Over the next week, the National Football League’s players, coaches, fans and executives will gather for an event that was virtually unthinkable just 10 years ago: the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the United States.
Now it even has a team in Las Vegas, which the league shunned for decades because any affiliation was seen as a threat to the integrity of the game.
Yet the embedding of sports gambling so quickly into the culture of the league has resulted in jarring contradictions.
is pushing to popularize and benefit from sports betting while still guarding against the potential pitfalls that it long condemned.
While the league donates money to promote responsible gambling, its broadcasts are peppered with advertisements for sports betting companies.
Persons:
’, Roger Goodell —, —, ”, Marc Edelman
Organizations:
National Football, Baruch College
Locations:
Las Vegas, United States, Nevada, New York