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Bill To Ban Sports Betting on Radio

T

TheBigA

A bill proposed in New York would ban ads for sports betting on licensed radio stations.

www.insideradio.com

Betting Is More Legal Than Ever. But A New York Lawmaker Wants The Ads Off Radio.

Online gaming ads have become an important piece of radio’s revenue pie during the past few years as more states approved legalized sports betting. Now a New York congressman has
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com

Seems to me this is contrary to the purpose of legalized sports betting. The state gets tax money from sports betting that is directed to education, youth sports, and other causes. Ads for sports betting promotes a taxable activity, no different than the state lottery.
 
Kelly A said:
NAB and RAB better get the lobbyists cranked up and ready to go charging into Congress to knock this down. Online sports betting ads have been the savior of radio and TV nationwide. Certainly so on the heels of the pandemic.
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If all that is propping up Radio is gambling advertising, then it's future is bleak. Gambling addiction is on the rise. Look at communities that have opened casinos thinking it will boost the local economy. It actually hurts other businesses resulting in a net loss.

The professional sports leagues used to distance themselves from gambling. They wanted to protect the "integrity" of the games. Now you have the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. It's very easy for players, referees, and casinos to "shave points" and manipulate the outcome of games & point spreads. It generates huge revenue, so the leagues no longer care...
 
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TheBigA said:
Ads for sports betting promotes a taxable activity, no different than the state lottery.
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Agreed, and Kelly also mentioned TV.... When watching major league sports on our RSN, we see ads for the state lottery at least 4 or 5 times per game. If I'm not mistaken, the lottery also "sponsors" the foul shots, so when a player steps up to the foul line, the game feed is moved into a small box on the left side of the screen, while a larger box on the right shows an ad for the lottery for about 20 seconds. An area casino also has ads on there.

In that case, would it even be legal to allow ads for the state lottery and casinos, but try and ban ads for sports betting?
 
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Mikey Radio said:
Agreed, and when watching major league sports on our RSN, we see ads for the state lottery at least 4 or 5 times per game..And If I'm not mistaken, the lottery also "sponsors" the foul shots, so when a player steps up to the foul line, the game feed is moved into a small box on the left side of the screen, while a larger box on the right shows an ad for the lottery for about 20 seconds.
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Yes I see ads for DraftKings and Fanduel for NBC Sports California and NBC Sports Bay Area they are one of the major sponsors during local broadcasts for NBA on NBC Sports Local for Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings. I seen these same ads on national broadcasts via ESPN.

Im not so sure if the congressional bill will pass but the sports betting ads that air on sports talk radio like KSPN, KRDC, KNBR-AM/FM, KGO-AM, WEPN are national from Sports/talk networks like Fox Sports Radio, ESPN Radio, CBS Sports Radio.
 
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This new law would fly in the fact of a 2018 Supreme Court decision that struck down a national ban on sports betting, and in turn left it to the states.

www.cbsnews.com

Supreme Court strikes down federal law banning sports gambling in most states

The decision would give states the go-ahead to legalize betting on sports
www.cbsnews.com www.cbsnews.com

Y2kTheNewOldies said:
Im not so sure if the New York State bill will be enforced outside the state but the sports betting ads that air on sports talk radio like KSPN, KRDC, KNBR-AM/FM, KGO-AM, WEPN are national from Sports/talk networks like Fox Sports Radio, ESPN Radio, CBS Sports Radio.
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In re-reading the story, this would be a federal law, that would apply to all states. This is the kind of ban that the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional. To get to the floor of the House, the bill would need to get past the Republican speaker. Republicans tend to prefer leaving things up to states rather than national mandates. So it seems tough for a bill, proposed by a Democrat, to get in front of a Republican house.

Here's a link to the bill itself:

 
tbolt909 said:
If all that is propping up Radio is gambling advertising, then it's future is bleak. Gambling addiction is on the rise. Look at communities that have opened casinos thinking it will boost the local economy. It actually hurts other businesses resulting in a net loss.

The professional sports leagues used to distance themselves from gambling. They wanted to protect the "integrity" of the games. Now you have the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. It's very easy for players, referees, and casinos to "shave points" and manipulate the outcome of games & point spreads. It generates huge revenue, so the leagues no longer care...
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And if you expect the advertising industry to take a moral stand ...

But seriously, this is nanny-state legislation at its worst. Like it or not, sports betting is a legal activity in New York -- and the other two states in the Tri-State -- so businesses associated with it have every right to advertise their products and services and let the listeners decide whether they want to buy them, or even gamble at all. Besides, as Mikey Radio says, casinos and state lotteries can advertise on radio, so the whole premise of the legislation is faulty.
 
Any legislator can introduce any proposed bill. That doesn't make it law, nor do many of the legislators expect it to become law. Often these are proposed as leverage, or for posturing reasons.

It is a lot like when someone files a suit. Anyone can file a suit, but that doesn't mean the suit will go anywhere or have legal merit. Often it is done for other reasons.
 
Mikey Radio said:
Agreed, and Kelly also mentioned TV.... When watching major league sports on our RSN, we see ads for the state lottery at least 4 or 5 times per game. If I'm not mistaken, the lottery also "sponsors" the foul shots, so when a player steps up to the foul line, the game feed is moved into a small box on the left side of the screen, while a larger box on the right shows an ad for the lottery for about 20 seconds. An area casino also has ads on there.

In that case, would it even be legal to allow ads for the state lottery and casinos, but try and ban ads for sports betting?
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The proposed law would only apply to OTA radio and TV. I don't think it would touch your RSN. For that matter it wouldn't touch any streaming or cable based platform.
 
CTListener said:
And if you expect the advertising industry to take a moral stand ...

But seriously, this is nanny-state legislation at its worst. Like it or not, sports betting is a legal activity in New York -- and the other two states in the Tri-State -- so businesses associated with it have every right to advertise their products and services and let the listeners decide whether they want to buy them, or even gamble at all. Besides, as Mikey Radio says, casinos and state lotteries can advertise on radio, so the whole premise of the legislation is faulty.
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I agree that legislation is absurd. NY runs ads for lotteries saying "play responsibly". That's like telling a heroin addict to "use responsibly". It's well known that the poorest people in communities waste their money on lottery tickets.

The Tobacco companies would still be running ads for cigarettes on TV if they could. Advertisers just want to sell stuff. People have been gambling in every state long before it became "legal". Office pools for the Super Bowl have been going on for a long time. There's a lot of hypocrisy coming from all directions...
 
tbolt909 said:
If all that is propping up Radio is gambling advertising, then it's future is bleak. Gambling addiction is on the rise. Look at communities that have opened casinos thinking it will boost the local economy. It actually hurts other businesses resulting in a net loss.

The professional sports leagues used to distance themselves from gambling.
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I wouldn't go so far as to say on line gambling spots are "propping up Radio", but it did come along at a time where the bottom fell out of the stalwarts of broadcast advertising; automotive and furniture. Since the pandemic has thawed, both have come back slightly, but nothing like it was pre-pandemic, let alone before the 2008 recession. Since small to medium market stations might not be able to benefit from national ad sales, even on-line sports betting can't help them. They still rely on local business, which is mostly still eroding because of incursion by big box and national chains pushing established local businesses out.
tbolt909 said:
They wanted to protect the "integrity" of the games. Now you have the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. It's very easy for players, referees, and casinos to "shave points" and manipulate the outcome of games & point spreads. It generates huge revenue, so the leagues no longer care...
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What, you think the NFL teams play the game and pays the absurd player salaries just for fun?
 
The New Chico said:
The proposed law would only apply to OTA radio and TV. I don't think it would touch your RSN. For that matter it wouldn't touch any streaming or cable based platform.
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That depends. If they were to pass something like this, it could potentially evolve into another tobacco-ad limitation across the board. In that case, ad ban could be far reaching to include cable/subscription.
 
Kelly A said:
What, you think the NFL teams play the game and pays the absurd player salaries just for fun?
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No, The NFL is a revenue behemoth. TV money and luxury stadiums generate most of it. It's just that now the league is blatantly in bed with the casinos. The line has been blurred on whether the NFL is actual competition or entertainment. Fans complain about how bad officiating is, but the NFL doesn't want to fix it. It's part of the show and keeps the Tweets coming...
 
tbolt909 said:
Fans complain about how bad officiating is, but the NFL doesn't want to fix it. It's part of the show and keeps the Tweets coming...
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My issue with the officiating is that, if a player does something wrong or violates a policy or depending on the situation, blows a play, they can be fined and perhaps disciplined by the team and/or league. However, if the refs make a bad call - a good example is when the NBA guys failed to call a foul a few weeks back, causing LeBron James and others on his team to have a virtual meltdown, and the call was so blatantly bad that the referees even verbally admitted to the media after the game that they blew that one, what is the incentive for them to do better? Why aren't they fined when they blatantly blow a call that costs a team the game, for instance? As it is, they basically say "yeah, we screwed that one up..our bad" and they shrug their shoulders and walk away, with little accountability or incentive to do better. Yeah, I know there's a review board and each ref gets graded and if they want to referee playoff and championship games they gotta be good, blah blah...But there just doesn't seem to be enough accountability or even discipline when they make a blatantly bad call or in extreme cases, cost a team a game.
 
CTListener said:
Besides, as Mikey Radio says, casinos and state lotteries can advertise on radio, so the whole premise of the legislation is faulty.
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Agreed!

All but five states – Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah – participate in lotteries. Sports betting is now legal in 36 states and Washington, D.C.

The federal government trying to regulate advertising about these legal endeavors?

Oh, I don't think so.
 
kwthom said:
The federal government trying to regulate advertising about these legal endeavors?
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Cigarettes are legal. That's the basis for this law. The difference is that cigarette smoking linked to cancer. The law claims mental health problems with gambling, but it's not as conclusive or universal. Also that lotteries are also a form of gambling.

This is also potentially a problem in states where CBD (medical marijuana) is legal. Some radio stations have been hesitant to get into CBD advertising.

One big issue is this law only applies to broadcast radio. Any other radio, including streaming of broadcast stations, would not apply.
 
TheBigA said:
This is also potentially a problem in states where CBD (medical marijuana) is legal. Some radio stations have been hesitant to get into CBD advertising.
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Right, as it's legal in my state, but the feds still claim medical marijuana is illegal...today.
 
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