Las Vegas Advisor: 8 winners split $14M in football contest

What’s being touted as the largest prize in football-contest history, totaling $14,266,000, was split among eight winners of the Circa Survivor NFL handicapping contest. It’s a winner-take-all format, but all eight wound up with a 20-0 record in the NFL regular season to force the split, each winning $1,783,250. Going into the final week, there were 18 players remaining out of more than 14,000 entrants, but 10 of the teams selected lost, either on the last play of the game or in overtime. An additional $6 million, divided among several place winners, with $1 million going to the winner, was paid out in the Circa Millions contest.

Tapas restaurant taps: Julian Serrano Tapas at Aria will close permanently on Feb. 1. The restaurant has been a fixture at Aria since the casino opened in 2009. It’s the second Strip restaurant that the legendary chef has closed recently, following Bellagio’s Picasso. The replacement for Tapas will, reportedly, be announced in the coming months and open by the end of this year.

Big mahjong: The inaugural tournament of the World Mahjong Tour will be held at Luxor’s HyperX Arena on Feb. 2. There’s a combined prize pool of $100,000, and entry fees range from $50 to $300, depending on skill level. It’s not quite a $14 million football contest, but it highlights the popularity of mahjong that’s growing by leaps and bounds.

Question: What kind of record does it take to win one of the big season-long football contests?

Answer: As stated above, it took a 20-0 record to win the Survivor contest. This year’s winner of Millions, which requires picking five winners per week against the bookie’s point spread (more difficult than picking “straight-up”) went 60-26-4, just under a 70% clip.

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