Tilman Fertitta, who previously owned a piece of the Houston Texans, has been forced out of the ownership team based on his company’s acquisition of a casino in 2005.

“We work very hard to make sure that gambling doesn’t have any influence in the way our game is played,” majority owner Bob McNair told the Houston Chronicle.  “The concern is that if one of our owners has interest in a casino then there might be some conflict of interest along the way.  And they don’t want to have any questions about that.

“So they have a simple and very strict rule, and if you have that kind of ownership position you cannot be an owner regardless of what percentage you own of a team.”

The NFL has an odd relationship with gambling.  The injury-reporting rules (which could use a significant overhaul) are aimed at insuring that there’s no benefit to having inside information, which in theory prevents players and team employees from being corrupted by envelopes full of $20 bills.  And the league surely realizes that folks who gamble on football account for a finite percentage of the folks who buy tickets and/or watch games.

That said, the league has created a clear firewall regarding the involvement of any players, coaches, or owners in any type of gambling interest.  The only surprising thing about this story is that Fertitta wasn’t bounced sooner; indeed, the Texans spent three years trying to finagle a way around the rule.