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GAMES COMPULSIVE GAMBLERS and WE PLAY Second Edition

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GAM-ANON INTERNATIONAL SERVICE OFFICE

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“As the tobacco industry knew with its lectures to high schoolers informing them that smoking is only for adults, the best way to ensure young people are interested in doing something is to tell them they are not allowed to do it.”

“If a business sells alcohol to someone who is clearly intoxicated, and that person commits personal or property damage, the business that sold them the booze can be held partly liable. These laws place the onus on suppliers to ensure their customers behave safely and to remove any incentive to overserve someone in pursuit of profit. Levant asks why sportsbooks should not be partly liable if they allow someone with an obvious gambling problem to continue betting and that person commits a financial crime to keep up their habit.”

“Who determines exactly what a high-risk bettor looks like? What will happen when their account is flagged? How restrictive will the limits on young bettors be? The efficacy of the programs will depend on the answers to these questions and the degree to which companies are willing to make decisions that hurt their bottom line.”

“If any aspect of the sports gambling boom has inspired a backlash, it is not rising rates of problem gambling, industry lobbying, or the athletes banned for gambling. It is the advertising. Everyone hates ads, after all. But the sudden rise of sports betting ads seems to have inspired a special kind of rancor and regulatory pushback. Frustration with sports betting ads relates in no small part to their sheer quantity, with around 1.5 million television advertisements in 2023. In polls, 47 percent of Americans—and nearly 60 percent of sports fans—agreed that there were too many ads. Just 10 percent disagreed. As late-night television host Conan O’Brien tweeted, “I haven’t seen an online sports betting ad in almost 7 minutes. Am I dead?”

“The industry’s goal has been to cultivate a second-screen experience. Companies want gamblers to get into the habit of keeping their sportsbook app open while they watch a game, with betting an expected part of the sports viewing experience. Many ads, then, show betting app interfaces on phones or feature someone holding their cell phone while watching a game, modeling the behavior sportsbooks want to inculcate.”

“Sportsbook logos are emblazoned everywhere, from billboards to trash cans to sports arenas. At Fenway Park, a half mile from PHAI’s office, the historic Green Monster left field wall is adorned with a BetMGM logo, and DraftKings and Fanatics logos are visible from home plate. These ads ensure that branding for all three companies is visible throughout the game, not just during the commercial breaks. Sports media companies, too, are invariably sponsored by sportsbooks, if they do not have a sportsbook of their own, with gambling content integrated into news and analysis. Ads are just as easy to find online, with 2.1 million digital advertising units in 2023, according to the AGA. Many of these are on social media, where for some people gambling is inescapable. Numerous bettors described feeds inundated with gambling influencers, both paid advertisements and so-called gambling influencers touting their expert picks and big parlay wins. The algorithm is relentless, picking up on the fact that someone is interested in betting content and serving them a steady diet of it. This situation is especially challenging if someone wants to take a break from gambling, as it can prove difficult to reprogram the algorithm entirely.”

“On TV and online, companies have turned to celebrity spokespeople to help normalize sports gambling. On the surface, the selection of spokesmen and they are almost all men may seem unconventional: comedian and actor Kevin Hart for DraftKings, actor and singer Jamie Foxx for BetMGM, and actor and comedian J. B. Smoove for Caesars. After all, none have any post-secondary athletic credentials. The former DraftKings employee believes these spokesmen were chosen to make sports betting feel accessible to casual fans, rather than someone already obsessed with sports or gambling.”

“While sportsbooks contract with their fair share of athletes from active players like LeBron James to recent retirees like Rob Gronkowski to old-timers like Charles Barkley they select actors and comedians in an attempt to strike a broader appeal. It likely comes as no coincidence that Hart, Smoove, and Foxx and many of the former athletes are Black. African Americans are more likely to have a sports betting account, more likely to check their account at least daily, and twice as likely to say they typically bet more than $100.”