By Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY
Finally, there will be an official NBA poker chip. And now poker players can deal NBA players.
At the recent Super Show, a trade show for sports gear, the league introduced plans for the $130 chip sets that sport NBA logos and come in their own carrying case. And the new $10 playing card sets will bear likenesses of NBA players. The NBA, like other leagues, adamantly opposes sports betting. But the league, with a WNBA team in a Connecticut casino and its Sacramento Kings team owners also owning a Las Vegas casino, also argues sports betting is separate from other gambling.
Poker, obviously, isn't seen as a problem. Says NBA senior vice president Sal LaRocca, "Poker reached mainstream status and is an increasingly popular way for adults to spend leisure time."
The NBA isn't the first league to have its logos on playing cards: The NFL and Major League Baseball sell cards, good for poker, emblazoned with team logos. But the NFL, says spokesman Brian McCarthy, has a "stringent gambling policy that would preclude" putting its logos on poker chips.
The chips probably won't make a big difference on the NBA's annual retail merchandise sales which, according to License! magazine, reached about $3 billion in 2003.
Keith Whyte of the National Council on Problem Gambling suggests the NBA should reconsider its tie-ins with cards and chips: "If leagues want sports to keep betting illegal, it's counterproductive to endorse other gambling."
This might be just a start. The New York Knicks will soon debut playing cards featuring its team dancers.
Contributing: Wire reports
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