NFL bets on greed
“Only bet what you can afford to lose.”
That’s the message from the National Football League as its betting-company partners aggressively promote legal betting on pro football games.
For years the NFL was adamantly against betting in sports.
In 2012, reports the New York Post, the league’s commissioner Roger Goodell said: “If gambling is permitted freely on sporting events, normal incidents of the game such as bad snaps, dropped passes, turnovers, penalties, and play calling inevitably will fuel speculation, distrust and accusations of point-shaving or game-fixing.”
He was correct.
Look what happened last week in the NFL’s opening game between Detroit and Kansas City.
One receiver dropped five passes, one of which was intercepted and returned for a touchdown — leading some in the Twittersphere to question if something nefarious was up.
So if gambling creates so much distrust among fans, why did the NFL change its position on betting 180 degrees? Can you spell g-r-e-e-d?
Sports gambling only became possible in 2018 when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, a federal law passed in 1992 that made gambling on sports illegal in all but a few states.
With that law struck down, 37 states made sports betting legal — and gambling exploded.
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Copyright 2023 Tom Purcell, All Rights Reserved. Credit: Cagle.com
