Addiction in the Mind, Massachusetts Gaming Officials Consider Stricter Ad Rules – NewBostonPost

By CommonWealth Beacon | July 5, 2024, 8:15 AM EDT

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2024/07/05/addiction-in-mind-massachusetts-gaming-officials-mull-stricter-advertising-regulations/

By Jennifer Smith
CommonWealth Lighthouse

Massachusetts gambling regulators are considering new recommendations to curb the disturbing effects of advertising, highlighting the growing sports betting industry, which poses a particular risk to young and problem gamblers.

Current government regulations on gaming advertising – which in recent years have particularly targeted sports betting – include restrictions on false or misleading advertising, limits on the intensity and frequency of advertising, and requirements to include information on where to get help in all advertising and marketing materials.

At a June 20 meeting of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, researchers released a literature review outlining the state of the advertising market and its plans for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1. They spoke of the risk of oversaturation of the market with advertising for various gaming options, but most notably highlighted the growing popularity of online sports betting.

Rachel Volberg, one of the researchers, recommended limiting advertising for riskier games, which are often associated with a higher risk of gambling problems, as well as limiting the promotion of games for specific purposes, such as supporting “good causes.”

She added that it would also be prudent to require that incentives do not create a sense of urgency, have limited value and are only offered when customers open an account.

She also advised limiting celebrity endorsements to reduce their appeal to young people and those with gambling addictions. Volberg stressed the importance of monitoring emerging forms of advertising on social media platforms, which can be more insidious and difficult to regulate.

A study on gambling advertising, based on a literature review, existing gambling data and online panel surveys conducted over the past few years, found a significant shift towards digital gaming advertising, including targeted promotions and widespread social media campaigns.

Volberg noted that while consumers sometimes resist this suggestion, gambling advertisements significantly influence their behavior, often encouraging greater participation.

Although most of the literature on advertising vices focuses on alcohol and tobacco, Volberg said that “advertising tends to emphasize the positive experiences of use and downplay the potentially negative aspects. The amount of positive advertising completely overwhelms any advertising about the risks or availability of help.” These forms of advertising particularly affect at-risk and problem gamblers, she said.

Gaming researchers have been running online panels for several years, where Massachusetts residents sign up to participate and share their gambling habits. Volberg noted that this introduces some bias — a larger share of serious gamblers than a random sample of residents — but said that bias “may be a feature, not a bug.”

While the panels are not representative of the entire state, they offer researchers access to large numbers of people who have experienced gambling problems, she said, “to understand these problems in a much more detailed way than is possible with population surveys.”

In its 2014, 2022 and 2023 panels, the study found that people with a gambling problem were most likely to say they saw a significant amount of gambling advertising and that this made them more likely to gamble. The panels also found that news coverage of gambling, casino association communications and targeted promotions all contribute to increased gambling.

Implementing the gambling advertising recommendations is no easy feat. Commissioner Brad Hill highlighted the legal constraints, asking: “What can we actually do that would benefit the consumer but, as we’ve said, not push them into the illegal market?” Commissioners said making gambling too restrictive opens up the possibility of off-the-books options that offer more attractive incentives.

It seemed to Hill that the alcohol and tobacco industries were facing severe advertising restrictions that were much harder for gambling regulators to deal with.

Volberg said she was surprised to learn in her research that these industries actually have very few advertising regulations, and that those in the tobacco industry have come into effect largely because of lawsuits that have led to injunctions or settlements. The United States is an anomaly when it comes to drug advertising, she noted, as the only country that allows direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical ads.

The commissioners noted that concerns about federal intervention in gambling advertising were raised at a recent gaming conference, but that there is some leeway between what a state commission can impose and what federal action is necessary.

Commissioner Jordan Maynard said the first step could be to talk to gaming operators and tell them that “some work on that front would be very helpful.” The operators themselves are currently working on a state-by-state compliance system. Given the state-by-state irregularities and the uncertainty about state regulators’ authority without running afoul of the First Amendment, Maynard said the latest ad study was done because “we want to make sure that no one is being exploited here.”

Commissioner Eileen O’Brien shared these concerns, noting: “Europe is banning celebrity endorsements and the question is – given the interstate jurisdictions and the way that works in the context of advertising – what can we do?”

When it comes to limiting high-intensity incentive models designed to attract new players to gambling platforms, there may be consumer protection angles available to them, she said. There could be regulations that could target gambling gift cards or limit incentives to use “bonus points” within certain time frames.

Creating minimum time periods in which someone could place bonus bets could “create more problem gambling by extending the interaction with the website,” she considered, or it could “limit the intensity and desire to use it altogether. So that’s the question I have in my mind in terms of whether it could backfire as regulation.”

The report noted that the number of online panel respondents who use illegal sports betting in Massachusetts increased from 4 percent in 2022 to 18 percent in 2023 after sports betting is legalized. Given that this data indicates demand for products outside the legal market, O’Brien said she looks forward to seeing these numbers as the newer policy changes take effect.

The researchers briefly mentioned the Massachusetts Lottery—still the state’s dominant gaming entity—to note that, unlike almost every other type of gaming, it did not see a large increase in participation over the year based on their panels. Volberg said that was largely because participation was already very high.

The state lottery is not under the jurisdiction of the gaming commission, but its advertising reach remains a point of some political tension. In her proposed budget, Gov. Maura Healey allocated $10 million for lottery advertising, which the Massachusetts House of Representatives reduced to $7 million. The Massachusetts Senate not only settled on a $5 million advertising budget for the lottery, but also broke with the governor and the House again by ruling out a proposed expansion of the lottery online. The chambers will resolve their differences in a conference committee.

Gaming commissioners are considering another round of research areas, including an expanded online panel study focusing on young adults and their sports betting behavior, consistent with similar research by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. A study of the impact of paid media on awareness and participation in sports betting among college students is ongoing, consistent with the Advertising Research Program.

The researchers plan to re-evaluate the voluntary self-exclusion program, updated with new online self-exclusion options, and conduct a positive play study to assess healthy gambling behaviors after sports betting is launched. Some 15 previous research projects are ongoing, and a two-year study of sex trafficking in casinos was recently awarded to the Safe Exit Initiative.

More research on the frequency and “dosage” of gambling ads is a missing piece, Vander Linden admitted. They can get a good idea of ​​the effect, but linking that effect to the amount of advertising would be a useful link.

“Initially, when sports betting first started in Massachusetts, there was a flood, a saturation of advertising,” said Commissioner Nakisha Skinner. “So I’m very interested in seeing what the situation is now — if there’s a way to measure the intensity, the frequency, and relate that to what impact it might have on problem gamblers in our future discussions. In terms of how to move forward, I think we’re lacking some data to understand the bigger picture.”

This article originally appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is reprinted here under a Creative Commons license.

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