NEWSUS Celebrities That Endorse Online Gambling and Its Complications and Controversy
It’s unlikely that singer and actress Vanessa Hudgens comes to mind when you think about online casinos. And it may come as a surprise to learn that she’s been a brand ambassador for MGM Resorts online gambling platform since 2022.
With the legalization of online gambling in the United States, advertisements for casino gaming and sports betting have gone rampant. Many leading US gambling platforms, from online casinos to sportsbooks, also employ celebrities and influencers to endorse and promote their brands to attract players and bettors.
Often, there is no apparent connection between the celebrity and the brand they are promoting. Still, the motivation behind this type of advertising is to give the impression that indulging in online gambling, whether it’s casino, betting, or poker, is acceptable. As such, celebrity endorsements succeed in what they aim to achieve. At the same time, these partnerships are not without controversy.
What Celebrities Are in Bed With Gambling Companies
Anyone who has frequented social media in the last two years has probably come across reels of Drake when he’s gambling online. He’s perhaps the most prolific celebrity that endorses online gambling. He even took it to the next level by becoming part-owner of one of the bigger international casinos that accept crypto.
Besides Drake and Vanessa Hudgens, past and present include socialite Paris Hilton, comedian Kevin Hart, actor and singer Jamie Foxx, comedian Chris Rock, former NBA star and current expert commentator Charles Barkley, and soccer superstar Lionel Messi. This list goes on, and the point is that almost every online casino brand in the United States is teaming up with celebrities and influencers to boost their reach and stand out amongst the competition.
Of the names listed, Charles Barkley and Lionel Messi stand out as they have a natural connection to the products they endorse. Barkley is a basketball expert who fans can relate to and appreciate as an authentic presence when betting. The same is true for Messi, considering he’s arguably the best soccer player in history. There’s an overlap there that works. The same thing can’t be said for celebrity collaborations such as Vanessa Hudgens and BetMGM.
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Controversy of Online Gambling Celebrity Partnerships
While Hudgens's career has branched out in a fantastic way beyond High School Musical (HMS), that’s still the show most people would associate her with. Since HMS, she first branched out as a singer and released two solo albums before focusing on a career in acting, most notably with a supporting role in the movie Bad Boys for Life in 2020, which grossed over $426 million.
None of her work has been associated with online casinos; it’s not like she’s Pierce Brosnan or Daniel Craig, who has a history of playing James Bond and is a frequent flyer in prestigious casinos.
This makes her online casino endorsements questionable. Add to this the fact that the original HMS from 2006 has seen a resurgence in popularity after Disney+ launched High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. The problem is that HMS's primary audience is preteens up to young adults. This age range is particularly susceptible to the sway of their favorite characters and actors and actresses portraying the roles. As everyone probably knows, the legal age of online casinos and gambling in general is 21 in the United States, making large parts of her demographic outright unsuitable for these types of activities.
Adding all this up, one can’t help but wonder why a celebrity like Vanessa Hudgens is endorsing an online casino when there are many other more suitable options with pre-existing connections to the brand. This is similar to that of Charles Barkley, who is not only famous for his long career in professional basketball but also for making big bets on the golf course while playing with his former best friend, Michael Jordan. Regardless of one's opinion about gambling and advertisements, it’s easy to see that a guy like Barkley is a more suited candidate for endorsing gambling rather than Hudgens.
Lawmakers Are Slowly Tightening the Noose on Gambling Advertisements
New Jersey lawmakers have been at the forefront of online gambling since 2013 and are also actively pursuing tighter regulation of gambling advertisements. Most recently, they included requirements for displaying gambling risks in gambling advertisements, similar to how the tobacco industry was forced to disclose the dangers and consequences of smoking in tobacco product designs.
In Massachusetts, where most forms of online gambling are allowed besides casino gaming, state officials are weighing new recommendations based on a recent study by SEIGMA (Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts) to deal with the negative impacts of advertising with consideration to young people and problem gambling.
Current state regulations in Massachusetts include limitations on misleading advertising, the frequency of advertisements, and the requirement to display information about the risks of gambling. Despite these ad regulations, the study by SEIGMA found that the advertising environments were oversaturated and recommended further limits, particularly to higher-risk games.
Furthermore, the report underlined the complications of celebrity endorsements and recommended restrictions to reduce the appeal of online gambling with younger people and problem gamblers.
From lawmakers’ perspective, it’s not as straightforward as it seems since complete restrictions on gambling ads could open up more people seeking out illegal alternatives to the regulated gambling brands that are available across the US.
