Super Bowl bashes must avoid penalties

The National Football League is full of menacing characters ferocious about protecting their turf. Usually, they’re fearsome linebackers, defensive tackles and safeties intent on keeping the opposition from crossing the goal line.

However, it seems some of pro football’s most intimidating defenders don’t wear helmets and shoulder pads, but rather pinstripe suits.

Just ask Las Vegas’ biggest casinos.

Those Super Bowl parties that had become a Las Vegas tradition – the ones featuring theater-sized screens, chafing dishes piled with chicken wings and, of course, the opportunity to bet on almost anything from the coin toss to which team scores last – were thrown for a loss last January by stern warnings from NFL lawyers and officials.

Some parties, the league contended, violated NFL copyright on the broadcast of the game.

This year, a letter from the NFL (occasionally referred to as the No Fun League) to the American Gaming Association, a casino umbrella group, further outlined the league’s prohibitions.

As a result, casino-hotels are forced to piece together Super Bowl soirees that won’t draw a penalty flag.

Possible infractions, the NFL wrote, include screens that are too large, too many screens or TVs, and charging admission.

So, the question for fans considering going to Vegas for next Sunday’s Super Bowl is, well, what exactly will there be in Sin City to enjoy?

For starters, betting on the game is unaffected. And NFL officials have said businesses that show sports events on TV as part of their normal operations will be allowed to present the Super Bowl. That includes casino sports and race books where wagers are taken year-round on every imaginable sports event, and the games are shown on jumbo TVs. The same broadcast allowance applies to your neighborhood sports bar.

The NFL makes one further concession, called the “homestyle exemption.” It means a business can set up in a bar or ballroom a single television no larger than one commonly used in homes, provided no admission is charged.

But it appears that those mega-parties that charged $50 or so for wings, beer, and a relatively comfortable seat from which you could root for your money as well as your team are finished.

The letter the NFL sent on Nov. 10 has had such a chilling effect on casinos that some gambling operators have been reluctant to discuss what, if anything, they have planned for the hundreds of thousands who show up in Vegas expecting a Super Bowl party.

Last January, the trendy Palms Casino-Hotel altered its arrangements for a Super Bowl bash when the league objected to its huge screen. The Palms hustled to round up smaller TVs and returned customers’ money. This year, Palms officials won’t discuss whether they have anything planned.

Spokesmen for some of the largest gaming companies said their casinos would offer Super Bowl festivities but stay strictly within the league’s guidelines.

“Previously, the MGM Grand showed the game in the Hollywood Theater,” MGM Mirage’s Alan Feldman said. “That’s not going to happen.”

Feldman said MGM Mirage, whose Vegas casinos include the MGM Grand, Mirage, Bellagio, New York New York and Treasure Island, will keep the Super Bowl action in sports books and bars.

Caesars Entertainment casinos – Caesars Palace, Paris Las Vegas, Bally’s and Flamingo – will do the same.

“We’ll have very exciting events in our sports books that will conform to the rules set up by the NFL,” Caesars Entertainment’s Robert Stewart said. “And we’re confident that people will come and have a great time.”

Perhaps, but it seems that pro football’s biggest day just won’t be quite as super in Vegas.