Public Health

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
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2020 WHO–UNICEF–Lancet Commission Report about the impact of gambling on kids

The 2020 WHO–UNICEF–Lancet Commission Report includes a section about commercialized gambling and its impact on kids. It is a major achievement to have gambling in this type of report appearing alongside other unhealthy commodity industries.

You read the report and the highlighted sections dealing with commercialized gambling here: 2020 UNICEF and WHO Report referencing gambling

Les Bernal2020 WHO–UNICEF–Lancet Commission Report about the impact of gambling on kids
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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
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Average debt of problem gamblers in Wisconsin exceeds $34,000

They max-out credit cards, drain their savings and checking accounts, seek payday loans, borrow money from relatives and friends, steal from employers and write bad checks. On rare occasions, they even rob banks. On average, they are $34,078 in debt by the time they seek assistance.

These are characteristics of those who called the helpline at the Wisconsin Council on Problem Gambling in 2017. The council received 12,674 calls for help last year. The heavy financial losses are a catalyst to other serious problems. Gamblers have reported thoughts or attempts of suicide, bankruptcies and falling hopelessly behind on house and utility payments.

LesAverage debt of problem gamblers in Wisconsin exceeds $34,000
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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
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Why gambling is so prevalent in Minnesota’s Lao community

Throughout the decades Sunny Chanthanouvong has served his Lao community in Minnesota, he wanted to solve one widespread problem that has had crippling financial and social effects on many Lao-Americans: obsessive gambling.

As the executive director of the north Minneapolis-based Lao Assistance Center of Minnesota, Chanthanouvong has worked with people who lost their savings, jobs and children as a result of their addiction to gambling.

Those who succumbed to the addiction, said Chanthanouvong, included his relatives and close friends, who have lost young children to the child protection services after leaving them home alone for gambling.

Read the original story

Les BernalWhy gambling is so prevalent in Minnesota’s Lao community
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Massachusetts slashes problem gambling services funding by 17 percent

When corporate gambling interests and state officials lobbied for government-sanctioned casinos in the state, they told the public that problem gambling services would be fully funded. Just a few years later, the state is slashing problem gambling services funding by almost 20 percent.

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Les BernalMassachusetts slashes problem gambling services funding by 17 percent
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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
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Columbia School of Public Health declares gambling addiction as one of the biggest health issues in America

The Columbia University School of Public Health, one of America’s leading public health programs, published a national investigation into the massive public health impacts of government-sponsored casinos and lotteries. Led by Elaine Meyer, this must-share article spotlights how predatory gambling is harming millions of Americans and the communities they live in.

Columbia School of Health- Gambling with America’s Health

LesColumbia School of Public Health declares gambling addiction as one of the biggest health issues in America
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