Sports Betting Advertising Should Be Banned, Says National Consumers League

According to a well-known national group, sports betting advertising and the persistent strategies used by numerous online sportsbooks pose a risk to the health of their customers.

Advertising for sports betting should be banned, according to the National Consumers League (NCL).  According to a recent study, 93% of the push notifications that FanDuel, DraftKings, and BetMGM delivered to smartphones contained advertisements, according to the nonprofit consumer advocacy group, which was established in 1899.

The NCL study discovered that over 60% of the sportsbook notifications urged the user to wager, including phrases like "bet now."  The NCL refers to the usage of app notifications for advertising and bet-inducing reasons as "bet pushes" and claims that this practice is "extremely invasive" and shouldn't be accepted.

Ad Ban Supported 

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is committed to empowering and safeguarding consumers in the marketplace, has been urged by the NCL to look into whether using app notifications for marketing purposes is against federal consumer protection rules.  The group is requesting that state legislators and authorities outlaw advertisements for sports betting in the interim.

The NCL backs the SAFE Bet Act, a federal measure that would prohibit advertisements for sports betting during any live sports programming and between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m.  The bill, which was written by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY), would also compel sportsbooks to perform "affordability checks" on clients placing large or unusual wagers, and it would restrict bettors to five deposits per day.

"Sports betting companies have 24/7 access to consumers through their phones, from the minute they wake up to the second they fall asleep. The government regulates advertising on television, email, and text messages. But when it comes to push notifications, something that’s arguably more effective than each of those older mediums, there are no protections,”  said NCL Senior Public Policy Manager Eden Iscil.

According to the FTC, deceptive business practices are those that have the potential to "mislead a consumer acting responsibly."  The act of creating or expected to cause "substantial injury to consumers which is not reasonably avoidable by consumers themselves and not outweighed by countervailing benefits" is considered an unfair business conduct.

Just as harmful as tobacco?

Iscil compared the nascent computer gambling sector to tobacco when advocating for a ban on sports betting advertising.

“The U.S. government (rightfully) considered the advertising of cigarettes over the radio to be too extreme and banned those marketing practices decades ago. Now, imagine if a tobacco company sends a text every day, multiple times a day, to encourage you to smoke their cigarettes. That is basically what sports betting apps are doing,” Iscil opined.

Iscil believes that since push notifications "demand your attention," businesses shouldn't have access to a customer's smartphone.  Because its offering "has well-documented addictive and harmful effects, from increased rates of suicide and intimate partner violence to an elevated risk of bankruptcy," he continues, sports betting is not a "typical product or service."

According to the American Gaming Association, its members—including the three top sportsbooks mentioned above—take great care to guarantee that patrons wager sensibly.

"A thriving gaming industry is built on a foundation of responsibility,” the AGA says.

Promoting responsible gaming is part of the AGA's Responsible Code of Conduct, which all members have vowed to follow.