Predatory Business Practices

WATCH: What You Need to Know About America’s New Wave of Gambling Ads

 

As gambling companies further intensify their ongoing barrage of sports gambling ads targeted at the American people, we recently hosted a national panel on what you need to know about the massive wave of sports gambling advertising and promotions spreading across the U.S.

Above is the video to watch our important national event “America’s New Storm of Gambling Advertising: A Threat to Public Health” from earlier this year. It featured Mark A. Gottlieb, executive director of the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University School of Law, and Harry Levant, Director of Education for Stop Predatory Gambling.

Mark and Harry powerfully revealed the truth about what is really happening in our communities and across our country. After you watch it, we strongly urge you to share the video on your email list and and your social media networks, inviting people to learn for themselves how serious the problem of predatory gambling has become.

We also strongly encourage you to share the video with every local, state, and federal official in your region, along with members of the local and state media.

The full video is posted to our YouTube channel and can be watched here: https://youtu.be/12FtoYCE9jU

We also put the panel into four smaller parts if you can’t watch the whole thing all at once.

PART I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEVyikeJfJs

PART II: https://youtu.be/UgyIcxIw-u0

PART III: https://youtu.be/wP1YUTpfdM0

PART IV: https://youtu.be/YQf9-xMMF7k

About the Speakers:

Mark A. Gottlieb is the executive director of the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University School of Law, where he is also a lecturer and clinical instructor. Mark has focused his research and advocacy on tobacco litigation as a public health strategy for most of his career. His article, “Casinos: An Addiction Industry in the Mold of Tobacco and Opioid Drugs” (co-authored with Daynard and Friedman) was recently published in the University of Illinois Law Review. You can read his article here.

Harry Levant is the Director of Education for Stop Predatory Gambling and a public health advocate from Philadelphia. A gambling addict in recovery who made his last bet on April 27, 2014, Levant is dedicating his professional work to helping people and families to overcome struggles with gambling addiction and other substance disorders. In his role as an advocate, Levant will graduate from La Salle University with a Masters in Professional Counseling in May 2022. He is a member of numerous professional organizations including Chi Sigma Iota National Honor Society for Counselors, the American Counseling Association, the Pennsylvania Counseling Association, and Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers of Pennsylvania. He also earned a law degree from Temple University Law School.

Moderator: Les Bernal is National Director for Stop Predatory Gambling. Stop Predatory Gambling believes people are worth more than money. A 501c3 non-profit based in Washington, DC, its members work to reveal the truth behind commercialized gambling operators to prevent more victims.

It is only because of the selfless financial generosity of our members that we are able to fund important events like this national webinar. If you support our mission to reveal the truth behind commercialize​d​ ​gambling operators to prevent more victim​s​, ​​please ​​become a member of our national network by making a gift of any size you can afford today.

Thank you.

Les BernalWATCH: What You Need to Know About America’s New Wave of Gambling Ads
read more

WATCH the Truth About Casinos: “A Conflict Between Love and Greed”

“A Conflict Between Love and Greed” – Learn about the crisis of state-sanctioned gambling. Stop Predatory Gambling’s Les Bernal was invited to speak on the crisis of state-sanctioned casinos before an audience in Amherst County in Lynchburg, VA at Temple Baptist Church on Sept. 30, 2021. The region faced a massive lobbying push by out-of-state gambling interests attempting to force a slot machine casino into the heart of their community.
Stop Predatory Gambling believes people are worth more than money. Our members work to reveal the truth behind commercialized gambling operators to prevent more victims. Get started at https://www.stoppredatorygambling.org…
Les BernalWATCH the Truth About Casinos: “A Conflict Between Love and Greed”
read more

How Online Gambling Drains Millennial Finances

Gambling has been normalized among young people and is an unconscious drain on their cash. The constant temptation of having a gambling app in your pocket leads to a stream of spending that’s hard to control. Phones are distracting enough as it is, whether it is the unanswered WhatsApp messages in your pocket or 200 Instagram pictures you’ve yet to like. Now betting companies are exploiting the iPhone generation’s obsession with our phones to hook us into betting more, and more frequently.

According to Financial Times, more than one-fifth of 18 to 24-year-olds confessed to gambling in 2017.

View Original Article 

LesHow Online Gambling Drains Millennial Finances
read more

Gaming The Poor

This New York Times column spotlights how casinos contribute to the lack of mobility out of poverty facing millions of Americans. As casinos have spread into de-industrialized cities, dying resorts and gritty urban areas, the rate of gambling participation has grown among lower-income groups. A research team from the University at Buffalo and SUNY Buffalo State has conducted studies that offer new evidence of the exploitative effects of casino gambling on lower-income Americans. Examining 15 types of legal gambling, the researchers came to a striking conclusion: Casino gambling had by far the most harmful effects on people at the lower end of the income ladder. ​

View Original Article 

LesGaming The Poor
read more

What do children observe and learn from televised sports betting advertisements? A qualitative study among Australian children

This study in The Australian Journal of Public Health explored children’s awareness of sports betting advertising and how this advertising may influence children’s attitudes, product knowledge and desire to try sports betting.

Results: Children recalled in detail sports betting advertisements that they had seen, with humor the most engaging appeal strategy. They were also able to describe other specific appeal strategies and link these strategies to betting brands. Many children described how advertisements demonstrated how someone would place a bet, with some children recalling the detailed technical language associated with betting.

Conclusions: Children had detailed recall of sports betting advertisements and an extensive knowledge of sports betting products and terminology.

View original report

Les BernalWhat do children observe and learn from televised sports betting advertisements? A qualitative study among Australian children
read more

Asian-American seniors riding casino buses not to gamble, but to make ends meet

WABC Eyewitness News in New York City found that many Asian-American on casino buses aren’t going to gamble, they’re there out of necessity. It’s about making a few bucks just to get by, and it’s happening seven days a week, as long as the buses are running.

Read the original story

 

Les BernalAsian-American seniors riding casino buses not to gamble, but to make ends meet
read more

In System With Little Oversight, Connecticut’s Biggest Lottery Winners Often Pay Huge Price

Lottery players in Connecticut spend millions on tickets every day, most chasing a once-in-a-lifetime dream that never comes. But a handful of big winners show up again and again, seemingly beating astronomical odds to rack up dozens, even hundreds of sizable payouts.

A first-ever analysis of lottery winnings dating back to mid-1998, conducted by The Courant in collaboration with students at the Columbia School of Journalism, found 57 people who have won $1,000 or more at least 50 times. A dozen have won that much at least 100 times.

For those in Connecticut who have beaten the odds an extraordinary number of times, chances are most of them have spent far more on tickets than they have won.

View Original Article

Les BernalIn System With Little Oversight, Connecticut’s Biggest Lottery Winners Often Pay Huge Price
read more

Survey finds just 4% of gambling profits derived from casual gamblers

This study by the Nova Scotia Department of Health found that only 4% of net gambling machine (or so-called “video lottery”) revenue was derived from “casual” players, even though they comprise 75% of players. Meanwhile, 96% of the revenue was derived from under 6% of the population who were classified as “regular gamblers.” About 16% of these regular gamblers were “problem gamblers” and they alone generated 53% of machine revenues even though they make up under 1% of the total population.

Nova Scotia Video Lottery Players’ Survey

CkirbySurvey finds just 4% of gambling profits derived from casual gamblers
read more

Newspaper series spotlights predatory and fraudulent business practices of Oregon Lottery

This must-read series from The Oregonian details the business practices of the Oregon Lottery. It represents one of the very best investigative journalism efforts into state lotteries ever done.

2013 Oregon Lottery- Revenues grow on the increase in video slots games

2013 Oregon Lottery- Agency pushes slot machines as problem gamblers pay the price

2013 Oregon Lottery- Games, like tobacco earlier, could face liability lawsuits

2013 Oregon Lottery- Reader stories of state-sponsored addiction (day 1)

LesNewspaper series spotlights predatory and fraudulent business practices of Oregon Lottery
read more