The NFL has jumped in bed with the legal gambling industry. This follows legalization of sports betting in many states. The NFL has followed suit to ensure that they get their slice of the pie. There are many obvious flaws involved in a sports consortium getting involved with gambling. It is harder to keep the perception of your product clean when millions of dollars change hands outside the sport on every event. It is harder to actually keep your product clean when the actions of people in the consortium can both influence the lines and the results each week. The two cases above can both be observed in the Tua Tagovailoa situation that the Fins and the NFL face today. Whether Tua is perceived as ready to play against the Pats this week will influence the line on the game. His status will cause a move of a couple of points in one direction or the other. The Fins chances to win this week will be directly affected by whether Tua is cleared to play or not. There is no insider trading rule in the NFL that I am aware of. It would be easy for somebody in the know to tell somebody else the result beforehand and have a large wagers or wagers placed based on that information. This wouldn't even have to be one of the actors involved in the decision. It could be an owner wanting to do a favor for somebody. It could be a partner of one of the medical officials deciding to make a little on the side. For those of you saying "well, this could have happened with illegal gambling interests before the changes", yes it could have but the money would not have flowed into and through a partner of the NFL. The NFL would not have been materially involved on both sides of the situation before. They'd have been responsible for the field of play only. The other thing that legalized gambling has done is to create an enormous potentially life-wrecking corrupting influence in the path of young men. The big sports books and online betting interests are working this crowd heavily trying to create an addicted population that feeds them moving forward. They run college events on legal betting, frequently providing the alcohol and food at those events. They offer freebie opportunities to bet early on to get people hooked. They offer loss protection at a small fixed amount early on so that the consequences of betting seem less dire to the novitiate. The NFL can't control this behavior by legal gambling interests but they certainly can set a moral example by not partnering with the interests that do this. The NFL pie is plenty big and there was no need for them to enter the area of moral turpitude to increase it.
For decades and decades, gambling was the ultimate evil in professional sports. Now, the NFL has unapologetically embraced legalized sports betting as its newest cash cow without any nod to the awkwardness of the entire situation. I'll bet Paul Hornung and Alex Karras are either spinning in the their graves or laughing their asses off in the hereafter. It's remarkable how quickly and completely the NFL made this 180-degree turn. It's almost as if the American Cancer Society took money from Big Tobacco and started giving out free cigarettes to teen-agers. We can argue ourselves to death about the morality and wisdom of legalized sports betting, but what strikes me is the hypocrisy of the League abandoning its so-called principles as soon as the gambling interests started waving around some cash. What's next? Will some pharmaceutical company become the "official PED partner of the NFL"?
The truth is the NFL is dying and barely worth following anymore. On some level it still has most of the stuff we loved it for. But there is no real love for the game anymore. They only love money. Injuries are small things compared to straight up fixing games. Gambling will be the final dagger. It is given that games will absolutely be fixed. This has been shown in sports gambling all throughout history, even going back to ancient times. It will start with the refs, and spread probably straight up to the owners. There are way tomany subjective penalties that its will be pretty easy to fix games. Heck, even just calling penalties like holding vs not calling them can work. And now in game medical diagnoses can be used to alter outcomes. They'll have a ton of ways to fix outcomes. In fact, its pretty hard to deny that it has already begun. I've already started considering that I might need to walk away from the NFL in the next few years.
Have you been to an arcade lately? You’re worried about the NFL causing a life wrecking corruptive influence? Go to an arcade and watch the 5 year old spinning the big wheel over and over to win tickets. There’s a new arcade/go kart place next to Top Golf in Edison. All of there games have stickers that they can only pay out like 40 tickets no matter what the game wins. Why? Because they don’t have their gambling license secure yet.
The NFL has realized they have to move the game into the 21st Century and accept the reality of the immense gambling/fantasy football market, especially with the gaming technology available today. Everybody knows...
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/n...mark-cubans-sale-of-dallas-mavericks/3420242/ Word is that Cuban is trying to bring casinos to Texas and this is one of the first steps to building it near the stadium. How can this possibly not be a conflict of interest though? Gambling companies should own teams let alone have sports books in all of the stadiums where it’s legal in the state.
When your product makes so much money that you don't have to pretend anymore. They are just being who they are now.
As someone who has gambled and lost over 2 million dollars, his life savings twice, years ago and again when I got married this doesn't bother me. we can only control what we do. its a cruel world out there. GA has been a life saver (16 months clean) I enjoy watching sports and stay far away from any betting because I know first hand its only pain and losing. (its designed to make you lose) it only took me 12 years to figure it out lol
I spent my last Birthday in September partying with my kids and their spouses in AC. Yes..the younger generation loves Black Jack and Roulette And I have to admit it’s interesting to see the homework they do on how to play blackjack , side bets and all. But that whole atmosphere of the Casino chock full of Gambling Addicts is just a turn off. And the Casino Owners are the middle men taking the suckers money heh I have an App on my IPhone that lets me “bet” with play money..the thrill is there but without any serious consequences The NFL ?? Frankly I am not concerned about legalized gambling or illegal bookies. I root for the Gladiators facing injury or victory..but no one on Jets is serious about victory and still get injured sigh
The NFL (and the NBA too) went along with it when the writing was on the wall that the states were going to legalize it. And that happened when some or now most of the states figured out just how much money was being funneled to overseas books tax free. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 ultimately killed the online Poker boom in this country for tax reasons and to date, only New Jersey has brought it back. They don't really give a fuck about the cost to society so long as they're getting a piece of the pie.
That was one of the selling points and the states have gotten a huge influx I’m sure. Yet I live in Jersey and I don’t hear anything about having a surplus from it or how all that tax revenue is going to help build roads or bridges. It’s also painfully obvious that the leagues have a vested interest in the books making money. Not that they’ve ever hidden it but they all get a percentage payout for “integrity” purposes. Why wouldn’t they try to protect the books when they have a huge liability during a game?
