NFL's rapid embrace of gambling sends mixed signals

This coming week, the players, coaches, fans and executives of the National Football League will gather for an event that was virtually unthinkable a decade ago: the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the United States.

Since the Supreme Court struck down a federal law in 2018 that effectively banned sports betting outside Nevada — a ban once supported by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell — the NFL has embraced the gambling industry. It has forged partnerships that are said to be worthwhile almost $1 billion for more than five years at sports betting companies, and had a sports book operate in one of its stadiums. Now it even has a team in Las Vegas, which has avoided the league for decades because any collaboration was seen as a threat to the integrity of the game.

Yet the rapid entrenchment of sports gambling in the culture of the league has resulted in shocking contradictions. The NFL aims to popularize and capitalize on sports betting while still guarding against the potential pitfalls it has long condemned. While the league donates money to promote responsible gambling, the broadcasts are peppered with advertisements for sports betting companies. The NFL is part of a growing apparatus that encourages casual fans to regularly bet on games while punishing league employees — especially players — who might do the same.

The NFL and other sports leagues “have moved quickly into this area, fully considering the revenue-related benefits of participating in sports gambling, but not necessarily thinking about everything that could go wrong,” said Marc Edelman, a law professor and sports director. ethics at Baruch College in New York.

“Even if it makes perfect sense to ban sports team employees from betting on the games,” Mr. Edelman added, “there is an undeniable level of cognitive dissonance” when NFL players and personnel regularly encounter content that encourages gambling , including signage in stadiums. and betting on NFL broadcasts while doing their job. The league's partnerships also give gambling companies the right to use the NFL logo in their marketing and be part of major NFL events.

The NFL says its position on sports betting, which is in line with the other major US sports leagues, has changed due to the changing legal landscape, and that working with gambling operators allows it to better protect the integrity of the game. However, as with many positions the NFL takes, the effects are magnified due to the league's cultural influence. The NFL is not only responding to the landscape, but helping to shape it.

Americans will have legally wagered more than $115 billion on sports in 2023, according to the American Gaming Association, the national trade group for the gambling industry. Nearly 25 million more Americans bet on sports last year than in 2018, the group said, and the number of states where sports betting is legal will rise to 38 this year.

Although figures for the NFL specifically are more difficult to analyze because not every state reports per sport or league, the gaming association referred to a market analysis by investment company Citizens JMP Securities. The report predicted that about $1.5 billion would be legally wagered on this Sunday's Super Bowl, more than 1 percent of the money legally wagered on all sports last year.

There is little data on whether the legalization of sports gambling has increased addictive behavior. But those who track the effects of gambling are concerned. The National Council on Problem Gambling said the survey data indicated an increasing risk of problem gambling for adult Americans in the three years after the federal ban on sports betting was lifted.

Dr. Marc Potenza, a psychiatrist and director of Yale's Center of Excellence in Gambling Research, described “a perfect storm” that could lead to some people developing a gambling problem. He cited factors such as relaxing regulations, the accessibility of mobile betting, heavy advertising and the amount of free time spent on sports. Particularly vulnerable are young men who value sports, Dr. Potenza said.

In 2021, the year the NFL inked deals with its three sportsbook partners, it gave the National Council on Problem Gambling a three-year, $6.2 million grant that was used in part to modernize the helpline that appears at the bottom of gambling ads. . The league's contribution is a small portion of what gambling companies pay to be part of the NFL's marketing apparatus, but it is the largest subsidy in the council's history and exceeds the nonprofit's total across the board. over the past four years, according to tax returns.

“We're in this now — we're in this business,” said Anna Isaacson, the NFL's senior vice president of social responsibility. “What can we do to ensure that we don't cause unnecessary additional damage?”

However, the league's approach to gambling violations within its own ranks remains punitive. For decades, sports leagues believed that gambling could damage the integrity of results – for example, due to concerns about a player throwing a game over a bet – so the emphasis was on enforcement and punishment rather than prevention and treatment.

The NFL prohibits league and team personnel from betting on any sport, while players are allowed to bet on sports other than the NFL as long as they do not do so at the team facility or during team or league activities. While in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl, members of the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers and the hundreds of league employees, many of whom are staying at Caesars Palace, are not allowed to play casino games and are only allowed to enter a sports book if they are there go through. to another part of the hotel.

The NFL said it educates 17,000 people annually about its policies, and last year, amid a wave of player suspensions, league officials began visiting teams to conduct personal training sessions with players. Players suspended for at least a full season are told that receiving counseling is one of the factors the league will consider when they apply for reinstatement. The league said it shared resources on responsible gambling during its training.

The NFL has not disclosed how many employees across the league have been disciplined under its gambling policy. The league had gone decades without player gambling violations before the Supreme Court ruling, but this season 10 players were disciplined, including seven who were banned for a season for betting on NFL games. In September, the league tightened penalties for players who bet on their own team, and reduced them for first-time offenders who bet on other sports while on the job.

Two former NFL employees fired in the past two years for policy violations said in interviews that they were not given the opportunity to rehabilitate and return to their jobs, as often happens for struggling league employees as substance abuse. The former employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of professional repercussions, said they were fired without severance or benefits.

One said the person was fired for betting less than $1,000 on the NFL and other sports four years earlier through a company that is now a league partner. The New York Times confirmed the details by reviewing a review of the former employee's account at the company. The other employee said one of the biggest concerns for the league seemed to be the possibility that any debt would be used as leverage against the employee.

Asked for comment on the dismissals, the NFL said in a statement: “We take any threat to the integrity of the game seriously, and violations of our gambling policies could result in the dismissal of personnel, who receive extensive training and other resources to assist in adhering to the policy.”

David Highhill, who was named the NFL's general manager of sports betting in 2022, said the top priority in writing and enforcing the league's gambling policy was preserving the integrity of the game.

However, the NFL audience sees a steady stream of advertisements from gambling companies. In response to fans' annoyance when FanDuel and DraftKings ads for so-called fantasy football — in which fans choose their own teams of NFL players — saturated game broadcasts in 2015, the league limited the number of sports betting ads to six per broadcast . it started accepting them in 2021.

Yet in each of the past three years, more Americans have seen sports betting advertisements during NFL games than on any other national television program, according to data from iSpot, a television measurement company. Three betting ads will appear during this year's Super Bowl broadcast, Mr. Highhill said.

During the week leading up to this Sunday's game, the business ties between the NFL and gambling companies will be on full display in Las Vegas. It's a booming business for the league, but it's a concern for those who have long fought to keep gambling away from professional sports.

“They would argue that they think it can be brought under control now,” said former Sen. Bill Bradley, a retired professional basketball player and a driving force behind the overturned 1992 law that effectively banned sports betting, referring to the NFL and other leagues. “And I just don't think it will be controlled. I think it will permeate the culture.”