New Jersey Advances Bills to Curb Targeted Gambling Ads After FanDuel Video Backlash
New Jersey's Assembly Tourism, Gaming and the Arts Committee unanimously advanced two gambling-advertising measures on September 14, responding to a controversy over a personalized FanDuel promotional video that used a message from MLB star Bryce Harper.
What prompted it
Harper had recorded a personalized video through Cameo for a fan. According to lawmakers, FanDuel instead used that video in a VIP promotion sent to a customer identified as Terry Thompson, who had lost roughly $1.5 million gambling before receiving the message — footage that named him directly and referenced his son. Harper has said he was unaware of and unhappy about how the clip was used.
What the two measures do
The committee approved AR 150, a resolution sponsored by committee chair William Moen that urges restrictions on gambling advertisements aimed at people showing signs of problem gambling or addiction. Because it's a resolution rather than a binding bill, AR 150 expresses the Assembly's position without creating an enforceable rule on its own. Alongside it, the committee approved A5210, an actual bill also sponsored by Moen, which would require people to complete an educational and counseling video before being removed from a self-exclusion list, and would allow a third party to request someone's exclusion with financial proof to support the request.
"This resolution simply urges the prohibition of this kind of advertising to prevent this type of situation from occurring in the future," Moen said of AR 150.
Where it stands
Both measures passed committee unanimously and now move toward further votes in the full Assembly. The Sports Betting Alliance, an industry trade group, opposed A5210 but did not testify at Monday's hearing.
Why it matters to a US bettor
New Jersey was one of the first states to legalize mobile sports betting after the 2018 repeal of the federal ban, and its regulatory moves are frequently studied by other states weighing similar rules. A push to limit personalized, celebrity-driven marketing aimed at flagged or vulnerable accounts — and to tighten how self-exclusion lists work — could become a template that spreads well beyond New Jersey if it becomes law.