By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times
One of the things I do a lot throughout the week is drive back and forth across Carter County. When you’re doing that, you can only listen to so much music before the radio stations start repeating songs on you.
Now, I love music. But I can only handle so much of that.
I also like to listen to podcasts. One of the things I’ve noticed, especially recently, is the proliferation of gambling ads at the beginnings and ends of my podcast. The location of these ads indicates to me that they’re not being placed there specifically by the people creating the podcast. It’s whoever is distributing their podcast or the platforms I’m streaming it through.
Regardless of where they’re coming from, there are a lot of gambling ads. At the end of every single one of these gambling ads is a little disclaimer that includes a number to call if you have a gambling problem. But how many problem gamblers are actually going to call that number? Perhaps a better question; If you’re a gambler in recovery, how easy is it to stay on the straight and narrow whenever you have these ads in your face continuously?
Because it’s not just ads on the radio or popping up in your podcasts. These ads are there at the front of the stadiums.
Casino Arizona Field. Caesars Superdome. Harrah’s Cherokee Center. And others named for casinos and bookmakers.
It’s like you can’t even enjoy sports anymore if you have a gambling problem, because it’s always right there in your face. Like waving a whiskey under the nose of a dry alcoholic.
Now, gambling has never been a problem for me. I’m afraid to lose anything that I’ve already earned. It’s just not in my personality.
But imagine being a sports fan and wanting to continue going to a ball game with your family. Maybe you want to sit around and drink a beer with your friends, and you can’t do that without temptation. Because every time they talk about the stadium where the event is going on, it’s the name of a casino. Or when you listen to your favorite sports show on the radio, you hear that the program is brought to you by FanDuel.
So far I’ve only talked about folks who are trying to avoid gambling. What about folks who haven’t had a gambling problem before, but develop one after taking one of the advertisers up on their offers of “free money” to get your account started? What about kids who begin to associate gambling with the sport they’ve already learned to love?
It’s absolutely ridiculous at this point, and it almost seems like before this gets out of control, we need to go ahead and enact some regulations related to gambling advertising.
Now, I’m not suggesting we make gambling illegal again. No, people are going to gamble. That’s going to happen. People are going to gamble, and they shouldn’t be criminalized for it. And if they’re going to spend that money anyway, the state should be getting some tax funds.
Look at the state of our roads. Look at the state of our school facilities. Look at the state of government in general. We could definitely use money for pension funds, and healthcare. The state could definitely use this money; and if people are going to do it anyway, why not use that money for some good?
So, I’m not suggesting that we make gambling illegal again. But I remember when you could see tobacco ads on the television as a kid. We don’t see those anymore. We’ve also placed some restrictions on alcohol advertising in the same way. We still see alcohol ads, but there are logical restrictions to keep them from appealing to children.
Perhaps now is the time to go ahead and place some restrictions on gambling advertisements and promotions. While it’s still early. Before the problem gets out of control and before more people develop bad habits.
I’m not saying that a casino or bookmaker shouldn’t be able to advertise, but maybe we should make it so that people can download a podcast or listen to the radio without feeling that temptation – without having it right in their face.
If we’re going to keep Pete Rose out of the hall of fame for gambling that wasn’t even related to his team, and scrutinize Shohei Ohtani because his interpreter had a gambling problem, then maybe we shouldn’t be allowed to name sports stadiums after casinos. Maybe we shouldn’t have gambling ads at the beginning and end of sports podcasts. Maybe, just maybe, we should think about regulation before a problem develops instead of after.Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com
