Brian Germinaro

Abstract:

Over the years, scholars such as Luke Clark, have looked at the effects that sports gambling has on someone’s brain. Studies show that “addictions may be associated with an imbalance between different reward types, and that the compatibility of the task reward with the abused commodity will critically determine changes in the brain reward system” (Clark, 2014). However, few studies have investigated how sports books make people want to gamble. What they include in their advertisement makes people want to gamble. Or how gambling is presented in advertisements. In this study, I present a psychological analysis of a BetMGM advertisement, and argue that sportsbooks have been using psychological tactics in order to make people want to gamble and buy into that lifestyle.