by Sebasdess
A charity tournament hosted at Golden Nuggets in Las Vegas recently tried to raise funds for the Starkey Hearing Foundation. This Foundation offers every year more than 50,000 hearing aids in many countries around the world. The tournament 'Raise Your Hand for Africa' was trying to raise funds for the African division of the Foundation.
More than 350 participants were expected, including several poker pros (Phil Hellmuth Jr., Liz Lieu, Michelle Lau, Suzie Lederer, Marcel Luske) met, besides various personalities of the world cinema (Steve Martin, Kevin Sorbo, Verne Troyer, Lou Ferrigno, Daniel Romer), world music (Sam Moore), and the sports world (a 30aine of the American Football League playersincluding Larry Fitzgerald Jr. and Adrian Peterson). But according to a press release sent by the NFL, players were informed that the League would not exception for gambling by prohibiting the NFL players to participate in this tournament, despite the fact that he was one of charity: each of the players had to pay a $ 2000 entry, and no award was given in money!
We can understand that institutions such as the National Football League want to not be associated with an activity that sometimes borders on some grey areas at the level of legality and that they forbid players to sponsorship of gambling online site or other things like. But in this case, it goes far beyond the mandate of the NFL. Worse still: this is not the first time that the NFL takes a hard line towards the poker.
The story begins in 2006, while the Americans were on the verge of passing what is known today as the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act). The NFL has been able to negotiate a hole in the Act in order to continue to organize the "Fantasy League", in which they derive income. As soon as they were able to ensure that they would not be disturbed by this Act, they then made many efforts to ensure that the UIGEA is approved.
In 2007, the NFL and the NBA had joined the Christian right in order to defend the UIGEA. The Member of Congress Barney Frank was trying at that time to regulate online poker.
Several times thereafter, the NFL publicly announced that they were against the legalisation of poker. They even hired a lobbyist, opened an office in Washington and set up a political action Committee to defend their "noble cause".
The NFL sees in a possible legalization of online poker a first not to the legalization of sports betting online... which would probably mean a loss of revenue for them. But what the NFL can afford to interfere in our lives as well and decide for us what is good or not? How can they justify the expenses related to the defense of this "cause" and continue to increase the price of tickets and beer at the stadiums? What the image of football could be tarnished by the participation of NFL players in a charity tournament to help African children with hearing disabilities?
This attitude of the NFL disgusts me. How it looks to them that a player decides to put a $ 1000 on an online gaming site? To "protect the integrity of this noble American sport? Bullshit! It is a question of large sous, final point! Anyway, it is easy for an American to find a way to bet on sport... and it is rather easy find a nominee also! So in reality, honest players are penalized, while those who might be tempted by the fraud can, in seconds, circumvent the rules.
And why go to war against the poker? That a football player is badbeater his pair of ACEs will not change anything in football! In what predict the results of players or a team and this match after match in a fantasy league, is not a game of luck compared to poker? And most importantly, why to keep this line lasts while affluent players decide to give back a little to children in difficulty in Africa?
NFL, stop spending your money in a bout that do not look at you. Stop wanting to control what people do freely in their basement. And please, stop being hypocritical!
You can respond to this column of opinion on the forum by clicking the following link: the NFL in war against poker?
