Super Bowl puts sports, gaming link in forefront

Friday, Jan. 30, 2004 | 11:23 a.m.

Bill Wilson sat in his Qualcomm Stadium office this week in San Diego, looked at a framed 25-by-30-inch color photograph of last year's Super Bowl and found something out of place.

There on the scoreboard was a placard advertising the nearby Sycuan resort, standing out because it's an Indian casino.

By NFL decree, about 50 billboards in the stadium, including those promoting nearby Indian casinos such as the Las Vegas-style Barona Valley Ranch Casino, were covered before last year's championship game. But they missed the Sycuan ad.

"What can I say?" said Wilson, Qualcomm's 71-year-old stadium general manager who then broke into a hearty laugh. "I can't deny or admit ... I shouldn't comment, even though I'm older than dirt and will retire in a year and a quarter.

"Aw, you can quote me. They'll be (mad), but who cares?"

The NFL has a strict policy outlawing gaming ads during the Super Bowl, either in the stadium or during the telecast. Wilson said the billboard ads covered were done so "by order of the NFL."

But several photographs of that scoreboard appeared in publications worldwide during the week of the game.

Not bad exposure for the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, which operates a casino that includes an off-track horse betting parlor. The casino has been a San Diego Padres sponsor since 2000.

That ad seen during last year's Super Bowl further blurs a sometimes hypocritical relationship between sports and gaming.

For the second year in a row, the NFL rejected a Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority commercial that did not reference gambling, yet in San Diego billboards advertising Indian "resorts" can be displayed during regular season games as long as they don't include the word "casino."

Las Vegas is a destination for millions of gamblers, including NFL players who are allowed to bet on anything but their own sport.

And while professional sports leagues have routinely snubbed Las Vegas' appetite for a franchise, in part because of the gaming, the NBA allows a WNBA team to play at a Connecticut casino.

"That pretty much sums things up," said Rob Powers, vice president of public relations for the LVCVA, "doesn't it?"

Greg Aiello, the NFL's vice president of public relations, said the league does not have a specific policy in relation to Las Vegas.

"The policy has to do with gambling on our games," he said, "and activities that would threaten the integrity of our game."

Professional athletics and gaming have had a curious courtship, which CNN/Money senior writer Chris Isidore likened a year ago to Claude Rains' police chief "Renault" in "Casablanca."

When the Nazis order Renault to devise a reason to close Humphrey Bogart's nightclub, he turns to Bogart and exclaims, "I'm shocked -- shocked! -- to find that gambling is going on in here."

Then a croupier hands Renault his winnings, which Renault stuffs into a pocket as he thanks the croupier, before Renault tosses everyone out of "Rick's."

"The NFL is doing roughly the same thing," Isidore wrote, "in rejecting (the LVCVA) ad."

Former CBS Sports chairman Neal Pilson said he didn't agree with the NFL's banning of last year's Las Vegas ad.

Wayne Allyn Root, a Henderson resident and chairman of the country's lone publicly traded sports handicapping firm, GWIN Inc., told Isidore that the NFL knows that a large part of its popularity is based on its gambling-friendly foundation.

"Without Las Vegas and sports gambling (the NFL) wouldn't be prime time, it wouldn't be Madison Avenue's favorite," Root said.

Last week, Root added Ron Meyer, a two-time AFC coach of the year and former UNLV coach, to a handicapping stable that includes NFL Hall of Famer and former Super Bowl MVP Randy White.

Las Vegas' growth had been steaming along before the Union Plaza and Stardust both incorporated sports books into their casinos in the 1970s. Nevada is the only state with legal sports betting.

This weekend, a few former NFL players, as usual, will drop into town to serve as guests at Super Bowl parties being hosted by two Strip properties.

Billy Kilmer and Hall of Famer Deacon Jones will be featured at the Riviera, while Gary Plummer and Keena Turner are scheduled to highlight the Stardust festivities. During the season, White even touted an online betting service over local radio.

However, Aiello said the NFL has no jurisdiction to police, or comment about, the actions of former players.

"We don't have a view on that," he said.

But Major League Baseball did in 1979, when then-commissioner Bowie Kuhn placed Hall of Famer Willie Mays on the game's "permanently ineligible" list after he accepted a position as a greeter at Bally's Resorts in Atlantic City.

Four years later, Kuhn put Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle on the same list after Mantle took a gig as director of sports promotions for the Claridge Resort and Casino, representing the Atlantic City property in golf tournaments and other charitable events.

In 1985, Peter Ueberroth lifted the ban on both Mays and Mantle in one of his first acts as baseball's new commissioner.

Paul Hornung of Green Bay and Alex Karras of Detroit were both suspended for the 1963 season for betting on NFL games, including their own.

Unlike the sordid Pete Rose affair, Hornung's admission and contrition were believed to help him gain entry into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Karras was slow to show remorse and some say that hurt his chances at the Hall of Fame.

When Barona Valley opened last year, Hornung was one of the celebrities at the celebration.

The former Notre Dame standout received $5,000 to appear at a dinner and play in a golf tournament. Ex-Detroit running back Barry Sanders received $20,000 to play in the tournament, which also included Dan Fouts, Dick Butkus and Marcus Allen.

Barona bought a Qualcomm suite for the Super Bowl for a select group of high-rollers, acquired 200 game tickets to cater to more of its top gamblers and played host to 750 for a viewing of the game on its property.

The NFL did not prohibit the casino from buying a box at the Super Bowl, and the casino shuttled its guests to and from the game in vehicles emblazoned with the Barona logo.

Its advertisements are ubiquitous at sports venues around San Diego, with one caveat; the word "casino" is always omitted from the banner.

"We know our rules," said Barona community relations specialist Dana Sass.

Powers said the LVCVA has paid for billboards and signs advertising Las Vegas in four major league ball parks over the past several years.

The signs, which just say "Las Vegas," have been in stadiums hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Anaheim Angels and Arizona Diamondbacks, he said.

The LVCVA, he said, currently has a billboard at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

"It's been an effective marketing tool for us," Powers said.

Barona's facility is similar to many Strip resorts. The property includes a 300,000-square-foot casino, which boasts 2,000 Las Vegas-style slot, video poker and keno machines, 52 table games and an 11-table poker room.

A variety of active professional athletes have visited legal casinos over the years to test their luck.

Most recently, Zack Thomas of the Miami Dolphins went through thousands of dollars in a few minutes at a blackjack table at the Palms, not far from a craps table at which Indiana Pacers guard Jalen Rose, in a throwback Pete Maravich jersey, had recently spent hours.

Chicago White Sox slugger Frank Thomas favors the blackjack at Bellagio, at a minimum of $100 per hand. At the Hard Rock, NBA players Richard Jefferson and Luke Walton tried to look incognito, with baseball caps pulled low, while rolling the dice ... within 3-point range of the hip property's sports book.

Yet, action on those gaming tables is accepted behavior by their leagues.

"The point is, we don't have rules or policies that prohibit our players from being in Las Vegas," Aiello said. "We have rules and policies relating to certain conduct. If those rules are not violated, we don't have any other issues."

Similar to Major League Baseball, the NFL outlaws its players from gambling on its own sport. Signs are clearly posted in the locker rooms as reminders. But what was once a clear separation between gambling and athletes has further been blurred over the years as the sports have gotten bigger.

The blurring reached a new level in Connecticut last January, when a WNBA team settled into a 10,000-seat arena adjoining the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Conn.

That was the same casino in which, after an NBA exhibition game two years earlier, Michael Jordan turned a $500,000 deficit into an $800,000 gain during a famous run at a blackjack table that showed up in several publications. Jordan also owns two restaurants inside the Mohegan.

Former Maryland congressman and NBA player Tom McMillen told ESPN that the WNBA team's tight relationship with a casino could lead to a team from a major sport landing in Las Vegas.

His words are timely as talk of Major League Baseball and/or an NBA franchise coming to Las Vegas has made headlines in recent weeks.

Those two sports, and the NHL, have staged exhibition games here, and the Utah Jazz of the NBA called Las Vegas home for a stretch in the early 1980s.

"It's the proverbial foot in the door," McMillen said of the WNBA playing in an arena on Indian resort property. "It could lead to other states looking at more creative ways to raise revenues, possibly looking at gambling as it relates to sports.

"It will be interesting to see where all of this leads 10 years from now."

Powers said Las Vegas received a "tidal wave" of press, almost unanimous in the city's favor and against what was viewed as a hypocritical decision by the NFL, when the LVCVA ad was not approved.

The LVCVA would have spent $2.1 million to have that 30-second spot aired during ABC's coverage of last year's Super Bowl.

Driven by Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman's national outcry, Powers estimated that the city received $8 million to $9 million worth of coast-to-coast attention.

"(Goodman) was everywhere," Powers said. "Chris Matthews, CNN ... everywhere. And in print. He got the Las Vegas name out there, and it was huge. He's an excellent interview, and the national press loves to interview him. His role was significant.

"One of the reasons the story had legs was because of the feeling among the media, and most people, that it was an outrageous decision."

Goodman did not return inquiries seeking comment.

"(The NFL has) a prehistoric viewpoint," Powers said. "Certainly, gaming is an important part of what we do and who we are, but it isn't the single most-dominant part it once was. It's a thriving community, as much about shows, shopping and golf as it is about gaming.

"Casino gaming is, obviously, not exclusive to Las Vegas or Nevada."

That's backed up by the Sycuan banner in Qualcomm Stadium.

And Wilson, the Qualcomm manager, notes that it's part of the changing tide in sports. In his 53-year career, he has played a role in the management of six Super Bowls, seeing the game and the sport boom.

"I watched it go from a football game to a week of parties with an incidental football game, maybe," he said.

And with all the hype, there has been more pressure to advertise.

Meanwhile, the LVCVA is running a television ad this month that features a panoramic view of the Strip that boasts Las Vegas as a more exciting place to be than Houston, home of this year's Super Bowl.

Yes, Powers said, LVCVA officials did attempt to secure another ad for Sunday's Super Bowl telecast on CBS. No, he said, the NFL did not approve.

"It's my understanding that the agency did bring up the subject again," Powers said. "I don't know how firmly, but they were told the situation hadn't changed."

archive