{"id":916039,"date":"2026-05-19T10:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T17:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/?p=916039"},"modified":"2026-05-19T10:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T17:34:16","slug":"the-backlash-is-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blog\/the-backlash-is-here\/","title":{"rendered":"The Backlash is Here"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every weekday our routine begins with a scan of the top 150 gambling and sports betting stories on Google<\/strong>. It can be a depressing task, given the mounting tide of articles and opinion pieces damning Big Gaming<\/a> for addicting Americans<\/a> to the thrill of a legal bet. Taken in tandem with some recent legislative actions, it leads to the inescapable conclusion that a backlash against gambling isn’t coming. It’s here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Even a former advocate of both casino gambling and iGaming, a certain Donald Trump<\/strong>, had the perspicacity to do a timely flip-flop on the issue, as evinced by his recent remark<\/a> that everything is a casino nowadays. Trump made the comment in connection with prediction-market insider trading … which is ironic, given that the most suspicious trades<\/a> seem to be originating from within the White House<\/strong> or the Department of Defense<\/strong>, probably from someone<\/a> with the initials DJT. Then you have the curious case of Brendan Sorsby<\/strong>, of whom more anon.<\/p>\n\n\n

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In the meantime, a bipartisan pincer movement on Capitol Hill<\/strong> is targeting online advertising<\/a>, specifically on social-media platforms. It’s called the Gaming Advertisement to Minors Enforcement Act<\/strong>. GAME Act, geddit? It’s the creation of Sens. Katie Britt <\/strong>(R, above<\/em>) and Richard Blumenthal<\/strong> (R), and at the rate things are going, stands a good chance of being enacted. Britt and Blumenthal’s adherents say that current Internet prohibitions are inadequate and they may be right. At $100K per GAME Act violation, the tab for being a scofflaw would get expensive very fast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the solons are done with iGaming, they’ll probably turn to terrestrial gambling promotion. A new story in the Washington Post<\/em> looks suspiciously like the opening salvo in a war<\/a> on TV advertising of gaming. But we’ll always have billboards, right? Not so fast. New York State<\/strong> lawmakers are looking at banning<\/a> those, too. State Sen. Nathalia Fernandez<\/strong> (D) has authored legislation whereby companies “would be banned from showing or maintaining billboard ads that promote gambling activity, which includes multiple formats such as casino gaming, sports betting, fantasy sports, lotteries, sweepstakes, as well as bookmaking, betting pools and exchanges, and interactive gaming.<\/em>” A parallel bill would cause existing ads to sunset.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Then you’ve got Ohio<\/strong>, where the GOP caucus is pushing a raft of measures that would disembowel sports betting in the Buckeye State. Central to this package of rollbacks (No more parlay wagers!) would be a total ban on OSB. Yes, you’d have to go to a walk-up sports book to make a wager. And how many are there in Ohio? Precious few. There’s virtually no money to be made from retail betting. If you live in, say, Coshocton<\/strong> and want to bet on the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/strong>, you’d be shit out of luck, friend. Already, cases of crooked jocks have caused Ohio to ban prop bets<\/a> on college games. If Republicans got their way, would casinos be next on the chopping block? Probably not … but it doesn’t pay to assume anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, the sports betting wing of Big Gaming has kept mum, preferring to funnel money<\/a> to favored political candidates. However, it might finally be waking up to the threat. Sports Betting Alliance<\/strong> President Joe Maloney <\/strong>belatedly fired back at OSB’s political detractors yesterday. As he trenchantly points out<\/a>, banning wagers (especially on the Web) would send gamblers fleeing into the arms of unregulated, unlicensed, unanswerable offshore bookies. And who wants that? As pushback, Maloney has made a good start. We need more of it. Thanks in large part to the whining of Gov. Mike DeWine<\/strong>, (R) the Ohio GOP is on the verge of dragging the state back into gambling’s dark ages, although some good politicians are sticking<\/a> up for personal freedom. (Take the time to read state Sen. Bill DeMora<\/strong>‘s op-ed. It’s gold.)<\/p>\n\n\n

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Now, about Brendan Sorsby<\/strong>, the collegiate signal-caller who recently checked himself in for a gambling addiction (and good on him for doing so). It evidently doesn’t matter that three-school Sorsby was betting on his own team(s). No, NFL<\/strong> scouts are drooling over this mercenary<\/a>, gambling problem be damned. For his part, the crybaby QB is suing the NCAA,<\/strong> demanding that he be reinstated<\/a> by June 15. Because, after all, what’s some suspicious betting activity versus the chance to rack up some wins for Texas Tech<\/strong>? Rah, rah, sis boom bah and don’t take the under.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The kid is living in a consequence-free zone. Well, boo fucking hoo, Brendan. If you can’t do the time, don’t do the (quasi) crime. Actions really ought to have consequences<\/a> in l’affaire Sorsby<\/em>. Let’s hope that A)<\/strong> the courts don’t buy his sob story and B)<\/strong> the NCAA makes an example of him, preferably one that drop-kicks his degenerate-gambling ass clear into the Arena Football League<\/strong>. Oh, and Sorsby’s excuse? That he thought placing bets would bring him closer<\/a> to his teammates? We guess “the dog ate my homework” wasn’t going to fly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Confession?<\/strong> Although prediction markets are the slime of legalized gambling, we’re happy to report that Kalshi<\/strong> has done something socially responsible. As of yesterday, it is a card-carrying member of the National Council on Problem Gambling<\/strong>. It’s a first step toward putting responsible-gambling guardrails on the out-of-control business of event contracts. They’re like a car without brakes and a drunkard (Michael Selig<\/strong>) at the wheel. Kalshi is doing what it ought to do … and has tactily admitted that prediction markets are, in fact, gambling. Which is something that any average American can recognize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sign of the Apocalypse?<\/strong> In a dismaying bit of news, we see that Las Vegas<\/strong> casinos are wooing the churchy set<\/a>. Christian rock is the furthest thing from good music but it appears to be a new meal ticket for Sin City. Piety makes an odd look for Big Gaming. Besides, wouldn’t we prefer that the holier-than-thou types stay home? Then again, a Vegas vacation might loosen them up a bit, which wouldn’t bad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every weekday our routine begins with a scan of the top 150 gambling and sports betting stories on Google. It can be a depressing task, given the mounting tide of articles and opinion pieces damning Big Gaming for addicting Americans to the thrill of a legal bet. Taken in tandem with some recent legislative actions, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83928,"featured_media":883215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1728],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Atlantic-City-gamblers-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1928&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916039"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83928"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916039"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":916056,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916039\/revisions\/916056"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}