Columnist Jeff German: Casinos learning to play nice with NFL

Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2005 | 11:05 a.m.

The casino industry finally has figured out that it doesn't have to break the rules to attract visitors to Las Vegas during the Super Bowl.

Even with news that the game-time partying on the Strip will be scaled back Sunday to comply with the National Football League's broadcast rights, this year's version of the super weekend is shaping up to be a record-breaker.

Tourism officials are projecting that Las Vegas will be bursting at the seams with 287,000 visitors, the most ever during the Super Bowl.

Industry leaders are so confident of a strong weekend showing that they didn't even bother to do any pre-Super Bowl advertising on national television.

As it turns out, there's nothing the NFL can do to stop the massive flow of tourists here. Las Vegas is simply too hot on the destination charts.

"It's going to be business as usual," says Caesars Entertainment Inc. spokesman Robert Stewart. "I think people will have just as much fun as they did last year."

What you won't see, unless there's a casino or two dumb enough to test the NFL's resolve to enforce its broadcast rights, are giant ballroom parties where admission is charged to watch the game on multiple large screen televisions.

But sports books that show NFL games on giant screens during the regular season will be free to serve as party central this weekend. That's where most of the action is anyway during the Super Bowl.

It's the gift the NFL gave the casino industry to demonstrate that it's not being a complete jerk about protecting its proprietary interests.

For the most part the casinos seem willing to play by the NFL's rules.

"I think everybody's being more circumspect this year," says Bill Bible, who runs the Nevada Resort Association, the industry's local political arm. "The NFL has made it pretty clear what its rules are with respect to its broadcast rights."

Nobody, Bible says, wants to be sued for copyright infringement.

Because it obviously still doesn't trust the industry, the NFL says it's sending investigators to Las Vegas, as it has in the past, to keep an eye on the Strip.

But the industry's desire to accommodate the NFL, even if it comes with a little prodding from pro football, suggests to me that gambling is growing up. It's about time. This is, after all, the era of the casino mega-merger on Wall Street.

Finally, the industry understands that, despite its flaws, it has become entrenched in society (just like the NFL) and no longer has to act like a rebellious stepchild.

"The NFL gave a little, and we'd like to have a good relationship with professional sports teams," says Frank Fahrenkopf, the industry's chief Washington lobbyist. "We haven't had that in the past."

With maturity, however, comes an obligation to act responsibly.

When the industry figures out how to do that on a consistent basis, it will not only gain the respect of the NFL, but maybe the rest of society, too.