The National Football League will allow teams to
accept advertising from casinos during the next two years.
A memo sent to all 32 teams yesterday said franchises could
sell ads in game-day programs, on club-controlled radio and in stadiums. The
casinos must be in a team’s market. Under the altered policy, advertisers can’t
take bets on any sports other than horse and dog racing.
“We remain steadfast in our opposition to the proliferation
of gambling on NFL games,” Brian McCarthy, a spokesman for the NFL, said
in an e-mail last night. “There is a distinction between accepting advertising
in a limited fashion and gambling on the outcome of our games.”
Other state-licensed gambling establishments will also be
able to buy ads, the memo said. Players, coaches and other team and league
employees are not allowed to appear in any of the ads or endorse the entities
or their products.
Teams are already able to sell ads to horse and dog-racing
tracks, municipal lotteries and off-track betting organizations that don’t take
wagers on sporting events.
Is this “splitting hairs”?
If gambling is allowed to be advertised should it not be endorsed by the
league?
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