As you watch, your personal space is being invaded by enticements to engage in behavior that can be very bad for your physical, emotional, and financial health.
A page-one Wall Street Journal headline in its April 10 edition reads, “DOJ Opens Probe Into NFL Over Its Media-Rights Deals.” The opening paragraph of the story said, “The Justice Department has opened an investigation into whether the National Football League has engaged in anticompetitive tactics amid complaints that watching football has become too expensive, according to people familiar with the situation.”
While true, that’s the least of my problems with sports TV telecasts. What concerns me most is the negative effect on impressionable youngsters and adults, who are bombarded by a variety of commercials hawking products that harm viewers’ health and wealth.
When I was a youngster, beer and cigarette commercials were ubiquitous on sports telecasts. Then, tobacco products were prohibited from advertising on sports telecasts because of the health risks associated with smoking. That said, beer is still a staple of sports TV commercials, even though research indicates that alcohol use during the teenage years can interfere with normal adolescent brain development and increase the risk of developing alcohol use disorder. In addition, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIH), underage drinking contributes to a range of acute consequences, such as injuries, sexual assaults, alcohol overdoses, and deaths, including those from motor vehicle crashes.
Graphic courtesy USA Today
But TV moguls permit alcoholic beverages to be touted when their team games are televised, and they also turn a blind eye to scientific evidence that alcoholic beverages can cause many diseases, including cancers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported that deaths from consuming alcoholic beverages are increasing, especially among women and younger adults.
Graphic courtesy NYSafeBets
As if eating the junk foods advertised on sports telecasts and washing it down with the brew of a beer advertiser wasn’t enough for the money-hungry sports moguls, in 2018, the sports family found another way to enrich themselves. The new way was to invite the corner bookie into your home.
So, the progression looks like this.
Tobacco was once allowed, but is now banned.
Beer advertisements during sports events have been hawked on the radio for decades, long before the first sporting event was televised.
Hard liquor ads are a more recent addition to the commercial mix on sports telecasts.
Gambling from your living room and everywhere using your iPhone is the newest sports-approved sin in town.
Courtesy Babbygirlchi.wordpress.com/
On July 17, 2025, a National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) press release said, “NCPG urges more federal action as nearly 20 million U.S. adults report problem gambling behaviors.” That’s right: 20 million adults report they have a problem. What about all the others who conclude, “I’m fine!”
The American Institute for Boys and Men (AIBM) conducts nonpartisan research on issues affecting the well-being of boys and men across the United States and designs programs and policies to help them thrive. On February 4 2025, AIBM posted a summary of a research report entitled, The Financial Consequences of Legalized Sports Gambling.” Among other things, the report states that “sports betting is leading to financial harm, and initial evidence suggests the effects are strongest among young men living in poorer areas.”
A post on Harvard Law Today (October 16, 2025) noted that, “What we’re looking at is the total normalization of a known addictive product. Does it get any more normalized than when a nine-year-old child visits Fenway Park and sees MGM and DraftKings on the Green Monster?” The post also said that the American Psychiatric Association has classified gambling addiction alongside substance abuse disorders such as heroin and cocaine addiction since 2013.
And on March 11, 2026, a press release issued by the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) was headlined National Survey Finds Widespread Gambling Participation Before Age 21 Amid Public Concern About Youth Exposure Risk. In it, Heather L. Maurer, MA, CAE, Executive Director of NCPG, wrote that “youth are at significantly greater risk for developing gambling problems, and as gambling becomes increasingly normalized in media, sports, and online spaces, the risks grow. Prevention and education are essential to ensure young people, families, educators, and policymakers understand the potential harms and are protected from early exposure.”
Other reports show that the risks of suicide and suicide inclinations by gamblers are the highest among any addictions. Nevertheless, the moguls of sports permit and embrace gambling entities and allow their commercials to be televised during the hours when youthful viewers watch games.
As they have dismissed the negative health research and allow alcoholic beverages to advertise during telecasts of their games, sports moguls also ignore reports about the negative aspects of promoting online betting. Major professional sports leagues, including the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, and NASCAR, have embraced partnerships with gambling entities following the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Key betting partners include DraftKings, FanDuel, Caesars Sportsbook, BetMGM, and PointsBet, which are integrated into league advertising, official data usage, and in-stadium sportsbooks.”
Graphic courtesy bitcoin.com
At one time, the dialogue when watching a game on television with friends was about whether the strategies used by managers and coaches were correct. Today, the talk is likely to be about betting on what the next play will be, whether a football player deliberately missed a field goal because of a bet on the point spread, if a baseball player deliberately made a miscue, or a basketball player missed a field goal on purpose on the last play of a game because of a bet.
And if that isn’t enough, now you can bet on anything, everywhere, from whether the U.S. will engage in a military action by x date or if Candidate A is likely to be a party’s nominee six months from now. To enable that betting, we’ve moved to the next phase of the inundation, prediction markets, with advertisements from companies such as Kalshi.
It’s one thing after another, with money driving it all.
So, I’ve come to the conclusion that watching a sporting event from the safety of your home is a thing of the past, and the price of watching a game on television is a minor problem compared to the ruined lives of viewers who succumb to the addictive “sin” products televised during sporting events.
