The $750 million stadium public subsidy approved by the Nevada Legislature last week brings to mind the expression “winning by losing.” If that is the price of having a National Football League team in your city, then Oakland would be wise to let Las Vegas win this bidding war. Las Vegas is not quite rolling the dice on this; it’s rolling over.

Las Vegas might not be the only party to come to regret this deal. The NFL, which has experienced a sharp decline this year in television ratings — its lifeblood — might someday wonder why it allowed one of its 32 franchises to move from the nation’s sixth-largest television market to its 40th.

And if winning on the field is the chief goal of Raiders owner Mark Davis, he might long for the day when he walked away from a robust East Bay fan base and the home-field advantage it produces. Memo to Davis: One major rationale for raising the Las Vegas hotel tax to help finance the stadium is that it will attract out-of-towners for games. You really think they’re going to cheer for your team, or even bother to book a trip when the team is down?

This is an absurd deal in almost every way. The stadium is supposed to be a “legacy project” for casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, one of the wealthier people on the planet — and one who likes to sprinkle his largesse on antitax Republican politicians who deplore the welfare state. It also contains no profit sharing for the public entities providing the largest share of funding and locks in the $750 million contribution if construction costs are less than the $1.9 billion estimate.

Oakland has been down this road before and knows that “can’t miss” promises for a stadium’s economic benefit are about as legal tender as those lucky bucks used to entice tourists into casinos for a first spin of the wheel. Oakland and Alameda County are still paying off the $95 million debt remaining from the 1995 deal that brought the Raiders back from Los Angeles.

Mayor Libby Schaaf has maintained a sensible approach: Try to keep the team, but with no general-fund subsidy. The public contributions would be limited to infrastructure improvements that have value beyond a football stadium. An investment group with ex-NFL players Ronnie Lott and Rodney Peete is working with the city and county to try to put together a deal in Oakland.

We wish them success. It would be for the NFL owners who must approve the deal to decide if their long-term interest really is served by yet another shameless dollar-chasing franchise move.

It’s now becoming a long shot, but if it is going to happen in Oakland, it must be done the right way — without corporate welfare.