Report: Gambling Industry Spent 8.7 Times More on Celebrity Endorsements Than Responsible Gambling
A new audit argues that gambling operators are underinvesting in responsible gambling communications. It warns that the imbalance could increasingly shape regulatory relationships, investor perceptions and AI-generated search results.
The U.S. gambling industry spent an estimated $520 million on celebrity and athlete partnerships in 2025, roughly 8.7 times more than the approximately $60 million devoted to responsible gambling programs and communications, according to a new audit by communications firm 5W.
The report estimates operators spent $3.9 billion on overall marketing and advertising during the year, with responsible gambling (RG) initiatives accounting for just 1.5% of that total.
Researchers argue that the imbalance is becoming increasingly relevant not only for consumer marketing but also for regulatory relationships, environmental, social and governance (ESG) assessments and AI-generated search results.
Report Highlights Responsible Gambling Communications Gap
The audit covers two years and reviewed 30 operators across sports betting, iGaming and land-based casinos. It analyzed more than 47,000 media articles, regulatory filings, ESG disclosures and AI-generated search responses.
According to the report, television advertising was the industry’s largest marketing expense at $1.42 billion, or over a third of overall spending.
Digital performance accounted for a quarter of spending, or about $980 million, followed by celebrity and athlete partnerships, which accounted for $520 million. Meanwhile, earned media and public relations accounted for just $90 million, or 2.3% of the total spent.
According to the report, of the 12 publicly traded gambling operators reviewed, only 4 disclose RG investment as a percentage of marketing spend in their annual reports. The rest disclose only dollar figures or do not break out the spending separately.
The report also highlighted limited engagement with regulators. State gaming commissioners in 11 of 38 legal markets reported in public testimony or commission meetings that they receive proactive RG communications from fewer than three operators per year.
Furthermore, the audit examined rulemaking comments filed with state gaming control boards in 12 states during the study window. The results showed that BetMGM/MGM Resorts proactively engaged with regulators in 9 of those states, the most among operators. DraftKings proactively engaged regulators in 8 states, while FanDuel engaged with regulators in 7.
BetMGM Tops Responsible Gambling Communications Rankings
The report ranked operators on a Responsible Gambling Communications Index. Operators were scored on a 100-point scale across five dimensions: investment transparency, earned media footprint, executive visibility, regulator engagement and AI citation frequency.
BetMGM led the sports betting category, ahead of DraftKings and FanDuel. The lowest-ranked operators were ESPN Bet, Fanatics Sportsbook and bet365.
BetMGM also ranked the highest among iGaming operators. The report also included some sweepstakes casino operators, with stake.us earning the lowest score overall among the operators studied. 5W says stake.us’ RG communications infrastructure is “the least developed in the segment, despite significant marketing presence in U.S. markets.”
Meanwhile, BetMGM’s co-owner, MGM Resorts International, received the highest overall score among land-based casino operators.
Responsible Gambling Content Is Shaping AI Search Results
The audit also examined how major AI platforms describe operators’ RG programs.
Researchers ran 12 standardized prompts across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity Pro, Google Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. They ran each prompt 20 times.
According to the audit, operators with larger libraries of published RG content appeared more frequently in AI-generated responses to questions about player protection and trustworthiness than operators with less visible communications programs.
BetMGM and DraftKings appeared most frequently in AI-generated responses discussing RG. The results reflected what the report describes as their larger published content footprint on the topic.
The report emphasized that AI engines have access to whatever content has been published, indexed, and authoritatively cited.
Celebrity Marketing Faces Effectiveness Questions
The 5W audit arrives amid questions about whether celebrity partnerships and endorsements are still effective.
Earlier this year, YouGov found that about 70% of U.S. adults said celebrity endorsements did not change their opinion of a gambling product.
Among gamblers, 43% said celebrity partnerships helped brands stand out. Four in 10 said they would be more likely to consider a gambling operator featuring a celebrity. However, around one in 10 gamblers said celebrity endorsements actually worsened their perception of a brand.
The survey suggested that celebrity marketing continues to generate awareness, but those partnerships may no longer deliver the impact they once did.
While the YouGov survey indicates that celebrity endorsements still help brands stand out, the 5W report argues that operators may achieve greater long-term value by allocating more resources to RG communications and content that support regulatory engagement, investor confidence and AI visibility.
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