John Oliver addressed the problems attached to the expanding sports betting industry, urging for changes to be made.
The Last Week Tonight host spoke about how the process of “picking winners and losers” has become such a huge business in the US with constant commercials surrounding Americans. “You’re not crazy for thinking those ads are inescapable,” he said.
In the last year alone over $434m was made and while it is “generally harmless” for most people, for others it has become a dominant force in their lives. “You can gamble all the time on just about anything and people do,” he said.
After the 2018 supreme court decision lifted the ban, states that now allow it have seen a 28% increase in bankruptcies.
It’s also helped the sports industry with people more likely to engage in even the smallest games with the very worst teams if they have placed a bet. “People will always be more engaged if they have a personal vested interest in what they’re watching,” he said.
It’s been “a big win for sports leagues” with lucrative licensing deals on top. Last year the NFL made $132m last year from gambling related sponsorships. They also received an additional $120m from licensing data to help set odds.
The phone apps have meant people are “constantly nudged to bet on everything” and “ordinary people are getting exposed to extreme levels of gambling they might never have otherwise encountered”.
It’s mostly affected young men who are offered free money if they sign up yet with “tons of small print” meaning the deals are never quite as great as they sound.
It’s also led to a rise in gambling related abuse woth players criticised online if people lose.
Oliver said that 1% of US adults now have a severe gambling problem while 2-3% have a mild or moderate problem. That’s 7.5-10 million people.
He said that it’s “not a tragic side effect of this industry, it’s based into the business model” and “betting until all your money has gone can be scarily easy to do when the casino is literally inside your pocket”.
The industry also finds ways of “weeding out winning customers” but this same data “could presumably identify those with addiction problems and direct them toward help”.
He added that “every part of this system is set up to reel gamblers in and keep them playing” and advertising connections have meant that “everyone in the sports world has now become compromised by an industry that is able to prey on its most vulnerable customers with incredible precision”.
The ease of playing means that people can hemorrhage money throughout the day. “It shouldn’t be this easy to lose this much,” he said.
But while some states have laws in place to protect people, they just don’t enforce them as much as they should, such as state programs where addicts sign up to block themselves from betting.
“We can change the trajectory here, we did it with cigarette advertising,” he said before saying that the adverts “should have to be much more reflective of what these companies actually do to people”.
