Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Roger Goodell details why NFL warmed to Las Vegas and its (previously) dreaded sports betting

Goodell

Ross D. Franklin / AP

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell talks about the NFL football owners approving the move of the Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas during a news conference at the NFL owners meetings Monday, March 27, 2017, in Phoenix.

PHOENIX — Las Vegas changed and the National Football League noticed, according to its commissioner.

Roger Goodell spoke at length about the NFL’s shift in attitude toward its newest home market following the conclusion of the league’s annual meeting Tuesday at the Arizona Biltmore.

Yet while owners voted here Monday to allow the Oakland Raiders to move to the gambling capital of the country starting in 2020, Goodell also reinforced the NFL’s hard-line stance against sports betting that prevented the league from setting foot in Nevada for decades.

“Society in general has a little bit of a change with respect to gambling in general,” Goodell said. “We’ve seen that. I think we still strongly oppose legalized sports gambling. The integrity of our game is No. 1. We will not compromise on that.”

“But I also believe Las Vegas is not the same city it was 10 years ago or 20 years ago. It’s a much more diverse city. It has become an entertainment mecca. It is the fastest-growing city in the country. So I think when you look at what Las Vegas is today and what it was a decade or two ago, I think it’s a much different city.”

The gambling issue so concerned the NFL in past years that the league previously instituted a ban on Super Bowl advertising even showing the Las Vegas Strip. League officials reaffirmed as recently as 2013 that the NFL would not entertain the idea of hosting any games in Las Vegas because of the presence of sports betting. The league still prohibits casino owners from from owning a franchise as well.

The Raiders found the stadium they want and $750 million in public subsidies to build it in Nevada, though, and the team swayed 31 of 32 team owners to vote in favor of taking a chance on Las Vegas and the casinos that drive its economic engine.

“We did not change any of our gambling policies in the context of the Raiders relocation,” Goodell said. “It wasn’t necessary. The Raiders didn’t ask us to do that. We don’t see that changing our current policies.”

A 2015 report by casino trade group the American Gaming Association estimates roughly $2 billion is wagered legally on NFL and college football games every year.

Despite ongoing concern about the integrity of his on-field product, Goodell anticipates bettors still will be allowed to wager on Raiders games after the team moves to Las Vegas.

“I don’t think we’re contemplating (removing Raiders games from the board) at this point, in large part because you have a regulatory environment which actually can be beneficial,” Goodell said. “We’ll study it further, but I think at this point in time, it’s not our position.”

The league also did not attach any provisions to its approval of the Raiders’ relocation application with regard to sports betting, but Goodell reaffirmed current policies including those banning players from entering sportsbooks.

“We have policies in place now. Obviously we’ll continue to evaluate those policies if we think something specific needs to be done in Las Vegas or any changes to our policy, we obviously retain the right to do that,” Goodell said.

The commissioner was asked multiple questions about the league’s role in preventing players from getting into trouble in Las Vegas that they might otherwise not encounter, including a reference to a Las Vegas Sun story about brothels.

“I think we have an obligation to do that with all 32 teams,” Goodell said. “My experience is that 21-year-olds can learn to find trouble a lot of different places, by the way. That’s one of the reasons we focus so much on our personal conduct policies. We’re going to obviously keep our focus on that no matter where our franchises are.”

Goodell also briefly addressed the prospects of future Super Bowls, which he said received brief discussion during Tuesday’s session. Applications are not being accepted by the league for future sites at the moment.

Las Vegas could not host the Super Bowl until 2022, as the game has been awarded every year until then. Each of the next four Super Bowls will take place in either a newly constructed or freshly renovated stadium. Minnesota, Atlanta, Miami and Los Angeles will host the next four years, in that order.

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