Adelson interest in the Oakland Raiders contradicts his stance on online gambling

Sheldon Adelson’s attempts to lure the Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas may be in vain under NFL’s policies prohibiting league owners from having ties to gambling.

US.- The potential Las Vegas NFL Stadium and Sheldon Adelson’s attempts to lure the Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas, may be in vain. There are NFL’s longstanding policies prohibiting league owners from having ties to gambling.

Adelson has declared though, that his ownership of gambling establishments shouldn’t disqualify him from part-ownership. To make his case about NFL teams already having gambling ties, Adelson brought up the topic of daily fantasy sports, which he says is gambling by pointing out two other NFL owners, Jerry Jones (of the Dallas Cowboys) and Robert Kraft (of the New England Patriots), who happen to own stakes of DFS companies.

Sheldon Adelson argues that if DFS can be involved with teams, then casino ownership shouldn’t preclude his NFL involvement. However, the NFL’s policy prohibits its owners from any involvement in casinos, but not gambling per se.

Furthermore, the NFL’s policy manual clearly mentions casinos, but not tracks and certainly not DFS: “No owner of an interest in a NFL club may own, directly or indirectly, any interest in any gambling casino.”

Now, the funny part is that fantasy sports are exempted from the proposed federal prohibition on online gambling, RAWA (the Restoration of America’s Wire Act), which is widely believed to have been introduced into Congress at Adelson’s behest.

So, Adelson is essentially trying to use the argument that “DFS is gambling” to make the case that he’s suitable to own a percentage of an NFL team, but the federal online gambling ban he ardently supports exempts fantasy sports, essentially debunking his own claim that DFS is gambling.

To be consistent, Adelson would have to include DFS in his federal online gambling ban. This move would almost certainly put him out of favour with not only Jones and Kraft, but the overwhelming majority of NFL teams (most of which have some type of arrangement with DFS companies.)