FROM THE TOP
FROM THE TOP: OFFSHORE? UNSURE After the American Gaming Association’s call for US media outlets to stop promoting offshore sportsbooks, Tim Poole analyzes the difficulties posed by sports betting’s blurred lines. In a previous edition of Gaming America, I examined whether US operators should address the issue of offshore competition head on through aggressive advertising, educating the customer and informing them of the various cons of using an illegal sportsbook. Since then, American Gaming Association CEO (AGA) Bill Miller has also written about the illegal market and what’s needed to drive it out. Right now, as Miller points out, the offshore industry’s existence isn’t the most immediate problem – it’s that mainstream media outlets across the US are promoting it. How can a US bettor know a product is illegal if it is mass marketed on mainstream TV channels? This is the very juxtaposition perpetually facing the regulated sports betting market in the US. While regulated companies will aim to follow the rules dictated by their license, and crucially pay taxes on their earnings, offshore 6 GAMINGAMERICA
operators have an unfair and illegal advantage by fulfilling neither. But how can a player distinguish between right and wrong if both are advertised by the likes of Fox Sports, Reuters, Yahoo Sports, the Wall Street Journal and more? That’s why Miller is correct to call on the mainstream, or any form, of media first and foremost. How can dismantling the illegal market, difficult enough as it is, be achieved with widespread disregard from national media outlets reaching millions of fans across the US? According to the AGA CEO, an estimated 100 million American adults will be able to place a legal sports bet in their home state by the end of 2020. Yet the sum of illegal wagering remains a considerable threat to the regulated market share. He wrote: “PASPA never came close to doing what policymakers intended. Instead of protecting competition, the failed law
