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A new academic study suggests that leading U.S. online gambling companies are not complying with voluntary codes for including safer-gambling messages for ads on social media, even though the companies meet those standards in paid-for advertising.
The study by researchers at the University of Bristol in the UK suggests that U.S. online gambling companies regularly violate the American Gaming Association’s (AGA) voluntary codes for what the researchers call organic advertising, or digital marketing using social media.
“The sheer volume of gambling ads, paired with a lack of warnings and responsible gaming messaging, reflects an aggressive marketing strategy,” the researchers said.
An industry spokesman, however, responded with a claim that declaring sharing of sports facts or stoking of discussions on social media to be advertising is an “irresponsible misinterpretation”.
The Bristol study found that all 310 paid-for ads it examined met AGA standards calling for safer-gambling messages and gambling helpline listings.
But more than 80 percent of the marketing promotions it found on social media were organic ads, and 58 percent of those were not clearly identifiable as advertising, according to the Bristol study.
About 8 percent of the ads were judged to be appealing to children, also a violation of the AGA’s guidelines, the researchers said.
“Self-regulation of advertising in the gambling industry often falls short of protecting young and vulnerable audiences; instead it tends to prioritize the industry's interests,” said Raffaello Rossi, a marketing lecturer at the university who was the study’s lead author.
Many of the ads “blur the line between entertainment and advertising, making it challenging for users, especially younger ones, to recognize that they are being marketed a highly addictive product”, Rossi said. “Almost half of the all the ads in our study are hard to spot as advertisements, which highlights some real concerns about these techniques.”
Content marketing, or sharing information designed to engage audiences without reference to the product being promoted, constituted 52 percent of the organic ads, the study said.
The study was done by academic researchers who looked at 1,663 gambling messages disseminated by Flutter’s FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM and Penn Entertainment’s ESPN BET between July 29 and August 4 on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter/X.
FanDuel declined to comment on the study, while BetMGM, DraftKings and ESPN BET did not respond to requests.
An AGA spokesperson said the trade group was “pleased” to hear all paid-for advertisements conformed to its Responsible Marketing Code.
“However, categorizing all social media posts as ads misses the basics of brand communication,” said senior vice president Joe Maloney.
“Like companies across other industries, sports betting operators provide relevant, engaging content to customers designed to maintain brand awareness without promoting a specific offering that is covered by the code, like sports betting,” he said.
“To describe the sharing of sports facts, schedules, or discussion topics via tweets and posts on social media platforms as advertising and thus applicable to our code is an irresponsible misinterpretation,” Maloney said.
“We're proud of our members' responsible advertising practices and their commitment to upholding strong industry standards, which continues to grow consumer trust in our industry’s overall commitment to responsibility.”
In addition, all the AGA’s member companies have “have age restrictions and a conspicuous (responsible gambling) message in their profile bios”, he said.
But Rossi said he found a claim that organic ads or content marketing are not advertising to be “absurd”.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards all consider organic advertising and content marketing to be advertising, he told Vixio GamblingCompliance.
An ASA spokesman said the UK agency considers content marketing to be “online material that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in a company’s products or services”, and when directed at a UK audience, is “subject to the Advertising Code”.
On September 5, DraftKings Sportsbook’s feed on X had a promotion on football “super boost” odds that included a gambling helpline number and the slogan “please gamble responsibly”.
But it also had a number of messages without safer-gambling warnings promoting the start of the NFL season, such as one that included a picture of comedy actor Larry David with his feet up and the words, “'What are your plans the next 5 days?’ My only plan: Watching football”.
The Bristol study also recommends federal legislation governing marketing of gambling, banning gambling content marketing on social media, and restricting use of celebrities in advertising.
The AGA specifically objects to the idea of federal laws targeting gambling ads.
“Legal operators abide by robust state-based advertising regulations enforced by more than 5,000 regulators nationwide,” Maloney said. “Legal industry operators also carefully follow well-established federal standards for responsible advertising that are in place for all industries.”
Rossi said he wished the publication of the research could “open a dialogue”, and that the trade group would consider suggestions that it tighten codes to add transparency, independent audits and penalties for non-compliance.
“The current codes are new and, understandably, not perfect,” he said. “I genuinely hope the AGA considers our findings to enhance the codes and ensure that children and young people are safeguarded from gambling-related harm."
