{“availableDate”:”2023-06-30T17:58:04Z”,”expirationDate”:””,”countries”:””,”unknownError”:”There has been an error”,”expiredError”:”This video has been expired due to copyright restrictions.”,”unavailableError”:”This content is not yet available.”,”georestrictedError”:”This content is not available in your location.”,”datePublished”:””,”duration”:”1365197″,”networkId”:”169843″,”adManagerUrl”:”https://mssl.fwmrm.net/libs/adm/6.51.0/AdManager.js”,”serverId”:”https://29773.v.fwmrm.net/ad/g/1″,”profileId”:”169843:nbcu_web_jwp_cs_moat_https”,”afid”:”140315314″,”caid”:”nbcs_nbc_pftpm_gamblingpolicyupdate_230630″,”csid”:”nbcsports_embed_on_domain”,”sfid”:””,”show”:”PFT PM”,”league”:”NFL”,”network”:””,”sport”:”Football”,”event”:””,”adHocGroup”:””,”genre”:”News”,”team”:””,”category”:””,”title”: “”,”videoPageUrl”: “https://www.nbcsports.com/watch/podcasts/pft-pm/examining-next-steps-for-the-nfls-gambling-policy”
}
When God dropped Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, he told them to do whatever they want, as long as they don’t eat from the apple tree. The first time I heard that story, I thought, “Why didn’t he just take out the tree?”
When it comes to the NFL’s forbidden fruit of betting on NFL games and/or betting on other sports while at work, why don’t they just take out the tree?
It’s a strategy that makes too much sense to ignore. With geolocation tools instantly tracking players who place bets they shouldn’t (with, in essence, the snake then ratting out Adam), why can’t players who aren’t allowed to place certain wagers and/or place wagers in certain places simply be blocked from doing so?
The possibility was mentioned in a recent item from Kalyn Kahler of TheAthletic.com. Matt Holt, the CEO of U.S. Integrity, currently works with the league to monitor the betting markets and to report suspicious developments. Holt told Kahler that the company is developing a took called “ProhiBet,” which can block specific users from making specific wagers
.
“This will be a lot better moving forward because nobody wants to bust anybody after the fact,” Holt said. “That’s not in anybody’s best interest.”
He’s right about that — unless the NFL hopes to periodically snag some low-hanging fruit in order to get people to think the league is properly and effectively investigating and detecting violations of the gambling policy. If a system can be put in place to instantly track those who make bets when and where and how they shouldn’t, a system also can be put in place to block bets that a player is trying to make on something, or from somewhere, that he shouldn’t.
That won’t help those players who didn’t get sufficient information from the league or the union about the do’s and don’ts of legalized gambling. Also, please stop with the “these guys should be smart enough to know the rules” routine. The rules aren’t obvious, and the league’s educational effort wasn’t (and frankly still isn’t) as clear as it needs to be.
Complicating matters is the reality that, while the players are being told not to eat the apples, the NFL is baking pies with them.
The sooner this change is made, the better. If the approach is going to be, “do as we say, not as we do,” why not simply prevent them from doing?