Flying Down to Rio for the Olympics? Don't Drink the Water!

News articles this Sunday are all full of dire warnings about the dangers facing tourists planning to enjoy the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro starting this Friday and running through August 21.  Copacabana Beach, Ipanema — paradise immortalized in film and song. Sun, sand, bikinis, waves crashing on the sandy shore - an alluring image of a tropical Eden - and a misleading one. 

Just days ahead of the Olympic Games the waterways of Rio de Janeiro are as filthy and uninviting as ever. Contaminated with raw human sewage, teeming with dangerous viruses and bacteria, and the site of occasional body parts washed up on shore, not only are the 1,400 aquatic athletes at risk of becoming violently ill in water competitions, but tourists also face potentially serious health risks on the golden beaches.  An AP study shows viral levels at up to 1.7 million times what would be considered worrisome in the US. At these concentrations, swimmers and athletes who ingest just three teaspoons of water are almost certain to be infected with viruses that can cause stomach and respiratory illnesses and more rarely heart and brain inflammation according to the Las Vegas Sun. 

Athletes have been taking precautions taking antibiotics, bleaching oars, and donning plastic suits and gloves to limit contact with the water.  But what about the 300,000 - 500,000 foreigners expected to descend on Rio for the Olympics. How will they contend with high bacterial levels and sewage pollution?  Experts advise “don’t put your head under water.”  Swimmers who cannot heed that advice and ingest water through their mouths and noses risk getting violently ill.  Babies and toddlers playing in the sand risk dehydration and contact with hazardous viruses.  Tests over a 12 month period show levels at Ipanema Beach, the city’s most popular tourist spot, exceed those  that would close a beach in Europe or the United States according to the SD Union Tribune. Locals have built up immunity to pathogens in raw waste, but visitors are likely to be at risk.

In Rio the rich live on the flats; the poor live on the hillsides. And the poor are so poor that most don’t have modern waste management systems. So garbage and sewage roll down the hillsides in murky creeks into the world’s largest septic tank.  Sailing, rowing, canoeing, kayaking, open water swimming, triathlon  — about 1000 athletes — are all affected.

This is the first time they Olympic games have been held in South America. Water woes are not the only problem Rio faces. Besides unsafe beaches there are budget cuts, subways that may or may not be finished in the next 4 days, pestilence, corruption, and the Zika virus.  Athletes Bob and Mike Bryan posted on Facebook  this weekend they will not be competing because of health reasons — two of many who have cited similar reasons for dropping out of the games.

It should be interesting. We’re about to find out.


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Thanks to Shamus for showing us what fun we can have Dancing in Rio.

Olympic Sports Betting Update

  It’s unanimous! Amateur sports regulations no longer ban betting on Olympic events at your favorite Nevada sportsbook. You can bring home the green in Vegas while your favorite USA athletes bring home the gold in Rio in August 2016.

  On February 24, I reported HERE Olympics that a group led by the South Point Casino sportsbook was lobbying the Nevada Gaming Commission to rule that the ban on non-collegiate amateur sports should not apply to Olympic events because of the professional status of most participants. As hoped, the Commission totally agreed. Two days later, on February 26, In a move unopposed by anyone in the industry, gambling regulators in Nevada voted to allow betting in Las Vegas sportsbooks on the 2016 Olympic Games. 

  Bookmaker William Hill has already released a mobile app with future odds for many of the events. His line for the USA to win in men’s basketball opened at -320. Usain Bolt’s chances of a gold medal for the 100 meter dash are -200. You can see other futures listed in the March 12 Las Vegas Sun article by Case Keefer HERE.

  Changes may eventually extend beyond Olympic sports. The commission amended the language in the regulations to specify that bets can be accepted only on events not likely to be affected by wagering. Also, there will not be betting on children’s events such as the Little League Baseball World Series. Keep in mind too, what we discussed in earlier posts about restrictions on internet betting and sports betting in all but four states currently. Nevada is hoping the 2016 summer Olympics will prove to be as financially successful for the casinos as the World Cup games were last summer. Here’s hoping they’ll be financially successful for you and me too!

Sports Betting and the 2016 Olympics

    If you like to gamble at your favorite local casino on slots and table games (and who doesn’t) I bet you wish you could place a bet on the World Series or the Super Bowl there as well. I know I do.
    Unfortunately, that isn’t likely to happen any time soon. Under the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), sometimes called the Bradly Act, Federal law made sports wagering illegal in all states except Nevada, Delaware, Oregon, and Montana. These four states were all grandfathered in because of wording in their state legislation allowing sports gambling at the time. New Jersey could have been added to that list. The state was given an eighteen month window to legalize sports betting and become the fifth state covered under the law, but it let its opportunity pass without acting. Regretting their missed opportunity, NJ repeatedly filed suit over the years since attempting to be added to the favored four to no avail. Recently the Supreme Court, by refusing to hear the New Jersey case, effectively ruled that any changes must now be legislative not judicial. So, Atlantic City won’t be accepting bets on sports teams anytime soon.

    It’s not just team sports like football and hockey, baseball and basketball that we Californians are unable to wager on at sport books. We can’t even play the ponies here in the Golden State except at the tracks.
    California has tried several times to make sports betting legal. In the most recent attempt, Senator Roderick Wright introduced California Senate Bill 190 seeking to allow sports betting at the California venues that allow legal gambling: tribal casinos, card rooms, and horse racing tracks.  The bill did not pass, dying in committee June 8, 2013. Even if it had passed, however, because of PASPA, action would have been required in Washington DC before it could be implemented.
    Most of the Californians I know visit Las Vegas when they want to bet on athletic events. The Vegas sports books can legally accept wagers on professional sporting events and college competitions, but not on non-collegiate amateur sports. This restriction is based on Nevada gaming regulation 22.120-1(a). The prohibition stems primarily from a compromise worked out with Senator John McCain to restrict betting on amateur sports to collegiate ones.

    Recently the Las Vegas sports books have questioned just what constitutes amateur sports. They question if the Olympics should even be considered amateur sports when teams are made up of professional athletes like LeBron James. Why should it be legal to bet on professional basketball and hockey players when playing for their home teams, but not be legal to bet on these same individuals when competing in the Olympics for their country? Are the Olympic athletes even amateurs when they are paid such large sums of money for product endorsement? Or when they earn comfortable livings playing these same games? Tough questions to answer.
    Starting in the 1970’s, requirements that players be amateurs have gradually been phased out of the Olympic Charter. After the 1988 games, the IOC decided to make all professional athletes eligible to compete. As of 2012, the only sports in which no professionals compete are boxing and wrestling, and some of those fighters receive cash prizes from their national committees.
    Vegas sport books have teamed up to lobby the Nevada Gaming Commission to allow betting on Olympic events in that state, hopefully in time for next year’s Summer Games in Rio. If the Commission gives its approval later this month, news sources report the IOC will monitor the change closely to safeguard the integrity of the competition. Proponents point out that Olympic betting is already common throughout the rest of the world, and that there have been no problems resulting from wagering on these sports.
     We’ll keep you posted when we learn more.

UPDATED 3-13-2015

   It’s unanimous! As of February 26th, Amateur sports regulations no longer ban betting on Olympic events at your favorite Nevada sportsbook. For more information and current betting odds, check out my updated blog entry HERE.