John Oliver Takes Aim At Sports Betting, And Sports Betting Has Itself To Blame

About 26 minutes into the 32-minute examination of the U.S. sports betting industry that served as the centerpiece of this Sunday night’s episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the show aired a 2024 clip from CBS News of an unnamed woman in Gamblers Anonymous talking about her struggles and the way gambling operators seemed to prey on those struggles:

“I’m accountable, 100 percent, for being an addict and falling into the path and losing my way,” she said. “I’m responsible for that. But I’m not the only one that’s responsible.”

The legal online gambling industry would do well to turn a similar spotlight on itself and take ownership.

The operators are not solely responsible for the repeated crashing waves of negative press that the industry has received of late, particularly from the New York Times’ much-discussed series in late-2022 to present — just as that addicted woman was able to partially point the finger at others. But if it wasn’t clear before the Oliver piece, it should be now: The operators need to think long and hard about the proverbial three fingers pointing back at themselves and figure out what they can do to stem this tide of public sentiment piling up against them.

Coulda been worse

Oliver’s examination of the sports betting business, which aired on HBO and the Max streaming service, was mostly fair. Certainly, other “news” programs on other networks could have done far worse — the sportsbooks were lucky this landed on an outlet that has demonstrated basic journalist ethics, tries to verify information, and isn’t known for fictionalizing details to fit its narrative.

And as takedowns by Last Week Tonight go, this one was mild. Oliver didn’t vilify the sports betting industry to nearly the extent he has vilified Big Pharma or corporate mergers or lethal injection. Even compared to his piece nearly a decade ago on DFS, this Sunday’s exploration of sports betting felt somewhat passive.

Still, it was undeniably one-sided. Like most of what’s been written about sports betting in the mainstream the last couple of years, the focus was on how hard it is for customers to win and on the lives that sports betting damages. There was no mention of the handful of players who actually come out ahead betting on sports. There was no examination of the large percentage of customers who view their sportsbook apps as a source of entertainment and who find it a worthwhile recreational endeavor.

And as usual, there was no acknowledgement of the existence of black-market operators, who make it so that all these same societal ills would be there (though at a lower volume) regardless of what any courts or state governments have chosen in recent years to legalize.

So, sure, you could call it a “hit piece.”

But the hits it handed out were mostly justified. Particularly when it came to VIP operations.

All that glitters …

VIP was the area in which DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, and everyone else named in the piece came out looking awful. Again, there are presumably some positive VIP stories out there — courtesy of gamblers spending money they can absolutely afford to lose and loving the attention and the perks.

But Last Week Tonight brought to mainstream viewers’ attention the existence of VIP hosts who are plying bettors with offers, promos, even shiny gold crowns in big black boxes, to keep them spending money — and sometimes doing so even if it’s obvious the customer has a gambling problem or if that gambler is trying to be responsible and walk away.

And this is where the operators and the industry need to take a long look inward and wonder: “Did we bring all this negative press upon ourselves with our greed?”

To an outsider, legally permitting sports betting may seem fine.

Allowing access to it on people’s phones may seem slightly less fine, but still reasonable, considering all sorts of business is transacted on the phone in modern life, and especially because unregulated offshore sportsbooks operate via smartphone.

Allowing constant in-game betting probably seems slightly less fine than that, but still, if it’s something players want, it’s understandable that we allow sportsbooks to provide it.

Allowing the operators to advertise through a variety of media at all hours of the day is deeply annoying to almost everyone, but hey, people watch beer ads and crypto ads, and they understand that products need marketing.

Where exactly someone draws the line may vary.

But I have a hard time imagining anyone watching that John Oliver piece and not drawing the line by the time they get to, “VIP host sends problem gambler $250 to play with in response to said problem gambler attempting to stop gambling.”

So many businesses are focused on the short-term. Each gambling operator’s instinct is to make as much money as it can this year, this quarter, this month, this minute. But as the public sentiment against legal sports betting builds, the operators desperately need to start thinking about long-term viability.

The current landscape includes a federal proposal that would restrict the reach of sports betting, it includes legislators in Vermont and Maryland moving to repeal their sports betting laws, it includes polls showing overwhelming opposition to gambling ads, it includes a ballot measure on sports betting in Missouri barely passing when such ballot measures used to pass easily, and it involves legislative efforts in states without sports betting almost unanimously going nowhere in 2025.

This is all the result of those who were handed the keys to the sports betting business in 2018 slamming the accelerator to the floor and driving recklessly. Those who adjusted their mirrors before backing out or used their turn signals before changing lanes got left behind.

It could have been a lot worse than what we saw on Last Week Tonight. And, inevitably, it will get a lot worse if these pedal-to-the-metal businesses continue down the paths they’re on.

For now, the show ends with Bobby Moynihan joking about his crazy parlays. Eventually, it ends with more serious people being unwilling to find the humor in any of it.