Relentless ad wave fueling gambling sector as regulators show more interest in industry – Wicked Local

Colin A. Young| State House News Service

The ads are inescapable. Some claim to offer "risk-free" betting while others tout hundreds or thousands of dollars in "free" or "bonus" play for new customers. But left unchecked, the star-studded commercials and digital ads can also open a world of trouble for young people and others at risk of irresponsible gambling, expanded gambling opponents and public health advocates warned Feb. 2.

For the operators, aggressive advertising is a fact of doing business in a growing field in which numerous deep-pocketed companies are competing to keep their existing customers and attract new ones. But for people like Mark Gottlieb, it is a warning of the consequences that could come as a result of legalizing sports betting in Massachusetts, such as bettors losing their savings, greater rates of problem gambling, exacerbated income inequalityand increased health care costs.

"We're in like the 1950s in tobacco years when it comes to the gambling industry. In states with sports betting, the advertising is absolutely saturating the market, and everyone in those markets is noticing it. It seems like it's overtaken ads for insurance, which I didn't even think was possible, cars and even beer by a considerable margin," Gottlieb, the executive director of the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University School of Law, said Feb. 2 during an event hosted by national advocacy group Stop Predatory Gambling. "And with the big game coming up and other games coming in March, we can see it increasing even more."

New Yorkers were bombarded with ads for sportsbooks when that state launched mobile betting in early January, coinciding with the start of the NFL playoffs. Comedian Conan O'Brien tweeted Jan. 9 that it had been almost seven minutes since he had seen a betting ad. "Am I dead?" he asked.

"If you live in New York State, every single ad on social will be for sports betting. For today and forever after," Will Hershey, CEO of a New York investment firm that offers a sports betting ETF,tweeted.

Harry Levant, a gambling addict in recovery and director of education for Stop Predatory Gambling, said advertising is "the tip of the iceberg."

"It's the piece that you can see, but so much additional public harm is going on beneath the surface. We hope to use the focus on advertising as a launching pad to begin to further educate the public on what the gambling establishment is doing and how it is completely inconsistent with public health," he said.

In 2015, it was the ubiquity of the ads for DraftKings and FanDuel on television, the internet and at places like South Station that helped daily fantasy sports break into the mainstream. But it also put the activity onto regulators' radar screens and led them to impose restrictions on it. A review of DraftKings and the industry in general launched by Attorney General Maura Healey eventually led to penalties for DraftKings and FanDuel, and consumer protection regulations for daily fantasy sports.

It was the constant presence of advertising for DraftKings during last fall's MLB playoffs that caught the attention of Gaming Commissioner Brad Hill, who voted last summeras a member of the Massachusetts House to legalize the sports wagering.

"And they pushed it and pushed it and pushed it, every single inning that we watched of the game last night," Hill said in October of the betting ads.

At that same October meeting, members of the Gaming Commission flagged their heightened interest in taking a closer look at advertising practices in both the casino gambling industry they already regulate and in the sports betting world they could come to oversee. On Feb. 2, the Gaming Commission agreed to schedule its first foray into gaming advertising practices for March 3, early in Problem Gambling Awareness Month.

A six-yearproblem gambling studyreleased in April identified demographic groups particularly at risk of experiencing gambling-related problems in Massachusetts, including males and people in lower-income groups.

Among the policy recommendations that Mark Vander Linden, the commission's director of research and responsible gaming, presented to commissioners for consideration was to "[l]imit gambling advertising and availability, especially in lower socioeconomic neighborhoodsor groups that may be at increased risk of experiencing gambling harms."

Vander Linden said there are "definitely some lessons to be learned from other jurisdictions and sports wagering advertising" and highlighted the idea of a "whistle-to-whistle" ban on sports betting advertising, like the policy in the UK that prohibits betting ads during live sporting events.

"So if we head down that path, it's something that I think should be really closely considered," he said in October.

The sports betting bill (H 3977) that the House voted 156-3 to pass in July would direct the Gaming Commission to write regulations to prohibit any ad that is "deceptive, false, misleadingor untrueor tends to deceive or create a misleading impression whether directlyor by ambiguity or omission"; any advertising or marketing that would appeal directly to people younger than 21; and "any form of advertising, marketing or branding that the commission deems unacceptable or disruptive to the viewer experience at a sports event."

The Senate has been far less interested in making it legal to bet on sports in Massachusetts.

Senate President Karen Spilka, who was among the opponents of a 2010 push to legalize casino gambling before leading the successful effort to legalize casino gambling in 2011, has for years been noncommittal about taking the issue up.

"You know, some want to do it, some are uncertain they want to do it," she said. "But we will be taking a look at it with the senators."

Sen. Eric Lesser, who has proposed his own sports betting bill and has led the Senate's consideration of the idea, said last year that protections for people with gambling addictions would be a priority area if the Senate does consider a sports betting bill.

"It is, at the end of the day, a gambling product, and we do need to remember that. We have a lot of senators that are concerned about that and want to make sure that people who might have an addiction, people who might fall prey to bad activity, are protected," he said. "So we're going to make sure that any bill ... has a lot of consumer protections in place and really sets a high standard for the quality of play."

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Relentless ad wave fueling gambling sector as regulators show more interest in industry - Wicked Local