Tony Romo not Happy with NFL's Gambling Stance

Just recently, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo was prevented from holding a fantasy football convention near the Venetian Sands casino in Las Vegas. The NFL prevented Romo from holding the convention on grounds that their player handbook states that players should not be involved in any promotions with or near casinos.

The NFL has long taken a tough stance towards gambling, especially sports betting, because they don’t want any chance of players accepting bribes that could alter a game. Nevertheless, Romo was not happy with how they handled the fantasy football convention situation, and he told ESPN’s Colin Cowherd the following:

“It’s like when you’re in high school and you don’t get invited to the party, it makes you feel bad…. If they really wanted to just be a part of it, all they had to do was just call and ask. It would’ve been a lot easier, I think, than going about the process the way they did. We understand that these things come about and there’s big money involved sometimes from the NFL’s perspective. If we had known about the issue of the place or thought it was something that could’ve been an issue, the NFL could have told us right away.”

Aside from Romo criticizing how the NFL dealt with this situation, many have pointed to how gambling quietly fuels the league’s success. As Behind the Steel Curtain explains, they receive advertising revenue from DraftKings.com, which offers the slogan, “You could win a shipload of money.” In general, the league has benefited tremendously from daily fantasy football, which avoids legal consequences since the American government considers it a game of skill.

The UNLV Gaming Law Journal believes that a major driving motivation for making teams report player injuries prior to games is not just for the casual fan, but rather so that fantasy football and sports betting lovers know what’s going on. The Gaming Law Journal writes that the NFL is a “quasi-partner with the sports betting industry” and their stance against players’ gambling involvement is “contradictory.”

That said, it’s no wonder why people are heavily questioning how the NFL can prevent Romo from holding a fantasy football convention near a casino when the league itself benefits so much from gambling.