By Frank Pingue
(Reuters) – The Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers are headed for a high-stakes Super Bowl clash in Las Vegas but while there the two teams must abide by the NFL’s gambling policy and resist trying their luck at the city’s glitzy casinos.
While NFL players can gamble during the regular season on other sports, a much stricter rule will be in place leading up to the Feb. 11 Super Bowl, the first to be held in Las Vegas, that will bar the Chiefs and 49ers from betting on anything.
The means members of the Chiefs and 49ers, who will spend a week in Las Vegas ahead of the NFL’s championship game, cannot bet on sports while there or play blackjack, roulette or any other casino games offered.
“When on business there is no gambling, whether it be sports gambling or otherwise,” Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president of communications, told reporters during a media briefing on Tuesday.
“And any player, coach, personnel, yours truly, who would be caught or identified gambling in a casino would be eligible for the disciplinary process.”
Miller added that any individual from either Super Bowl team caught violating the gambling policy would be “addressed in the normal course of discipline” by the NFL.
Both the Chiefs and 49ers are staying in separate hotels about 25 miles (40.23 km) from the non-stop gambling action on the Las Vegas Strip, which Miller said was not necessarily done to deter gambling but rather to accommodate the teams.
Miller said teams competing in the Super Bowl typically stay a distance from both the city centre and stadium hosting the big game as it allows for more privacy and rooms to accommodate players and their families.
“Most clubs prefer a quieter environment. Obviously they’ve got their eyes set on their one specific goal and any distraction during that week is a distraction they don’t want to deal with,” said Miller.
“The clubs most certainly value the opportunity to prepare for the game as they best want to without any potential distractions and that would be true any year.”
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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