March 23, 2024
Dear Friends,
Throughout my time in public office, I’ve been a leader in the nationwide effort to combat the disease of addiction. I serve as Co-Chair of the Addiction, Treatment, and Recovery (ATR) Caucus in the House of Representatives, where I’ve fought hard to expand access to mental health and substance use care, led efforts to address opioid addiction, and worked to tear down barriers that prevent people from accessing life-saving medications for opioid use disorder.
After years of working alongside my partners in the addiction and recovery community, I’ve become intimately familiar with the disease of addiction — and I’ve learned how quickly new addictive products can take hold and shatter the lives of millions of people and their loved ones.
That’s why I’ve been so concerned about what I’ve seen over the past several years with the widespread, lightning-fast legalization and expansion of sports gambling — particularly mobile sports betting. Since the 2018 Supreme Court decision that allowed states to legalize sports gambling, the sportsbook industry has been operating in a largely unregulated, “Wild West” environment. If you’ve watched a sporting event on TV in the past few years, you’ve probably noticed the results of this free-for-all in the form of constant, wall-to-wall advertisements for sportsbooks. These ads are more than just an annoyance for sports fans, though — they are also largely predatory in nature, offering hundreds or thousands of dollars in so-called “free” or “bonus” bets to hook and retain a new generation of gamblers. And this insidious advertising push is already leading to severe consequences.
Recently, more than 1 in 5 Americans said they bet on sports at least once a month — an 80 percent increase over the number who reported betting with the same frequency just one year prior. The National Problem Gambling Helpline Network has seen a 45 percent year-over-year increase in calls to their helpline, and it’s estimated that at least 7 million Americans have a gambling problem — though that number is likely to be much, much higher. Most disturbingly, studies show that 1 in 5 people with a gambling addiction will attempt suicide. Clearly, we are dealing with a massive and growing public health crisis involving a known addictive product.
That’s why last year, I introduced the Betting on our Future Act, a landmark bill that aimed to rein in the most abusive advertising practices and halt the meteoric rise in problem gambling. Since introducing that legislation, I’ve had countless conversations with constituents, advocates, and those in the recovery community — and from those discussions I’ve learned that this issue goes far deeper than advertising. In order to truly tackle this issue, we need a comprehensive national approach.
This week, I was proud to stand alongside leaders in the fight against problem gambling to unveil a framework for new legislation to confront this crisis head-on. Our framework, titled the Supporting Affordability and Fairness with Every Bet (SAFE Bet) Act, goes beyond the advertising issues raised in the Betting on our Future Act — taking a broad public health-oriented approach by requiring states that offer sports betting to meet minimum federal standards in the areas of advertising, affordability, and the use of artificial intelligence to target customers.
Among several other provisions, my SAFE Bet Act would:
- Ban sportsbook advertising during live sporting events and any other times or spaces where children are likely to be in the audience.
- Prohibit ads designed to induce gambling with “bonus bets” or odds boosts.
- Place responsibility on sportsbooks to not serve customers who are “chasing losses,” requiring operators to conduct “affordability checks” on customers before accepting large wagers.
- Prohibit betting companies from accepting deposits placed by credit card or accepting more than 5 deposits from a customer in a 24-hour period.
- Ban the use of AI technologies to track players’ gambling habits and offer individualized promotions.
- Authorize federal data collection on the use of sports betting and require a Surgeon General’s report on the public health impacts of mobile sports gambling, particularly among young adults.
After years spent working to provide hope for people across our nation struggling with addiction, I know a growing public health crisis when I see one. By taking a comprehensive, national approach to sports betting focused on advertising, affordability, and AI, we can create a safer, less addictive product while still preserving the freedom to bet for those who wish to do so.
The gambling industry has hijacked America’s deep-rooted love and connection to sports to peddle a known addictive product. I am working to give sports back to the American people.
As always, thank you for reading.
Your friend,
DID YOU KNOW?
My office and I are working to make sure you remain informed with the latest updates and recommendations from federal agencies. With that in mind, here is some information that may be of interest to you:
- On Tuesday, March 26th at 1:00 PM, I’m joining with the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to host a “Grants 101” Webinar!
- At the webinar, representatives from the NEH and NEA will be on hand to answer your questions about applying for federal grants from both agencies.
- If you work for a local museum, historical society, college or university, local government, or any other nonprofit that engages in humanities work or arts programming, we’d love to see you there!
- You can register for the workshop by clicking the link HERE.
- Please include any comments or questions you may have for our agency representatives when registering.
- After completing the registration form, you will receive a confirmation email with information about how to join the virtual workshop.
- We encourage you to share this information with anyone you know who may be interested in participating in this webinar!
