Caesars Sportsbook Head Fears Federal Regulation

Caesars CEO Tom Reeg is sounding the alarm over irresponsible practices when it comes to advertising and failure to impose safeguards, especially with the recent spate of high profile gambling violations involving sports figures.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut recently sent out a letter to Reeg expressing his concerns as it pertains to responsible gambling. Blumenthal wrote to eight sportsbook companies. 

Interestingly, Caesars is not among the three licensed sports betting companies currently operating in Blumenthal's home state of Connecticut.  That state only licenses DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics at this time.

Blumenthal has demanded each of the companies halt using data to deliberately seek out problem gamblers.

“Sports betting companies are exploiting, targeting, and taking advantage of vulnerable problem gamblers, especially during these coming weeks. How? They are enticing those problem gamblers to do more. They are enticing problem gamblers by targeting them based on the data they collect in real time about who is betting how much and where, and they are collecting that data and then targeting the most vulnerable problem gamblers to do more, leading them down dark paths to addiction. And the reason very simply is that they want to make more money,” Blumenthal wrote in his letter ahead of this year's March Madness tournament.

Blumenthal introduced the Gambling Addiction Recovery, Investment, and Treatment (GRIT) Act back in January.  The legislation sets aside federal funds to help prevent, treat, and study gambling addiction in the United States.

“Every other form of addiction—drugs, alcohol, tobacco—involve federal funding. But none for gambling addiction, and that is wrong,” continued Blumenthal at Monday’s event in Hartford. “And that is why the measure I have proposed, the GRIT Act, would devote about half of the revenue from the federal excise tax on gambling. It's a quarter of one percent, but it would produce millions of dollars for treatment, research, and other measures to help people who are addicted.”

Reeg said this week, “Responsible gaming is not just a PR problem that we throw some money at and hope it goes away. This is something that as gaming becomes more and more a part of daily life and people’s lives that don’t gamble. That’s a new development,” Reeg said in a speech at the East Coast Gaming Congress conference.

“Responsible gaming is not just a PR problem that we throw some money at and hope it goes away. This is something that as gaming becomes more and more a part of daily life and people’s lives that don’t gamble. That’s a new development,” Reeg said in a speech at the East Coast Gaming Congress conference. 
 

Come to Jesus Moment?

“I worry about it in digital, when I’m watching an NCAA Tournament game or an NFL game, that two out of every three ads seems to be a sports betting ad. That’s troubling to me. And I recognize that we were part of that when we launched in 2021,” Reeg said. “As we’ve pulled back from that, our share has not degraded even though others continue (to do so).

“As Jim (Allen) stated, what DraftKings, FanDuel and others have built in the space is extraordinary. But I spent last week answering a letter from Senator Blumenthal about responsible gaming. As we continue down the road, we as an industry have to develop responsibly in a matter that doesn’t encourage federal intervention. These are the kind of things that keep me up at night. How do we stay in front of it?”

Coalition or Blacklist

Immediately following Blumenthal's letter, a group of seven sportsbooks got together to exchange information about "problem gamblers".

"The obvious problem is they will also create the definition of what a 'problem' is to them," commented pro sports bettor Captain Jack via his Twitter feed at the time.

Does "problem gambler" mean an individual who routinely beats the books, for example.

The fear of course being that the group might be trying to put together a blacklist of sorts.

And Jack specifically warns of Bet365 being among the seven.

"Bet365 has a track record of using problem gambling as an excuse to exclude sharp bettors," he claims.

The seven operators include FanDuel, Fanatics, Hard Rock Bet, DraftKings, Penn and BetMGM.  Caesars was not among the group of companies at that time.

The group is calling itself the Responsible Online Gaming Association, or ROGA.

“I’m incredibly excited to move this forward and to really do some impactful things and to really expand the knowledge through the research and to create these evidence-based best practices and to really empower players with information,” said Jennifer Shatley, executive director of ROGA.

- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com