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Source/Full Story - GamingAmerica'
The legal Sports Betting industry has operated for years with aggressive marketing, user-friendly apps, and a constant drip of bonus offers.
Gambling increasingly feels like part of the modern sports experience. However, a landmark jury verdict in Los Angeles last week found
Meta and Google liable for engineering addictive products that harmed a young user’s mental health, leading observers to ask whether
Sportsbooks could be next under the microscope.
The gambling industry shows some uncomfortable parallels. On March 25, a California jury awarded $6 million in damages to a
woman who argued that YouTube and Instagram deliberately engineered their platforms to exploit the developing brains of younger users.
The jury concluded that the platforms were deceptive because of their design. This first-of-its-kind verdict drew comparisons to
tobacco litigation from the 1990s, and the plaintiffs’ legal team called the decision a watershed moment for product liability law.
Lawyers in the case built their strategy around the platforms’ design rather than the content itself. This approach allowed them to
sidestep Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which has long protected platforms from liability over user-generated content.
They argued that features like infinite scroll, autoplay video, and algorithmic reinforcement loops constituted a defective product.
The jury agreed. Sportsbooks have no Section 230 protection to rely on, and their product is the design itself.
The Microbet Problem
Analysts and regulators increasingly view so-called “microbetting” as a potentially problematic type of wager.
It allows users to bet on individual moments in a sporting event, such as whether the next pitch will be a strike or if
the next football play will be a run or pass. Bets resolve within seconds, and platforms offer new ones almost instantly,
repeating this cycle dozens of times in every game.
New Jersey regulators have already taken aim at this structure. There, the Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism, and
Historic Preservation Committee advanced Senate Bill 2160 on March 23, which would ban Sportsbooks from accepting microbets.
Sponsors State Sens. Patrick Diegnan and Paul Moriarty raised concerns over betting integrity and addiction.
Moriarty argued that microbets create structural opportunities for manipulation. Insiders with knowledge of a quarterback’s
audibles or a pitcher’s called pitches can exploit that information before markets adjust. Major League Baseball is dealing with
the fallout from a high-profile case of pitchers allegedly rigging microbets.
However, the addiction argument carries the most legal weight in light of the California case.
Diegnan described microbetting as significantly more dangerous than traditional wagers due to its design. It creates a constant
opportunity to bet during a game while increasing the speed of resolution and the volume of wagering moments every hour.
His language closely mirrors arguments used in social media litigation.
The legal Sports Betting industry has operated for years with aggressive marketing, user-friendly apps, and a constant drip of bonus offers.
Gambling increasingly feels like part of the modern sports experience. However, a landmark jury verdict in Los Angeles last week found
Meta and Google liable for engineering addictive products that harmed a young user’s mental health, leading observers to ask whether
Sportsbooks could be next under the microscope.
The gambling industry shows some uncomfortable parallels. On March 25, a California jury awarded $6 million in damages to a
woman who argued that YouTube and Instagram deliberately engineered their platforms to exploit the developing brains of younger users.
The jury concluded that the platforms were deceptive because of their design. This first-of-its-kind verdict drew comparisons to
tobacco litigation from the 1990s, and the plaintiffs’ legal team called the decision a watershed moment for product liability law.
Lawyers in the case built their strategy around the platforms’ design rather than the content itself. This approach allowed them to
sidestep Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which has long protected platforms from liability over user-generated content.
They argued that features like infinite scroll, autoplay video, and algorithmic reinforcement loops constituted a defective product.
The jury agreed. Sportsbooks have no Section 230 protection to rely on, and their product is the design itself.
The Microbet Problem
Analysts and regulators increasingly view so-called “microbetting” as a potentially problematic type of wager.
It allows users to bet on individual moments in a sporting event, such as whether the next pitch will be a strike or if
the next football play will be a run or pass. Bets resolve within seconds, and platforms offer new ones almost instantly,
repeating this cycle dozens of times in every game.
New Jersey regulators have already taken aim at this structure. There, the Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism, and
Historic Preservation Committee advanced Senate Bill 2160 on March 23, which would ban Sportsbooks from accepting microbets.
Sponsors State Sens. Patrick Diegnan and Paul Moriarty raised concerns over betting integrity and addiction.
Moriarty argued that microbets create structural opportunities for manipulation. Insiders with knowledge of a quarterback’s
audibles or a pitcher’s called pitches can exploit that information before markets adjust. Major League Baseball is dealing with
the fallout from a high-profile case of pitchers allegedly rigging microbets.
However, the addiction argument carries the most legal weight in light of the California case.
Diegnan described microbetting as significantly more dangerous than traditional wagers due to its design. It creates a constant
opportunity to bet during a game while increasing the speed of resolution and the volume of wagering moments every hour.
His language closely mirrors arguments used in social media litigation.
