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Super Bowl Controversy Erupts at Vegas Resort

By Liz Benston

LAS VEGAS -- The Palms hotel-casino has canceled a sold-out broadcast of the Super Bowl in its movie theater after the property was threatened with legal action by the National Football League, a move the resort says could threaten countless other broadcasts across Las Vegas in the days leading up to Sunday's game.

The resort received a cease-and-desist letter from the NFL last Friday stating that the Palms' planned broadcast of the Super Bowl in Brenden Theatres would violate the league's copyrights on the event.

At issue are a series of factors, including the large venue for the broadcast and the admissions charge, said Brian McCarthy, an NFL spokesman.

"We have a longstanding policy that strictly prohibits mass out-of-home broadcasts," McCarthy said.

The Super Bowl generated $71.6 million in wagers last year as one of Las Vegas' most bet-upon events. It has also spawned a tourism phenomenon as visitors stream into town for myriad public and invitation-only Super Bowl parties where the game is often shown on a giant screen.

Palms officials say they have somehow been singled out by the league in a town where admission-only events are as common as casino chips.

"This has been going on in Las Vegas for years," Palms spokeswoman Vanessa Thill said. "Any property at this point is at risk."

McCarthy said the NFL's policy doesn't discriminate against casinos or any other group. Recent recipients of the same letter include the New England Aquarium in Boston and an organization in Charlotte, N.C., he said.

"If a movie theater in New York wanted to have customers come in and watch the Super Bowl, it couldn't," he said. "We have been sending cease-and-desist letters around the country ... when we become aware of something we perceive to be a violation."

McCarthy said he wasn't aware of any other casinos or venues in Las Vegas that had also been contacted by the NFL.

The letter marked the first of its kind for the Palms, which held a similar Super Bowl party in the theater last year, Palms' General Manager Jim Hughes said.

Hughes said he also wasn't aware of other resorts or venues that had been sent similar letters by the NFL, though "the NFL did tell us they would be notifying other properties."

Marketing representatives at some other major properties on the Strip said they weren't immediately aware that their companies had received any such letters from the NFL.

Hughes said the Palms offered to pay a fee to the NFL to broadcast the game in the theater but the league refused.

"The NFL has no desire to sell the rights to the game," he said.

Casinos, bars and other gambling venues in town typically pay the NFL a fee to receive broadcasts of all league games during the regular football season over and above the regional broadcasts of games cable subscribers receive at home. Playoff games and the Super Bowl are available to all cable subscribers and don't carry a special fee, Hughes said.

The Palms says it has figured out a way to satisfy customers and the NFL's copyright standards.

The resort has acquired 130 or so plasma screen TVs to install in a smaller events room and around the resort. Customers who bought tickets to the theater broadcast will be able to attend a party in the property's Key West room, which will offer free food and drinks and be closed to the public.

Showing the game on television sets apparently satisfies the NFL because the league said it objected to the game being shown on "screens larger than 55 inches" -- the biggest TVs typically sold for home use, Thill said.

McCarthy said the NFL's policy takes into account a variety of factors besides the size of the broadcast, including the square footage of the venue.

Some venues "are turning this into a pay-per-view event," he said.

Anthony Curtis, publisher of the Las Vegas Advisor consumer newsletter and an avid Super Bowl watcher, calls the NFL's action a "stupid business decision" that illustrates an "inherent Las Vegas bias."

Las Vegas betting action and large-scale broadcasts help generate untold profits for the NFL and its games, he said.

"I've been watching (the Super Bowl) for years and years on big screens and this is the first I've heard of such a thing," he said.

"They should want it broadcast on the biggest screens in the world," he said. "They are so guarded of their brand and their product that it doesn't surprise me."

Copyright © Las Vegas Sun. Inc. Republished with permission.

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