Dave Bockino pens op-ed on sports gambling for The Washington Post

The National Football League should say outright what most viewers already know: “Gambling is good for our league.”

The perks are obvious. Betting keeps audiences engaged, boosts ratings and allows the league to charge billions of dollars for television rights. There is also the direct financial windfall from data partnerships and sponsorships, including hundreds of millions from the NFL’s three official sportsbook partners.

So why won’t the NFL acknowledge the benefits?

It’s not like Americans started gambling because of the NFL. Fans were betting long before football became a national obsession. People wagered on boxing and baseball, on horse racing and hockey. Americans have always loved betting.

Some of the people who helped build the NFL enjoyed a wager as much as anyone. Tim Mara, the founding owner of the New York Giants, was a prolific bookmaker. Pittsburgh Steelers founding owner Art Rooney was an avid bettor. Chicago Cardinals owner Charles Bidwill made a fortune printing programs and betting tickets used at horse tracks.

The NFL is a league built, in part, by gamblers with gambling money. Betting is in its DNA.

Read the full opinion piece in The Washington Post.