To Nick DeAngelis, the best way to watch March Madness is with friends placing bets, drinking beers and talking smack for four days in Las Vegas.
Even though Mr. DeAngelis could have stayed home in Seattle and easily wagered on the college basketball tournament using gambling apps, he and his eight friends paid $10,000 to reserve two V.I.P. booths at Circa, the city’s largest sportsbook, to take in this month’s games.
“If I watched a buzzer-beater in my apartment, my excitement is me and my dog,” said Mr. DeAngelis.
Every year, thousands of gamblers flood Las Vegas for the opening games of the college basketball tournament with like-minded fans. The Super Bowl is still the city’s biggest one-day sporting event, but wagering on the college basketball tournament is greater by far.
Last year, gamblers in Nevada bet an estimated $466 million during the tournament, three times more than what was wagered on the Super Bowl. In interviews, owners of Las Vegas’s largest sportsbooks said they were confident this year’s wagering would surpass last year’s total.
Nationwide, gamblers are expected to bet up to $3.3 billion on this year’s tournament, which ends April 6, an increase of 54 percent in the past three years, according to the American Gaming Association.
The figures suggest that while people in most states can now bet on games using gambling apps, and betting on prediction markets like Kalshi continues to grow, Las Vegas remains a powerful draw to college basketball fans because of its concentration of casinos and anything goes entertainment. Until 2018, Nevada was the only state in the country with legal sports betting.
The influx of fans this year is providing a welcome boost to the city’s casinos, hotels and restaurants after a dismal 2025, when the number of visitors fell 7.5 percent, the worst annual decline outside of the pandemic since the Great Recession of 2008-2009. Foreign visitors, notably those from Canada and Asia, have stayed home or gone elsewhere because of the strong dollar and political tensions. Some domestic travelers have been scared off by rising prices.
This year got off to a rough start, too. In January, gambling revenue fell 11 percent on the Las Vegas Strip, and 5 percent at casinos in downtown Las Vegas, compared to the same month in 2025. Wagering on the Super Bowl in Nevada was its lowest in a decade, though sportsbooks say that was partly because the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks did not have the star power of past Super Bowl teams.
Sportsbooks, though, have seen no drop-off in demand for March Madness. John Murray, who runs the SuperBook at the Westgate hotel and casino, said many of his 2,400 seats were sold out weeks before the tournament. Fans in the nicest booths had to spend a minimum of $5,000 on food and beverage. Some paid $300 a day for reserved seats. Other fans camped out at desks reserved for people betting on horse racing as well.
Mitch Eden and his father, Robert, and his brother, Rob, came from St. Louis to watch the games and bet on horses. They often come to Las Vegas during football season, but this was their first time to visiting during March Madness.
“This was definitely a bucket list item,” Mitch Eden said. “This is far crazier, probably twice as many people” than during N.F.L. Sundays.
The Edens said visiting Las Vegas has become more expensive in recent years. Other gamblers were annoyed that many casinos now charge for parking, and the prices for food at restaurants on The Strip had increased.
The South Point Hotel, for one, has tapped into that anxiety. It does not charge admission to its sportsbook or exhibition hall, where buckets of six beers cost $20.
Tim Swift, who was visiting with his son from Houston, lined up at 5:45 a.m. on Thursday to get a seat when the doors opened at 8 a.m. Groups of fans shared tables, some with laptops open to their gambling strategies. Mr. Swift said the communal atmosphere, where fans wore shirts and jerseys of their favorite teams, is why he has returned during March Madness the past few years.
The March Madness crowds in Las Vegas are primarily made up of American men, including many college buddies and alumni from the schools in the tournament.
“It’s an Everyman environment, like the infield of a NASCAR race,” said Mr. Swift, wearing a red University of Houston sweater.
There is increasing competition, though. Sports betting apps like DraftKings, for example, have opened 30 sportsbooks in 14 states, including one in Scottsdale, Ariz., with more than 300 seats, 32 betting kiosks and six ticket windows.
Mr. Murray, at the SuperBook, said Las Vegas must do more to give gamblers a reason to visit the city. “People will come to March Madness, but the city as a whole has to realize people have other options,” he said. “So you have to make it a unique experience because now people can bet all over the country.”
Ken Belson is a Times reporter covering sports, power and money at the N.F.L. and other professional sports leagues.
The post Las Vegas Is Still a March Madness Mecca appeared first on New York Times.
