I wholeheartedly agree with you, they need to ban advertising, as they did with tobacco. The amount of commercials and adverts is nauseating, the industry is predatory, and I’m having serious thoughts about stopping because of that.
To consider it neutrally, there are people who are just really, really good at it. Think a pro athlete playing on a JV sports team, a man among boys if you will. Those people are sincerely just fucking around with online books anyways and make most of their actual plays in-person, large stakes, and it is their primary source of income.
I get why they get banned. These piddly online books aren’t “meant” for them. I don’t blame them for trying, it’s as close to free money as they can get. I also get why they get banned.
Again, the industry is scummy and predatory. Not defending it. I can see both sides of it though.
AFL (Australia) is one with very embedded sponsorship from SportsBet.
Even the voting group for the Norm Smith medal (best on ground in the Grand Final) has someone from SportsBet on it.
They've managed to get by before sports betting was legalized.