Now that the Raiders are headed to Las Vegas, the question on everyone’s mind is what the NFL intends to do about gambling.
Based on comments made by a couple NFL owners before the vote went down, it appears the league isn’t concerned about being so close in proximity to one of the biggest gaming hubs in the world.
“The first question, naturally, is going to be about gambling,” an NFC owner said, per Albert Breer of The MMQB. But any of us can pull our phones out of our pockets and place a bet right now. [The concern] is not 100 percent put to bed, but it’s relatively put to bed, just because of technology today.”
In fact, the league appears poised to not only embrace gambling but might be interested in getting involved in it as a business.
“From a gambling standpoint? That’s a joke to even say that’d be a problem,” said one AFC owner. “That was an issue decades ago. Now? Sports gambling is going to be legal. We might as well embrace it and become part of the solution, rather than fight it. It’s in everyone’s best interests for it to be above-board.”
This is something Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk also got into in a bit of detail on Thursday.
“Behind the scenes, efforts will be made to eliminate the federal law that prohibits the expansion of sports betting beyond the states where it currently happens. (The NFL has used that law to block the expansion of sports betting in states like Delaware and New Jersey.) When that push becomes public, we’ll hear a lot about states’ rights and other situationally convenient philosophies that will justify America telling the United States that they can set up sports books if they want.
“Then, the various states will begin to adopt betting on sporting events, one at a time until as many that will ever do it have done it. Then, as many NFL teams as possible will begin to find a way to make money from sports betting.”
Now, none of this is to say the NFL opening this door is going to be a good thing in the long run. But it sure is a way to make a boatload of money. And as we’ve seen written in huge bold letters across the sky recently based on the NFL allowing three teams to leave their home markets (and thousands of loyal fans) the past year-plus, money is the name of the game.
We’ll be watching with great interest to see what the end game ends up being. It wasn’t long ago that an NFL team in Las Vegas was viewed as an impossibility. Then $950 million in public money changed that narrative in a relative heartbeat.
What’s to say another potential raging river of profits won’t change the league’s stance on gambling, just as fast?