One of the largest sports betting leagues in the US – the National Football League (NFL) – has called for the Federal Government to act as quickly as possible and address what the organization recognizes as an urgent and continuing issue.
On August 4th, the NFL sent a written response to a US congresswoman seeking some help in dealing with unlawful gambling in the country and hoping to finally encourage the Government to take some action on the matter. The response of the sports league comes after the congresswoman criticized the way how the National Football League had been handling the sports betting practices associated with it and its overall sports integrity.
As confirmed by Jonathan Nabavi, NFL’s Vice President of public and government affairs, the organization remains committed to making sure that the integrity of US sports is protected. Dealing with internal sports betting offenses and addressing the bigger issue of unlawful gambling has been included as part of dealing with internal sports betting offenses.
Reportedly, the National Football League has probably reached out to US Representative Dina Titus, who is a well-known opponent of illegal gambling in the country.
NFL and NCAA Remain Focused on the Illegal Sports Betting Market in the US
In their letter to the Congresswoman, the National Football League and Jonathan Nabavi argued that the official launch of mass sports betting services has made the effort associated with safeguarding and properly regulating the industry even more crucial.
In the original letter sent to the NFL, Ms. Titus criticized the way that the League had been addressing and handling requests of the public that required more information. As reported by the ESPN, she even suggested that the organization was trying to avoid her own questions by shifting the conversation toward unlawful gambling.
What the congresswoman was particularly interested in was the number of ongoing gambling-related probes focused on sports betting offenses within the National Football League. The response of NFL’s Vice President of public and government affairs was indeed focused on urging the Government to act quickly and decisively in regard to illegal gambling across the county – a market that continues to operate and grows not only in the US but also worldwide.
As mentioned above, the National Football League’s response to the congresswoman’s letter last week states that the organization believes that the local lawmakers and law enforcement agencies needed to pay additional attention and redirect resources to address the unlawful sports betting market, which remains pretty powerful for the time being.
At the same time, the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) provided the congresswoman with the answers she sought, saying that the organization had faced a total of 175 violations of sports betting laws since the new form of gambling became officially legal in the country in 2018. The organization’s President Charlie Baker shared that he acknowledged Ms. Titus’ concerns that sports betting can undermine the integrity of sports and breed corruption in the sector. However, both the NCAA and the NFL believe that the legalization of sports betting services in the US would do good, as it brought sports bets into the regulated market instead of leaving them to the illegal gambling sector that had been thriving before the US Supreme Court’s decision to officially allow sports betting in the country back in 2018.
