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The American Gaming Association, apparently responding to the groundswell of pushback on social media and in state houses, updated its suggested code of ethics for the gambling industry on Tuesday to reflect a desire to better protect the vulnerable, particularly college students and minors.
With sports betting legal and in some form of implementation in 36 United States jurisdictions, mainstream Americans are being inundated with advertising and customer-acquisition pitches unseen since the great DFS battles between DraftKings and FanDuel in the 20-teens. This even though, according to the AGA, “Sports betting accounted for less than half a percentage of total advertising volume last year, down 28% from 2021.”
Meanwhile, legislators have pushed back on the language in some of these ads, particularly the notion of a “risk-free” or “free” bet and its potential harm to the uninitiated or vulnerable.
Martin Lycka, the SVP for American Regulatory Affairs and Responsible Gambling at Entain, and a member of the panel that updated the code, called it “a step in the right direction,” noting “a lot of operators have voluntarily committed to following the Code.”
The growth of sportsbook partnerships with major college athletic departments has come under scrutiny since a New York Times expose earlier this year. Currently, eight universities have partnerships with sportsbooks, following the University of Colorado’s lead in partnering with PointsBet in 2020. A controversial portion of the PointsBet deal, where the university would receive an affiliate fee for new signups with PointsBet, has since been stricken.
Interesting now will be whether these other universities including Maryland and LSU follow Colorado’s lead again. PointsBet and Colorado announced on Wednesday that they had terminated their five-year deal.
“PointsBet and the University of Colorado have decided it is mutually beneficial to end their partnership at this time. Both parties are thankful for the joint efforts throughout the relationship and wish the best for each organization going forward,” said a joint statement.
AGA’s New Code of Ethics Revealed
The AGA calls the changes the most significant to its Responsible Marketing Code since its inception in 2019. They are:
- Enhancing protections for college-aged audiences by:
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- Prohibiting college partnerships that promote, market or advertise sports wagering activity (other than to alumni networks or content focused on responsible gaming initiatives or problem gambling awareness).
- Prohibiting sportsbook NIL deals for amateur and college athletes.
- Adding age restrictions (21+) for any individual featured in sports betting advertising.
- Changing all references to the “legal age of wagering” to 21-plus.
- Banning all use of “risk free” in advertising.
- Formalizing an annual process for reviewing and updating the Code.
“Advertising plays an essential role in migrating consumers away from predatory illegal sportsbooks and into the protections of the legal, regulated market while providing responsible gaming resources,” AGA CEO Bill Miller said. “The AGA and our members are committed to building a sustainable marketplace that protects vulnerable populations and gives consumers the knowledge and tools to keep sports betting fun for adults.”
Industry, Politicians Combine To Push Back on Potential Harm
FanDuel CEO Amy Howe was lauded for beginning an industry push to phase out the term “risk-free” nearly a year ago.
Still, safeguarding students remains a tricky proposition. Even with sportsbooks being coerced by legislators to strengthen firewalls, the encroachment of offshore gambling sites on minors remains unchecked. Gaming Today found two college newspapers – The Daily Collegian at Penn State, and the Daily Iowan at the University of Iowa – with links to numerous offshore wagering sites as advertisers.
But the pushback is evident.
- Maryland State Senator Shelly Hettleman this year filed a bill that would prohibit colleges from receiving compensation for student participation “in certain sports wagering.”
- The Ohio Casino Control Commission fined PENN Entertainment $250,000 after a Barstool Sports show on the University of Toledo campus shared a promotional code with the audience, which of course included minors. Ohio’s regulations are among the most stringent nationally in their attempt to safeguard minors.
- DraftKings was fined $500,000 for mailing promotional material to more than 2,500 Ohio residents younger than 21, the legal age to wager.
- Most universities now have policies or state laws in place to forbid college athletes from signing NIL deals with sportsbooks. MaximBet had offered such deals at Colorado before it was learned the proposal conflicted with the PointsBet arrangement.
A spokesperson from bet365 Sportsbook said the company has gone live on launch day just once — Jan. 1 in Ohio — as to not be involved in the type of problematic behavior the AGA code has since been revised to address.
“We’ve kind of been late to the party in a number of states. And that’s not by accident,” the spokesperson said. “That’s because actually we don’t want to be kind of caught up in this frenzy of promoting gambling. The only state so far we’ve launched where we’ve launched live, it’s Ohio, and even then we were kind of really considering how we advertised, how we marketed, and in most states, we’ll let a DraftKings or a FanDuel go a little bit crazy for a few months because do we want to be caught up in where you promote your brand so heavily that there could be instances where RG is compromised? We would never want to do that.”
