Gambling Is Serious Problem, NFL Says

The security director of the National Football League said Thursday that compulsive gambling is the second most serious problem, behind drug abuse, facing professional athletes.

And the director, Warren R. Welch, said that NFL officials are placing signs in locker rooms and inserts in playbooks to supplement training camp talks aimed at discouraging the league’s 1,200 players from gambling.

“We’re trying to focus their attention on their vulnerability and make them aware of what could happen to them if they get involved in gambling activities,” he said. “We think it’s a giant problem, one of the two main distractions to the game, with the other being drugs.”

Welch’s comments came at a daylong conference on gambling sponsored by the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey and the State Division of Alcoholism.

The 200 participants in a half-dozen workshops included psychiatrists, prison officials, mental-health workers and representatives of New Jersey’s casino and lottery offices.

Welch said he had no estimate on the number of compulsive gamblers in the NFL but said there was at least one player who is undergoing treatment for the addiction.

“It’s hard to get a handle on just how many of the players have a problem with gambling because it is a hidden illness,” he said. “But we in the league take a very firm, vocal stand against gambling and any legalization of sports betting.”