U.S. gambling operators spent far more promoting brands through celebrity and athlete partnerships than on responsible gambling programs and communications in 2025, a new industry report says.
According to the 5W audit, the gap was wide: $520 million for celebrity and athlete deals versus about $60 million for responsible gambling efforts.
That is a national finding, not a New York-specific one. Still, it lands in a market where major brands serve Empire State bettors. They include BetMGM, DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics Sportsbook, ESPN Bet, bet365, and MGM Resorts-related brands. These operators are part of the broader conversation around advertising, player protection, and regulator relationships.
Report highlights a sharp spending imbalance
The 5W audit reviewed two years of activity across 30 operators in sports betting, iGaming, and land-based casinos. It analyzed more than 47,000 media articles, regulatory filings, ESG disclosures, and AI-generated search responses.
Its headline finding was that celebrity and athlete partnerships were about 8.7 times larger than responsible gambling spending in 2025. Overall, the report estimated the industry spent $3.9 billion on marketing and advertising last year. However, responsible gambling initiatives made up just 1.5% of that total.
Television was the biggest expense at $1.42 billion, followed by roughly $980 million in digital performance spending. Earned media and public relations accounted for $90 million, or 2.3% of total spending.
The report argues that this imbalance is not just a branding issue. It says responsible gambling communications can affect consumer marketing, regulatory relationships, and ESG assessments. They can even affect how operators appear in AI-generated search results.
Who led, and who lagged
5W said BetMGM led the sports betting category in its Responsible Gambling Communications Index. The brand also ranked highest among iGaming operators. MGM Resorts International received the highest overall score among land-based casino operators.
On regulator engagement, BetMGM/MGM Resorts proactively engaged with regulators in 9 of 12 states examined in rulemaking comments, the most among operators in the study. DraftKings followed with 8 states, and FanDuel with 7.
At the other end of the rankings, the report said stake.us had the lowest overall score. 5W described its responsible gambling communications infrastructure as
“the least developed in the segment, despite significant marketing presence in U.S. markets.”
Why this matters beyond marketing budgets
One of the more notable findings was how little formal disclosure exists around responsible gambling investment. Four out of 12 publicly traded gambling operators disclosed responsible gambling investment as a percentage of marketing spend in their annual reports.
In 11 of 38 legal markets, state gaming commissioners also reported receiving proactive responsible gambling communications from fewer than three operators annually, the report said. That suggests many operators still treat responsible gambling messaging as a limited compliance function rather than a regular public-facing priority.
For New Yorkers, the practical takeaway is about operator reputation. The same national brands competing for attention also compete on trust, transparency, and clear player protection policies.
AI visibility is now part of the equation
The audit tested 12 standardized prompts across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity Pro, Google Gemini, and Google AI Overviews, running each prompt 20 times. According to the report, operators with larger libraries of published responsible gambling content appeared more often in AI-generated responses about player protection and trustworthiness.
BetMGM and DraftKings appeared most frequently in those AI-generated responses. As the report put it,
“AI engines have access to whatever content has been published, indexed, and authoritatively cited.”
Three trends worth watching
This report does not change any rule on its own, but it adds another benchmark for how major operators are judged. Bettors should watch for more public disclosure around responsible gambling spending, more visible player-protection messaging, and continued regulator engagement from the biggest brands.
Source: As reported by: Gambling Insider
