Longtime sportsbook executive Joe Asher downplayed concerns that the U.S. could turn into a nation of problem gamblers, but he did warn that sports betting will lead to increased addiction over time, albeit not at the levels in Europe, due to cultural differences.
Victor Rocha, chairman of the Indian Gaming Tradeshow & Convention that kicked off Tuesday afternoon in Anaheim, broached the subject of addiction with Asher, president of sports betting at IGT.
Rocha raised concerns of the potential fallout as sports betting expands throughout the U.S., including among tribes.
Rocha spoke about what’s happened in England and elsewhere in Europe, as the proliferation of sports betting ads and concerns over gambling addiction have led to a crackdown on advertising and potentially tougher gambling laws. A member of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, Rocha said he’s worried, especially as California voters consider allowing sports betting in a November ballot referendum.
“The UK market is interesting to watch, because now the pendulum has swung the other way,” Rocha said.
“There are tighter restrictions on marketing and gambling. They’re having conversations about means-testing players, which is insane. It sounds like a Soviet-era mentality. That’s because the industry wasn’t self-regulating enough.”
Asher, who once worked for UK gambling company William Hill, said it’s a complex issue, but “there’s a fairly significant culture difference in the UK versus the U.S., and I probably didn’t fully appreciate it until I started to work for a British company. I thought, we had this war a couple of hundred years ago, but now we’re best friends. There’s quite a difference culturally, so I think individual responsibility versus government protections of a broader swath of people is one of the distinctions.”
Asher told Rocha problem gambling “is a real issue” and talked of the backlash in the UK over it, spurred by individual cases spotlighted in the press. In addition, members of Parliament seized and focused on the issue.
“In the U.S., you see it in states where sports betting is just becoming legal. The runup before football season in the amount of advertising that customers were subjected to was unbelievable, not only on television, but social media feeds as well,” Asher said.
With so many competitors in particular states, all of those ads combined can be overwhelming to the public. Asher said it’s not an easy issue for which to find a solution, short of a regulatory approach.
“There are so many operators,” Asher said. “The NFL had a restriction that there could be only six advertisements per game, but you have the pre-game show, the post-game show, then the local news and a sports TV show after the news. There’s definitely a saturation issue. Then you have all the ads on Twitter and Facebook feeds.”
Asher cited a similar overwhelm in 2015 with FanDuel and DraftKings ads for daily fantasy sports. The sheer volume of ads can lead to an increase in problem gambling, he said.
“It’s only natural, because of the advertising,” Asher said. “People see it and are tempted to try the product, and a segment of that population is going to have a problem controlling their use of the product. An increase in problem gambling is inevitable in the next few years. I don’t have the solution to the issue or I’d be talking about it nonstop. It’s a complicated problem, but we’re just seeing the beginning of it.”
Rocha said if the U.S. ignores the problem-gambling aspect of sports betting expansion and promotion, “we’re going to have a problem just like they’re having in the UK and Europe. Going into these new markets, we have to be very careful that these issues are being addressed. It will turn around and bite us in the behind if we don’t.”
According to Rocha, the bigger issue is mobile betting; it’s so easy and accessible that it can exacerbate problem gambling. He said he wants Native Americans to understand the risks as well as the opportunities that come with sports-betting expansion that is being pushed onto tribes whether they’re ready for it or not.
He agreed with Asher that “there’s a different mentality here. There’s even a difference between the East Coast and West Coast. I used to live in New Jersey and people used bookies that their grandfather or dad had. It’s ingrained in the culture. California doesn’t feel like that. We don’t have that same passion. It’s important we take problem gambling very seriously and deal with it going forward.”
