Hearings on Wednesday in Illinois and Washington, D.C. that focused on sports betting brought together various lawmakers, stakeholders and players’ associations representatives — but not a National Football League representative in the flesh.

Jack Evans, Chairman of the D.C. Council’s Finance & Revenue Committee who led the Council hearing, asked aloud why the NFL has largely been absent from the public conversation on legal sports wagering. “That’s the largest gambling area — in football,” Evans noted, before the NBA’s Dan Spillane advised that an NFL official actually had appeared at a Congressional hearing in September.

At that House of Representatives committee hearing, the NFL’s Jocelyn Moore, Executive Vice President, Communications and Public Affairs stated that, “Since the Supreme Court decision, state governments are rushing to promote sports betting — and we are witnessing a regulatory race to the bottom.”