An advertising ban would solve 80% of the problem. This stuff has always been around for those who want it, and (arguably) in a free society should be. But shoving it down people's throats in every channel imaginable has to end.
It's still shocking to me that there are so many California Lottery advertisements (I'm sure other states have these too). They're spending taxpayer money to make poor people poorer...
Illinois has a bunch of these too. They would always sell expanding what gambling is allowed by saying that the proceeds were going to go to pay for public schools, but its hard to say if that is true or not. Even if the gambling money goes to schools seems like it just frees up other tax money for whatever else. Now here its like a town of 4000 will have over a dozen places offering electronic slot machines. It's like every gas station and bar has them now. And then you can also have stuff like draft kings and fan duel on your phone. It seems like it would be inescapable once you fell into the habit of gambling.
As a professional advertiser: yes. Gambling ads should be illegal. Big issue is supreme court said states cant ban gambling ads due to first amendment.
Cigarette ads have a ton of restrictions despite that first amendment existing
Funnily enough cigarette ads were banned in 1970 before the Supreme Court regime that says you can't ban ads for a given legal product. If someone were to take the case to the Supreme Court, they could probably get cigarette ads un-banned.
With a sufficient endowment to the Trump family, one can get anything they want from this supreme court
Certain porn is illegal despite the first amendment existing - the court merely invented a "nuh uh" exception, called "obscenity".
Current precedent is that states can ban almost anything they want, but if something is legal, you cant ban ads for it.
Is it legal to advertise cigarettes in the US?
Point is the supreme court can just "nuh uh" anything they want to
Watching some new shows on Amazon this past month, Kevin Hart can fuck right off with those draft kings commercials. I swear there are at least 10 gambling ads per 1 hour show. It's disgusting.