We may not yet know which two teams will travel to Las Vegas for Super Bowl 58, but one thing is certain: they won’t be visiting any casinos in their spare time.
Front Office Sports reported that a September email from the league prohibited players of this year’s Super Bowl teams from gambling of any kind – both casino games and sports betting. However, players of other teams in Las Vegas as spectators of the big game may gamble, though only on casino games and non-NFL sports.
The memo from the NFL further states that all players, participating or not, are not allowed to visit sportsbooks until after the Super Bowl is over. There is an exception in cases where a player must walk through a sportsbook to reach another location.
The NFL and gambling
In 2018, Supreme Court case Murphy v. National College Athletic Association opened the door to the re-legalization of sports betting on a state-by-state basis in the United States.
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Three years later, the NFL announced partnerships with three sportsbooks – Caesars, DraftKings and FanDuel. Months after that, the league reached agreements with four more – BetMGM, FOX Bet (defunct in July), PointsBet and WynnBET – to become ‘approved sportsbook operators.’
However, the NFL has significant restrictions on its players and personnel when it comes to gambling.
According to new rules that began in September, betting on NFL games can be grounds for indefinite suspension and permanent banishment if that person was found to fix games. In addition, anyone gambling on anything outside the NFL while at the workplace receives a two-game ban for a first offense, six-game ban for a second offense and a suspension of at least one year with no pay for a third.
Sports betting is now legal in 38 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Online sports betting is legal in 30 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico.