Super Bowl Gambling Guidance Issued by NFL Ahead of Las Vegas Visit
As Las Vegas readies to host Super Bowl LVIII on February 11 at Allegiant Stadium, players from the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers have been issued updated guidance from the NFL over gambling at Nevada casinos.
That is in addition to the usual sports betting restrictions on NFL players throughout the regular season. During Super Bowl weekend, players from either Super Bowl team, as well as staff and coaches, are forbidden from partaking in any gambling activities, including table games and slot machines.
Any other NFL player in town joining the record visitor numbers expected to visit Las Vegas over the weekend won’t be allowed to bet on the big game or enter any Nevada retail sportsbooks. Otherwise, they can gamble at casinos as much as they want.
In order to minimize the temptations of betting and other Sin City distractions, the Chiefs and 49ers are staying in separate nongambling hotel resorts near Lake Las Vegas. That’s some 25 miles away from the Strip.
Keeping Controversies Away
Another gambling controversy is not what the NFL needs before its big-ticket game. Historically, the league has had a hard-line approach with players and gambling, completely banning them from even entering casinos.
However, even as ties are deepening between the NFL and the gambling business as legalization spreads, the 2023/2024 season has seen a dozen players suspended for betting violations.
Most recently, that carried into January 2024, with New England Patriots’ wide-receiver Kayshon Boutte facing criminal charges over his underage betting activities while playing for Louisiana State in 2022.
Given all that, the NFL struggled to keep up with the changing attitudes to sports betting for a while in 2023 before issuing new, clearer guidelines.
During it all, the premier U.S. sports league continued to pursue further integration with the gambling business. You can now watch NFL games live in the FanDuel app with a betting overlay. You can play official NFL-themed slots. For the first time, the Super Bowl is coming to Las Vegas, and sports betting ads will be all over the halftime show.
Even college sports saw their own betting scandals in 2023, where a similar pattern is occurring with the National Collegiate Athletics Association. The sports org scrambled last year to issue its own new guidelines, amid student and staff betting allegations and reports of angry bettors.
Bowl Teams Stay out of Town
To keep the headline players away from all of that, the Chiefs and the 49ers will be staying 25 miles from the Las Vegas Strip, with nary a casino in sight.
Defending champs the Chiefs are reportedly booked into the Westin Lake Las Vegas, while the 49ers opted for the nearby Hilton Lake Las Vegas.
The matchup is a rematch of 2020’s Super Bowl LIV, which saw the Chiefs beat the 49ers, 31-20, at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida.
It is the second time the Chiefs have gone into the Super Bowl as defending champions, having beaten the Philadelphia Eagles at Arizona’s State Farm Stadium in February 2023.
The last time they were in this position, going into their 2021 defeat to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they had beaten the 49ers the year before.
If they can beat the Bay Area team once again, the Chiefs will really cement their dynasty. They could become the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowls since the New England Patriots in 2004.
This year, neither the Chiefs nor the 49ers were the sportsbook favorites to reach the Super Bowl after the regular season. However, superstar pairing Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce once again combined to spectacular effect against the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Final, bringing home a 17-10 victory against the number one seed Ravens.
Meanwhile, the 49ers produced a huge comeback, down 17 points at the half, to defeat the Detroit Lions in the NFC Final on Sunday.
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