The sporting world and the online gambling industry are never without controversy, but according to the New York Post, this time the NFL may have gone too far. According to the daily, the NFL is responsible for pushing through new anti-gambling legislation in Congress last month. The League also managed to distance its own fantasy football sportsbetting activities from the legislation and even had the Act passed by tacking it onto an unrelated defense bill.

Naturally, opponents of the anti-gambling legislation are crying foul and point out that the NFL’s fantasy football is mainly exempt from the Act’s powers. The NFL is the owner of its fantasy football website, and also commonly receives royalties from other sites.

According to the New York Times, the NFL was desperate to have the anti-gambling legislation it supported passed during the Congress’ final legislative meeting. The League therefore decided to introduce the Act onto the back of a defense bill and the legislation was successfully pushed through.

However successful the NFL’s efforts may have proved, its representatives are reluctant to admit responsibility. The League’s law firm has denied all knowledge of the decision to add online gambling legislation to a defense bill, saying instead that Senator Frist was the one who decided to add the online gambling measure to a bill to secure the nation's ports. House Homeland Security Chairman Rep. Pete King subsequently accepted this action, commenting “I'm not going to stop a bill because of Internet gambling.”

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