As rates of problem gambling among African-Americans in Lucas County reach record levels, critics of the sports betting industry have begun to question whether large gaming companies are consciously targeting Black people.
According to a 2022 study conducted by Ohio for Responsible Gambling, 59.8 percent of African-Americans in Lucas County who gamble can be classified as “At-Risk/Problem Gamblers.” Only 19.5 percent of white gamblers and 19.4 percent of gamblers of other races are so classified.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal prohibition on commercial sports betting in 2018, sports gambling has become an enormous industry.
Americans wagered a record $119.84 billion on sporting contests in 2023, according to the American Gaming Association, which is up 27.5 percent from 2022. Of the 38 states where sports betting is legal, Ohio ranks fourth as a source of sports-betting revenue.
Some observers have questioned whether part of the business’ exponential growth has come at the expense of African-Americans and other vulnerable populations — and whether sportsbook companies are specifically targeting African-Americans in their ads, promotions, sponsorships, and commercials.
In the Toledo area, opinion on whether sports betting companies are specifically and consciously targeting African-Americans with addictive gambling services is split.
Robert Smith, director of the African American Legacy Project of Northwest Ohio, believes that the sports gambling industry is focusing its marketing efforts on the Black population.
“All you have to do is go to podcast platforms hosted by athletes,” he said. “They are usually presenting a betting line. And they appeal to people who dream of a windfall profit — people who don’t have a lot of discretionary income. So if you’re asking me are the sports betting companies marketing to African-Americans, the answer is yes. They’re asking people to take a risk.”
However, Ainsworth Bailey, who teaches a course in sports marketing at the University of Toledo, disagrees that the sports betting industry specifically targets African-Americans.
“I’m closer to the idea that the sports betting business chooses to use Black celebrities as the face of their business because they have crossover appeal,” Mr. Bailey said. “Sure, the betting companies are using those spokesmen now, but they didn’t use them when those celebrities had a predominantly Black audience.”
One of the strongest voices on this topic belongs to Antonio Moore, a Los Angeles attorney and podcast host.
“Is the sports betting industry consciously and specifically targeting African-Americans as potential customers? Absolutely,” he said. “You see it in Black content creators becoming paid promoters from Joe Budden to Shannon Sharpe to Gilbert Arenas. The gambling industry runs national commercials with Kevin Hart and Jamie Foxx nonstop. This in my opinion is to target a core audience found in Black homes.”
By way of example, Mr. Moore offered a comparison between two sports programs that have connections to Fox, one hosted by Colin Cowherd, who is white, and the other hosted by Mr. Sharpe, who is Black.
“If you were to contrast two shows — Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay YouTube show and Colin Cowherd’s The Herd show on Fox — and watch the 30-second read ads, you see the difference. While Cowherd is reading about a mental health service, Sharpe is doing DraftKing promotional reads.”
Mr. Moore notes that Mr. Sharpe’s show is part of Mr. Cowherd’s programming and asks, “Why do we get the targeted gambling and liquor ads?”
He likened the sports betting industry’s advertisements to the “Joe Camel” ads for Camel cigarettes that appeared in the 1990s. Those ads, which featured a cartoon camel character, were criticized by the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, and the American Cancer Society as an attempt to market cigarettes to children.
The Joe Camel advertisements were voluntarily withdrawn from publication in 1997 after the Federal Trade Commission sought a court order banning them.
Congressman Paul Tonko (D., N.Y.) is also critical of the sports gambling industry’s promotions and sees parallels to the much-criticized Joe Camel ad campaign.
"Just as in the tobacco industry when it was determined that that industry was posing a public health situation, we have now displaced Joe Camel with celebrity spokespeople and, yes, free product," Mr. Tonko said.
Mr. Tonko has introduced a bill that would ban sports gambling advertisements nationwide. The bill would “prohibit the advertising of sportsbooks on any medium of electronic communication subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).” The proposal would also prohibit the use of AI to analyze a sports gambler’s betting habits for the purpose of marketing.
“Sports betting advertisements are out of control. Congress needs to reel in an industry with the power to inflict real, widespread harm on the American people,” Mr. Tonko said. “In the years since the Supreme Court legalized sports betting, these unfettered advertisements have run rampant, with betting companies shelling out billions to ensure they reach every screen across America. These ads pose a particularly dangerous threat to adolescents and young adults unaware of the risks involved in gambling, and to individuals prone to addiction.”
The legislation is vigorously opposed by the sports betting industry.
Three of the largest sportsbook companies — DraftKings, BetMGM, and Caesars Entertainment Inc. — did not return messages seeking comment.
The CEO and co-founder of Toledo’s Center of Hope Family Services Inc., Tracee Perryman, contends that “a lot of industries believe that with an African-American face they will attract African-American customers — and they fail every time. Just putting a Black face out there is not going to do it. Just because there is intent doesn’t mean there is impact. Targeting may be the intent, but that assumes that Black people are gullible enough to fall for it.”
Ms. Perryman also suggests that the wealth gap between the white and Black populations might be a more plausible explanation for the disparities in problem gambling behavior between the two groups.
“The reason we might see these disparities is because African-Americans are more exposed to poverty than the white population. And we don’t see racial disparities in the overall use of sports betting platforms.”
Megan Poliquin, the manager of problem gambling treatment at the Zepf Center, the largest problem gambling support organization in Ohio, also questions the idea that sportsbook companies are specifically targeting her Black clientele.
“You’d have to be a pretty poor marketer not to focus on the population that’s already disposed to buy your service,” she said. “But in my experience, my clients are not directly impacted by marketing. It’s more about family history, gambling as a social activity. It’s something you do with your buddies. That has more influence on people than Jamie Foxx or Kevin Hart.”
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