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Did anyone else catch this?

National Football League Involved in Anti-Gambling Bill

Published: Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Author: Dan Katz

The New York Post reported yesterday that the National Football League had a hand in getting the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act attached to the Safe Port Act, which passed through Congress late on the night of September 29.

The NFL hired a high-powered lobbyist to get the anti-online gambling legislation through, while, of course, still keeping fantasy football legal. NFL.com hosts one of the most popular fantasy football leagues, and that, combined with royalties from other fantasy sites, brings the NFL a lot of money each year. All told, according to an industry association, $200 million are spent on online fantasy football every year. The NFL holds fantasy football in such high regard that a link for its fantasy section is highlighted in red (the rest of the menu items are blue) directly underneath the NFL logo on the league's website.

The lobbyist hired was lawyer Marty Gold of the firm Covington and Burling. They billed the NFL $700,000 during 2005 for a variety of lobbying efforts, including the internet gambling issue.

But here's the kicker (no pun intended). Gold used to be legal counsel to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the man who made it his crusade to sneak the anti-online gambling legislation into anything he could. He was finally able to worm it into the Safe Port Act at the eleventh hour. Sound shady to anyone?

In September, the NFL tried to get the gambling measures added to defense legislation. Gold claims it was not he who tried that, but rather new NFL Chairman Roger Goodell, along with former NFL head Paul Tagliabue. The two wrote to Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), who is the Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman, urging him to add the gambling wording to the defense bill, but were rebuked by Warner.

Warner, in turn, told Frist that it should not be added to the defense bill. After all, it is almost insulting to add something like that to a bill that is designed to help U.S. troops.

In the end, Frist was able to get House Homeland Security Chairman Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) to tack it on to the Safe Port Act without a vote and without allowing debate in the Senate.

George Bush may sign the bill into law as early as this Friday.

What is mind boggling here is how hypocritical the NFL is in this. The league makes millions of dollars directly from fantasy football, which is much more of a gambling endeavor than poker. Sure, some people just play for pride, but others spend tens, hundreds, and even thousands of dollars to play in leagues, hoping to win a big prize pool. While we can't control the cards in poker, we can control how we play, and with some practice and skill, even control how our opponents play. There is luck in poker, of course, but there is a lot of skill involved, as well. As fun as fantasy football is, there really is no skill involved. You pick players who you think are going to be good (yes, there is strategy when it comes to when to pick whom, but it's still all a guessing game) and then hope they play well.

Fantasy football participants have no control over injuries (the reigning league MVP broke his foot a couple weeks ago - think that sent fantasy owners into a tizzy?), they have no control over how the teams play, they have no control over the weather. The list goes on. This isn't gambling? Come on.

On top of that, football is the most popular game for sports bettors. Millions of dollars are wagered every week on both college and professional football. You don't think the NFL's popularity is helped by gamblers hanging on every snap? If sports betting did not exist, football would still be popular, but I guarantee it would not garner the interest it does now.

So, it remains unclear what the exact motivations of the NFL were in lobbying to get anti-online gambling legislation passed. But whatever they are, they probably involved hypocrisy, short-sightedness, greed, and misplaced priorities.