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Man will get $1 million if Michigan State wins NCAA title

Derek Stevens laid down $20,000, betting on the Spartans to win with odds at 50-to-1.

By Doug G. Ware
If Michigan State wins the NCAA basketball championship, Las Vegas businessman Derek Stevens will win $1 million on a $20,000 bet he placed at the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino in December. Photo: UPI/Bill Greenblatt
If Michigan State wins the NCAA basketball championship, Las Vegas businessman Derek Stevens will win $1 million on a $20,000 bet he placed at the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino in December. Photo: UPI/Bill Greenblatt | License Photo

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LAS VEGAS, March 31 (UPI) -- If Michigan State advances to and wins the NCAA men's basketball national championship Monday, the team's players, coaches and fans may not be the tournament's biggest winners.

That distinction might just go to a very gutsy, very lucky Michigan fan -- despite the facts that his team didn't even play in this year's tournament, and the Spartans are a semi-hated rival of the Wolverines.

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Derek Stevens might be the biggest winner because a championship trophy for Michigan State would mean $1 million in cash for him.

During the first week of December, Stevens walked into the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and plunked down a very large bet. In fact, the bet was so large the Nugget's sportsbook had to call and get special permission from the casino's owner, Tilman Fertitta.

Stevens told sportsbook director Tony Miller that he wanted to make whatever bet was needed to ensure a payout of precisely $1 million. The requirement: $20,000 on Michigan State to win it all -- a 50-to-1 longshot.

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At the time and for weeks afterward, Stevens' bet seemed like a gift from heaven for Miller's sportsbook. The odds were quite long that Fertitta would ever have to even begin thinking about paying on such a colossal ticket.

When Stevens laid down the bet on Dec. 5, the Spartans were nursing a record of 5-3 and fresh off two straight losses to Kansas and Notre Dame. Around the end of the regular season, the Golden Nugget was still sitting quite pretty; Michigan State entered March with a 19-9 record.

Further, Michigan State received a modest 7-seed in the NCAA tournament. In other words, there were 24 other teams that the tournament's selection committee believed had a better chance to win the crown than the Spartans.

For the last three weeks, though, Tony Miller and Tilman Fertitta have started to sweat more and more.

"In my nine years at this sportsbook, I never accepted a bet that could result in us paying $1 million," Miller said in an ESPN report Tuesday. "This would be a massive loss for us."

Stevens, who owns two gaming establishments next to the Golden Nugget, is a regular customer at the Miller sportsbook. He bets there because under Nevada law, owners are not allowed to make bets in their own casinos.

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The University of Michigan alum said he typically places much smaller bets, but this time he wanted to do something more aggressive. In all, Stevens would collect $1,020,000 from the Golden Nugget if the Spartans keep winning -- when his $20,000 bet is added to the payout.

Stevens could also hedge his bet -- meaning he can alter the bet with the casino to ensure some winnings, but the payout would be far less than $1 million. Hedging is a way for casinos to minimize substantial losses and bettors to guarantee themselves a win no matter what happens.

Despite its mediocre 7-seed, Michigan State has so far behaved like a one or a two seed. It defeated 10-seed Georgia in the first round, 2-seed Virginia in the second, 3-seed Oklahoma in the Sweet 16, and needed overtime to beat 4-seed Louisville in the Elite Eight.

In order to make the championship game, Michigan State will have to beat 1-seed Duke on Saturday. To win the championship, the Spartans will have to beat either Kentucky or Wisconsin -- both of which are also a 1-seed.

Since the tournament began seeding teams in 1979, a team seeded 7 or lower has won the championship just twice -- No. 8 Villanova in 1985 and No. 7 Connecticut last year.

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"If I win, I'll give some bonus money to my employees," Stevens said. "I also want to give some money to the [Jerry] Tarkanian Basketball Academy, and the rest I will reinvest in my properties."

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