U.S. Gambling Industry Spent 8.7x More on Celebrity Endorsements Than on Responsible Gambling Communications in 2025, 5W Research Division Finds

The 5W Research Division has released the 5W Responsible Gambling Communications Audit 2026 — a 24-month industry analysis examining how the U.S. gambling industry communicates about responsible gambling and what that communications posture is costing in regulatory, ESG, and AI-search outcomes.

The audit reviewed 30 operators across sports betting, online casino & iGaming, and land-based casino. Data sources included 47,000+ earned media articles, 180+ ESG disclosures and 10-K filings, 240+ state regulator filings, and 2400+ AI engine queries across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews.

The U.S. gambling industry spent $3.9 billion on marketing and advertising in 2025. Of that:

• $520 million went to celebrity and athlete endorsement partnerships.

• $60 million went to responsible gambling programs and communications.

• Ratio: 8.7 to 1 — the highest of any regulated American consumer category with a public-health dimension.

For context: U.S. tobacco’s ratio is below 1.5-to-1 post-Master Settlement. Alcohol is approximately 4-to-1. Pharmaceuticals run near 1-to-1 under FDA-mandated risk communication.

Six headline findings:

• The 8.7-to-1 Ratio. No publicly traded operator surveyed has issued a specific defense in investor communications.

• Earned Media Underinvestment. $90M on earned media against $3.9B total — 2.3%. 34% of branded search results are not operator-controlled.

• ESG Disclosure Gap. Only 4 of 12 publicly traded operators disclose RG investment as a percentage of marketing spend.

• Regulator Communications Asymmetry. In 11 of 38 legal markets, state gaming commissioners receive proactive RG communications from fewer than three operators per year.

• The AI Citation Gap. BetMGM cited in 78% and DraftKings in 64% of AI responses for strongest RG programs. Six other major operators are cited in fewer than 20%.

• The Pre-Legalization Penalty. In Michigan, Ohio, and North Carolina, operators that published RG content in state media before legalization achieved faster regulatory approval.

The 5W RG Communications Index scored each operator on a 100-point scale. Top performers: MGM Resorts International (81/100), BetMGM Sportsbook (78/100), BetMGM Casino (74/100), DraftKings (71/100), FanDuel (66/100). Bottom performers: Las Vegas Sands (41/100), ESPN Bet (38/100), Fanatics Sportsbook (34/100), bet365 (29/100), Stake.us (22/100).

“The gambling industry has built the most visible advertising ecosystem in American consumer marketing in five years. It has not built the credibility infrastructure to match it. The 8.7-to-1 ratio is no longer a marketing department metric. It is a capital markets metric. It is in Sustainalytics. It is in MSCI. It is in legislative testimony in California, Texas, and Florida. And it is in the answer ChatGPT gives a parent who asks which sportsbook is safe for their kid in college,” said Ronn Torossian, Founder and Chairman of 5W.

The audit recommends five communications investments to close the gap: disclose RG investment as a percentage of marketing spend, build owned-media RG content the AI engines can cite, establish executive visibility on RG topics outside crisis windows, engage regulators proactively in pre-legalization markets, and reallocate 3–5 percentage points of marketing budget toward earned media at parity with celebrity partnerships — representing $117M to $195M redirected at industry scale.