Sports gambling has started to reach new levels since the widespread legalization in 2018, some might even say it has now become a part of the sports culture since billions of dollars have been wagered annually. In May 2018, sports betting became legalized when the Supreme Court shut down the Amateur Sports Protection Act.
Since then 38 different states have legalized some form of sports betting, according to the United States Census Bureau.Everyone has the right to do what they want with their money and some only partake in sports betting because they are financially responsible. However, it does not change the fact that sports betting is just another form of gambling and people who have addictive personalities are prone to the addiction of gambling.
Companies like FanDuel, ESPN Bet, DraftKings, and Yahoo Sports all promote their betting companies across all major sports. Each company makes it seem like sports betting is a cool thing to do and advertise how you can get rich if it all goes your way.
The commercials for sports betting not only feed onto addictions, but they actively show younger children certain vices that they may not have been familiar with yet.
I do not think the legalization of gambling is the main problem at hand, it is the companies who actively promote it on their respective platforms. You could be casually watching a basketball or baseball game with your friend and chances are you have seen a commercial or heard the broadcasters saying their regularly scheduled promotion for an application.
It is not easy to spot the addiction and other problems related to sports gambling because anyone can have it on their mobile device. It is not like other forms of gambling like blackjack or Texas Hold’ Em where you can just lose all your money on the spot.
Sports gambling is a slow killer. Your friend or family member can have their paycheck on the line of a baseball game as they're sweating bullets and you would think you guys are just simply watching a game.
It is amazing how a sports broadcasting platform like ESPN can even promote gambling in the sports they actively cover.It is even more surprising how sports conglomerates like the NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB are now in contracts with betting organizations to promote gambling after actively going against it before its legalization.
On April 17, the NBA banned Toronto Raptor forward Jontay Porter for life after betting on his own prop bets and sharing information with other gamblers, according to an April 21 article in the New York Times. The NBA said that between January through March, Porter placed 13 bets on NBA games in another person's betting account, according to the same article.
The integrity of the game is being compromised with the exposure and easy accessibility of online gambling. The Porter news was even worse timing considering MLB’s biggest star Shohei Ohtani got into legal trouble after it was discovered that his translator, Ippei Mizuhara, had stolen more than $16 million from his bank to financially support his illegal sports betting tendencies, according to April 15 CBS Sports article.
Sports leagues formed a coalition on April 23, 2023 to promote limits on betting ads. The coalition has members in the MLB, NHL, NFL, NBA, NASCAR, and MLS, according to an April 19 article on ESPN. Some of the goals listed are to market to people who are of legal age only to place bets, call for publishers to review consumer complaints and that sports advertisements should be shown in good taste.
It has been about a year since the coalition was formed and it seems as if gambling advertising has only grown in the sports industry since then.If action is not taken to combat the advertisements and the normalcy of sports betting it will show how much sports companies have prioritized the betting instead of the actual sport that is being played by world class athletes.
