Las Vegas sports books have become reliant on the NFL, and, in particular, the Super Bowl. Each year, more and more gamblers make their way to the sports books to place bets on the biggest sporting event in America. This year was no different, with sports books busy in the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl.

The outcome of the weekend was a good news, bad news situation for the sports books. The bad news was that the books failed to reach $100 million in bets. The good news? The books had their second highest handle in the history of the Super Bowl. Having $94 million in bets is something that most book executives were proud of, and a figure that was not so surprising to some gamblers that returned to Vegas Monday to pick up their winnings.

"If you think of how popular the NFL has become, with all the interest in fantasy football, it makes sense that the betting figure would rise each year," said Garret Burns, who was cashing in a $100 winning ticket for his bet on the Giants that he placed on Saturday evening. "I'm leaving tomorrow, so this is a great way for me to end my trip."

The highest betting total ever came back in 2006 when the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks played in Super Bowl XL. That year, sports books took $94,534,372 in bets, just over $600,000 more than this year's game between the Patriots and the Giants. This year's betting did top last season. The Super Bowl between Pittsburgh and Green Bay last year saw sports books take in $87,491,098.

The figures provided by the Nevada State Gaming Control Board do not include the billions of dollars that analysts estimate is bet at offshore sports books. Online sports betting has become popular overseas, and while soccer is still the preferred sport for most European and Asian gamblers, the Super Bowl is gaining popularity with these gamblers.