Before the puck drops in Las Vegas, challenges will arise

We’ll have to endure the summer heat twice before we get to see the puck drop at T-Mobile Arena for the Las Vegas Whatever-We’re-Going-to-Call-Them hockey team competing in the National Hockey League’s 2017-18 season.

Although thousands of local hockey fans have shown their appreciation to the NHL’s confidence in Las Vegas by joining an already robust season ticket list, anticipation is growing around the country on how this new team will affect everybody else.

Does this open the door to more major-league sports in Las Vegas? Will hockey in the desert boost tourism and gaming, even a little? And, will there be any moves to block wagering on the local team, which, admittedly wouldn’t move the needle much on sportsbook revenue?

Hockey is one of the least-wagered professional sports; having a team in Las Vegas won’t change that. But last month’s announcement that a major-league franchise will finally arrive in Southern Nevada brought several matters up for consideration as we count down the days to the first game on T-Mobile’s home ice.

American Gaming Association President and CEO Geoff Freeman, hailed the announcement of the NHL’s awarding of the Las Vegas franchise as not only a big win for Las Vegas, but a big win for the gaming industry. Freeman even hinted that NHL hockey’s arrival in Las Vegas could spur the eventual legalization of sports wagering nationwide.

“It’s a significant time for Las Vegas and a significant time for the gaming industry at large,” Freeman said in a recent telephone interview.

“This helps to send a strong message around the country, and a particularly strong message to Washington where we have an antiquated law that feels compelled to keep sports and gaming at an arm’s distance length at least in the regulated world,” he said.

Freeman was referring to the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, passed in 1992, that prohibits sports wagering in every state except Nevada, Delaware, Oregon and Montana. Live wagering on games in sports books is legal only in Nevada.

The new presence of major-league sports in Nevada and the potential of other leagues looking at Las Vegas — hello, Las Vegas Raiders — could reopen the debate about sports wagering nationwide, especially since governments are furiously seeking new tax revenue.

“I’m confident that the stars are aligning when it comes to sports betting,” Freeman said. “I think more and more folks are aware of the illegal marketplace and the threat that poses both in terms of criminal activity and to the integrity of sport as well as the universe of entities that are seeing the benefits associated with sports betting.”

The market for illegal wagering is 16 times greater than in legal books. Anyone internet savvy can find a way to bet illegally online, but also risk not getting paid by an online book that is unregulated or resides in an offshore location not overseen by a trustworthy regulatory system.

Developing a national sports wagering system would have plenty of benefits.

“Of course, it would help the gaming industry, but as daily fantasy sports has proved, it helps the leagues, it helps the players, it helps the broadcasters,” Freeman said. “The beneficiaries go on and on and on and you can’t miss the government. Casino gaming right now is providing about $38 billion in tax revenue a year for them.

Here’s a way for those governments to increase their tax revenue without increasing taxes.”

Freeman believes Las Vegas tourism will benefit from having an NHL team.

“As a passionate Washington Capitals fan and someone who makes many business trips to Las Vegas every winter, I’m excited to catch a few road games when the Caps visit Nevada in the coming years,” Freeman said in an online post following the new franchise announcement.

Other solid hockey fans are likely to do the same thing. Don’t be surprised to see a new niche of online travel packaging with the arrival of NHL sports with deals directed at residents of cities with teams visiting T-Mobile. It could get even more creative if the NFL makes it to Las Vegas, but that’s a story for another day.

Another issue on the horizon is whether sports books will take wagers on NHL games involving the Las Vegas franchise.

Conventional wisdom points to taking bets on the Las Vegas as a nonissue. There don’t seem to be any roadblocks for that and, as earlier noted, taking the team’s games off the board wouldn’t be an economic hardship since bettors aren’t lining up to wager on hockey.

But Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman A.G. Burnett said in a recent interview that there is a regulation in place that could prevent sports books from taking bets on the local team.

Regulation 22.120 on sports wagering says, “No wagers may be accepted or paid by any book on any event, regardless of where it is held, involving a professional team whose home field, a court or base is in Nevada, or any event played in Nevada involving a professional team, if, not later than 30 days before an event or the beginning of a series of events, the team’s governing body files with the commission a written request that wagers on the event or series of events be prohibited, and the commission approves the request.”

What that means is that the Nevada Gaming Commission could be petitioned by “a team’s governing body” — Burnett said he would need to research whether that means the league or the team’s ownership — to require that a team’s games be taken off the board.

If requested within 30 days of the start of the season, the commission would be required to decide whether there is a compelling reason to prevent wagering.

The issue is new to Nevada because there’s never been a major-league team based here. But there have been casino operators with ownership positions in major-league sports teams that have voluntarily taken games off the boards of their own casinos.

The Palms, where the Maloof family was a part of the ownership of the National Basketball Association’s Sacramento Kings, and the Golden Nugget, owned by Tilman Fertitta, one of the original partners for the National Football League’s Houston Texans until the league forced him to divest, took games off the board of their respective sports book properties.

The NHL has said it doesn’t plan to stand in the way of betting on the Las Vegas team’s games. So far, its only concern has been that there be no satellite sports book at T-Mobile. MGM Resorts International and AEG, partners on the arena, haven’t announced any plans to pursue anything like that.

Any move to prohibit wagering on the home team would be ill advised since sports books have a history of discovering illogical gambling patterns that resulted in investigations into point-shaving and game fixing. Sports books would call attention to that with respective leagues because they have skin in the game. That’s one more way the local gaming industry can get behind the home team.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.