Opinion | Stop promoting gambling

I’ve been watching the NBA since I was a kid. From Chicago, I grew up idolizing Derrick Rose — who didn’t? Youngest MVP! — and I remember getting his jersey for Christmas one year.  I remember LeBron James and Kevin Durant’s first finals matchup in 2012, and I remember the poetry that was 2014 Spurs basketball. Every morning before middle school, I watched highlights of the games from the night before as I ate my Cheerios.

I grew up with the NBA, and I’ve seen it grow in popularity worldwide. I’ve seen the onset of three-point era basketball, and I’ve seen the league full-fledgedly support social justice issues like Black Lives Matter. At the same time, I’ve disagreed with their silence on domestic and sexual abuse, and I believe the league has been infected by a new bug — gambling.

In 2014, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver authored an op-ed for the New York Times in favor of legalizing sports betting. This was a relatively shocking take at the time, but sports gambling embarked on a meteoric rise since the 2018 repealing of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992. In 2023 alone, the industry took in a record $11 billion in revenue, an increase of nearly 45% from the previous year. 

Perhaps most famously, the NBA banned Jontay Porter for life after his guilty plea, and an investigation concluded that he conspired with bettors during the 2023 regular season, taking himself out early to benefit those who bet his “under,” or lines set by sportsbooks prior to games. Silver christened Porter’s actions as “blatant” and “a cardinal sin.” In its wake, the NBA and its betting partners terminated prop bets on the “lowest paid” and “most vulnerable” players last week, a small step in the right direction, yet they’re still reinforcing the practice that caused the debacle in the first place. It’s possible that this won’t even curb the issue — well-known NFL wide receiver Calvin Ridley was suspended an entire season for gambling on other games. Who is to say the NBA’s new policy will solve the problem? It’s unlikely.

You might ask yourself how this happened. Look no further than the agenda set by the NBA itself — it’s everywhere, and Silver’s comments are merely lip service for an industry that has raised its revenue roof.

Perhaps the easiest place to start is broadcasting. The NBA provides alternate broadcasts for viewers that offer and update live prop bets during the games, with conversation centering around gambling. 

As anchor Adam Lefkoe said,“I want to say this to America, I want to say this to the viewers on TruTV —  this is the best time. All of your future bets are still alive. Your series bets are still alive. All of the games are about to happen. Every parlay in your app right now, every single bet, every moneyline — you think it’s going to hit. Welcome to the madness. This is the BetCast. It’s all downhill from here.”

This broadcast reinforces the habits of serial gamblers with a broadcast offering gambling “vibes” with the basketball game. There is no need for the NBA to offer this service, yet does for the pursuit of profit.

While the broadcast reaches choice viewers, the ads on the court target everybody. Sponsorships on the court and at the scorers’ table read DraftKings, FanDuel or BetMGM, three of the NBA’s officially recognized gaming partners. Take a look at the United Center where my Chicago Bulls play — the court is plastered in ads for three separate sportsbooks. 

While these grind my gears, I take the greatest offense to advertisements that seemingly make it their mission to shove gambling down my throat. A recent study determined that gambling advertisements occupy 20% of a game’s runtime. No longer is the NBA product solely about basketball.

For instance, FanDuel incessantly ran this ad during the 2024 playoffs. The ad shows a group chat of friends discussing NBA live bets, with live messages and emoji reactions, manufacturing a positive correlation with viewership and gambling. It didn’t help that it aired multiple times per game, either.

Also this year, DraftKings unveiled an ad featuring none other than NBA king LeBron James discussing NFL bets, pushing gambling and putting fans and the integrity of the game at risk.

This is extremely dangerous. There are children watching these games. We censor explicit content for minors, so why is gambling exempt? Why is LeBron, the biggest face in the league, shown advertising bets for the NFL? The ad posits a $5 bet as easy and for everyone, but this can get the ball rolling — gambling is shown to be just as addictive as drugs and alcohol, stimulating the brain’s reward system in similar ways. 

It’s also harmful to the game itself. Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff received messages that threatened him and his family. The coach said, “It is a dangerous game and a fine line that we’re walking for sure.” Players are also subject to verbal and online harassment from fans — All-Star Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton sought mental health care, saying, “To half the world, I’m just helping them make money on DraftKings or whatever … I’m the prop, you know what I mean?”

The NBA created this mess. I know they won’t clean it up.

Jake Vasilias is a passenger on the #CobyWhite train. You can write to him at jpv25@pitt.edu— though don’t ask him why the Bulls are mediocre every year.