With the Super Bowl headed to Las Vegas next month, what can players—both those in the game, and those just visiting—do and not do? Where can they go in the gambling capital, and what’s off limits? For years those wouldn’t have even been questions, because the NFL had a taboo, hard line approach against Vegas and sports gambling. Stay away.
That, of course, began to change in 2018, when the Supreme Court lifted a ban on sports gambling in most of the U.S. In the past, NFL players couldn’t set foot in casinos, let alone sportsbooks, or gamble on sports. The league famously blocked Tony Romo from staging a fantasy sports convention in Vegas because it would have put him adjacent to a casino.
That may as well have been a different universe.
In a September communication, following a rash of player-related sports-gambling incidents, the league outlined to players, the NFLPA, and teams its policies on gambling—as well as the do’s and don’ts of Super Bowl week. According to that correspondence, which Front Office Sports obtained:
“While in Las Vegas, players participating in the Super Bowl are prohibited from engaging in any form of gambling, including casino games and betting on any sport.” As for those players not on the two clubs participating in the Super Bowl: They may engage in legal gambling, the correspondence states—but they may not bet on the NFL at any time or go in a sportsbook until the Super Bowl is over. An exception: Players will be allowed to walk through a sportsbook if it is the only way to get where they are going.
