President Donald Trump’s Federal Trade Commission has quietly begun an investigation into online sportsbooks such as DraftKings and FanDuel for “deceptive and misleading advertisements.” That’s a good thing. These companies have built their entire business model on exploiting gambling addicts. Oversight is necessary and long overdue.
Just last month, the New York Times revealed how DraftKings uses AI algorithms to target the bettors most likely to veer into compulsive addictive behavior — not to cut them off, but to find ways to encourage them to keep gambling. And in July, the Philadelphia Inquirer published a report about how FanDuel’s “VIP” program, which similarly aims to keep its biggest losers from quitting, employs all sorts of methods to entice addicts back to the betslip, including in one instance a personalized message from Philadelphia Phillies right fielder Bryce Harper.
