Driving To The Championship Day 3: Las Vegas Prop Bets

CBS4's Jamie Leary is driving to California's Bay area with photographer Mike Abeyta for Super Bowl 50. They left from Denver early Monday morning will be filing reports about the Denver Broncos along the way.

Headed from Orem to Las Vegas was a haul, but as we approached the city skyline it gave us a little energy boost. We decided we needed an entrance pump-up song and fast so we settled on the "Naughty By Nature" Pandora station. For those who are unfamiliar, they are a 9's hip hop group. Both being children of the 90s, we know pretty much every word to every 90s song. The song that came on was perfect; "Jump!" By Kris Kross. As excited as were were to be in Vegas, we quickly tuckered out because it was almost 3AM. We were also a little curious as to how we would continue to inject as much personality into this Prop bet story as we have with our past stories. We knew it was going to be tough after the goat coats and Talon Peterson! We totally lucked out ... but I'll get to that in a minute.

Because we were in Las Vegas, many of my family and friends were of the opinion I was on a wonderful vacation filled with bright city lights and palm trees. We really tried to work in some play time but ultimately, it was once again, time to hit the ground running.

Since we both settled into our rooms at the MGM grand around 3:30AM we decided to meet around 10:30 for the breakfast buffet. I could not sleep so I went to the gym for what turned out to be a 15 minute run because my watch -- which I had synced to mountain time, reminded me that we had to get going.. I glanced up at the TV as I was finishing up and what did I see? The Goat Coat story on Fox! I took a second to text Mike and my family. I was so proud.

Then it was off to talk about Prop bets.

We walked into the Mirage to meet Jay Rood. The Vice President of Race and Sports. He explained to us what a prop bet actually was and I honestly had no idea they were so complicated. My understanding was that a prop bet entailed putting money down on silly things, like when a streaker will run across the field -- technically that is a prop bet but that kind of betting is illegal in the state of Nevada. Why? Because you can't bet on something that someone can influence. Makes total sense and while Jay said you can do this online, it's stupid because you stand to lose a lot of money this way. Prop bets are also much more complicated and while some are up to chance, many people do a lot of research. So how do a reporter and photographer visually tell this complicated betting story? Head out to the strip and hope for some Las Vegas luck. We found it.

It was like Ray and Cathy Freeberg were meant to be on the strip at that time. They were from WY but such loyal fans they had season tickets to the Broncos games and a box… They were actively participating in prop bets to make it even better. This couple had huge personalities. Ray laughed after every question I asked which made the story complete. This is exactly the kind of personality we were hoping to inject into the Prop bets story and again another situation where we could have done a documentary. Just like the Montrose goat family and Talon Peterson, the Peyton Manning boy.

We have been very lucky thus far. I was telling Mike how we were cash poor and friend rich. It was the perfect way to describe our 24 hours in Vegas because while CBS is paying our way to the Super Bowl, the little cash I put in the slots was gone in a second. I hope my mom doesn't read this ...

Mike opted out of the slots but this was his first time in Vegas so I convinced him to accompany me to throw a few bucks in. We walked around MGM asking people where the cheapest dollar slots were and we got some weird looks and not much direction. Guess who we did get direction from? This guy:

Yeah. We whipped out the selfie stick. But I wanted all 3 of us in the commemorative photo. After the photo I pulled out my dollar to win big at one of the machines and I ripped it in half. Our new friend gave me a new dollar to go lose at the slot machines. Broncos fans are great.

The selfie stick came in handy more than once in Las Vegas. Mike and I wanted a photo at the iconic "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign. I totally underestimated how popular this sign was. Not only was there a line to take pictures but there was a man with a microphone taking donations to take pictures for you. He had 2 showgirls with him also in case you wanted the whole nine yards. I am sure we got a few eye rolls as we set up our selfie stick. I was actually pretty embarrassed but we did it any way ... Turned out okay ...

Then I decided Peyton deserved to have his picture taken, too, so I gave the showgirls $10 and they agreed to give him a quick smooch. Vegas trip complete.