With legalized sports betting on the legislative agenda, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) wants to get out in front of the anticipated media onslaught. In a meeting on Monday, the MGC explored several proposals to limit the amount of gambling advertising in the state.
Massachusetts is the latest state expressing concerns about the volume of advertising, particularly when it comes to underage and problem gamblers. These state-led efforts to curb advertising point to the industry’s attempts at self-regulation – and heading off the government crackdowns happening in European markets – coming up short.
As MGC Chairperson Cathy Judd-Stein put it, there’s a difference between what a company can do and what it should do. And if gambling operators aren’t willing to self-restrict, the can-should line needs to be moved.
“The content may be just fine, right? It may be fine. But if it’s just hitting us, hitting us,” Judd-Stein said. “Should sports betting be legalized in Massachusetts, that prevalence will become just a very significant matter.”
Massachusetts Takes Nothing Off the Table
Mark Vander Linden, the commission’s director of research and responsible gaming, made the case, highlighting that we are in a new era of advertising:
“Advertising today utilizes user-specific data collected through social media and other means to push out highly-targeted ads through our smartphones and other screens. On the surface, it appears this is the free market at play. But gambling is not a risk-free activity, and therefore commissioners may wish to consider additional measures to limit and or contain gambling advertising in Massachusetts by our licensees and their parent companies in order to minimize harm.”
Some the recommendations taken from the Responsible Gaming Considerations for Gambling Advertising White Paper presented by Vander Linden are:
- Restrict advertising and marketing campaigns which disproportionately target groups identified by empirical evidence to be considered at high-risk of experiencing gambling related harm;
- Require a portion of the licensee’s total marketing and advertising budget be exclusively dedicated to RG messaging;
- Prohibit advertising placed with such intensity and frequency that it saturates that communication medium, or in some cases, location;
- Ensure that any advertising restrictions include messages placed in digital media, including third-party internet and mobile sites, commercial marketing emails or text messages, social media sites and downloadable content;
- Prohibit advertising that is false, misleading or encourages risky gambling behavior, such as advertising which: Encourages players to chase their loss or re-invest their winning; Suggests that gambling is a means of solving financial problems or way to pay bills; or Guarantees winning or social, financial, or personal success.
- Should not advertise by means of television, radio, internet, mobile applications, social media, or other electronic communications, billboard or other outdoor advertising, or print publication, unless at least 85% of the audience is reasonably expected to be 21 years of age or older as determined by reliable and current audience composition data
Several of these proposals are taken from the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, and the MGC seemed keen on the idea of imposing cannabis advertising rules on gambling advertising.
“I would love for us to look deeply at the cannabis commission,” Judd-Stein said. “They’re in Massachusetts. They know how we roll in Massachusetts.”
The cannabis rules include:
- Prohibits advertising in such a manner that is deemed to be is deceptive, misleading, false or fraudulent, or that tends to deceive or create a misleading impression, whether directly or by omission or ambiguity
- Prohibit use of unsolicited pop-up advertisements on the internet or text message; unless advertisement is a mobile device application installed on the device by the owner of the device who is a Qualifying Patient or Caregiver or 21 years of age or older and includes a permanent and easy opt-out feature
- Prohibit operation of any website of a Marijuana Establishment that fails to verify that the entrant is 21 years of age or older
- Prohibit advertising by means of television, radio, internet, mobile applications, social media, or other electronic communication, billboard or other outdoor Advertising, or print publication, unless at least 85% of the audience is reasonably expected to be 21 years of age or older or comprised of individuals with debilitating conditions, as determined by reliable and current audience composition data
Possible impact on sportsbooks
Should the MGC adopt something along the lines of the cannabis rules, it would create a near-blanket ban on mainstream gambling advertisements.
According to MassLive.com, “If [cannabis] regulators request it, licensees have to turn over the audience composition data that demonstrates the advertising is in compliance,” which has led to cannabis ads on the Felger & Mazz sports talk show replaced on the radio broadcast, and only heard on the web-based podcast.
As MassLive notes:
“[W]hen the wildly popular Felger & Mazz show on 98.5 FM The Sports Hub goes to commercial break, listeners in their cars hear ads for weight loss programs and drain cleaners. But people who listen to the web-based podcast version of the show later on hear Sports Hub personality Jim Murray pitching a cannabis delivery service.”
The bottom line is that these rules are not in the industry’s best interest, but this appears to be where it’s headed.