Sports betting has taken the advertising scene by storm in the United States in recent years.
33 states currently have operational status legalized sports betting, four are awaiting implementation and eight states have active legislation. As states begin to legalize sports betting, five states remain reluctant to implement any current legislation, including Alabama.
In 2022, The Gaming Control Bill was passed by the Alabama Tourism Committee, but the state house of representatives and senate put off the bill until further notice. Rooted in conservative values, Alabama continues to indefinitely suspend this bill.
“(To) fundamentally change its political culture is probably the answer,” said Auburn University Political Science Professor Soren Jordan, Ph. D, commenting on the probability of sports betting in Alabama. “Gambling goes against the sort of relatively conservative, relatively strong religious culture. But it’s really built around conservative viewpoints, especially with respect to societal behaviors.”
Along with the lack of legal gambling in the state, Alabama does not have a lottery. Its geographical neighbor, Mississippi, went against its longstanding traditional values by introducing sports betting as well as the lottery within the last six years.
“It (Mississippi) has casinos along the Mississippi River, so it stands to get a lot of revenue,” said Jordan. “Alabama doesn’t necessarily have those same incentives and so, for now, it has been a continued hold out.”
Lobbyists play a major role in the legalization of sports betting in each state, as they push for change and voting swings. According to Jordan, due to the limited population in a primarily rural landscape, lobbyists skip the state for now as they attempt to receive votes in states that are traditionally less conservative and more populated.
While the political stance on sports gambling shifts in American society, questions arise stemming from a perspective of health and addiction prevention. As of March 28, The American Gaming Association released a new code for ‘responsible marketing.’ A new spotlight is turned onto eliminating the term, ‘risk free’ from advertising due to its misleading nature of security.
“We’ve seen risk free, kind of strewn about,” said Legal Sports Report writer Pat Evans said. “And I think that could give a false pretense of what people are betting.”
In addition to stricter rules on verbiage in advertisements, The American Gaming Association outlawed sportsbooks from being associated with name, image and likeness campaigns with collegiate athletes, in hopes of potentially mitigating the risk of minors betting on athletics.
While more and more states begin to toy with the idea of citizens wagering money on professional and collegiate sports, conservative states are challenged surrounding their historical ideology.
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