings the National Automobile Association convention's estimated 30,000 visitors.
But the Super Bowl will make this weekend the single busiest day for the Las Vegas sports book -- the name for the city's sports betting operations -- although the first weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament produces more betting overall with 48 games to wager on.
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But the sports book is the least profitable segment of the casino industry.
Sports book operations earn from 2.9 cents to 4 cents per dollar wagered, compared to 8 cents per dollar wagered on slot machines, said legalized gaming expert Eugene Christiansen of Christiansen Capital Advisors.
The sports book probably is comparable to the casino's coffee shop in terms of profit per square foot, he added.
"That doesn't mean it's bad business -- if you look at the big (casinos), there's an awful lot of money spent on things that don't generate money at all," said Christiansen. "The large Nevada properties want to be all things to all people and provide this service to their gamblers."
The sports book is certain to make money when the same number of people bet on each team in the game. But the book is also at greater risk of losing money on the Super Bowl or other sports events than the casino is on games of pure chance.
Casinos won't give details of losses, but Scott Ghertner, director of sports and public relations for MGM Mirage, concedes that two years ago when the underdog New England Patriots won the game, "I can tell you that most of the sports books throughout town had a tough day."
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