Gambling is a lethal disease; it may not eat away your organs or have you diagnosed with a terminal disorder, but it excruciatingly ravages your mental fortitude and seizes important aspects of your life you once held dear. This is why Nadine Lustre’s latest online gambling endorsement is a punch in the gut—because while gambling and advertising are never crimes, they can still undoubtedly ruin lives.
For years, Nadine has been recognized as an advocate of varying causes—from animal welfare to environmental movements—and has actively worked to uphold them. Hence, her current disposition appears as if there has been a shift in her standards, gambling her public identity along the way. In one of the latest posts on her social media platform, she proudly showcased her photo holding up her phone containing the online casino “BIGWIN29,” which she is an ambassador of. This, in turn, received the scowls of the public, as her promotion goes against the previous image she built of herself.
While it was asserted that she may not pride herself on her affiliation with the brand and only took the job for the sake of keeping her head above the water—for a multimillionaire actress, denying a single endorsement will not crumble her world.
Furthermore, according to Lustre, “I am honored to be the face, and a partner, of such an exciting brand [BIGWIN29].” This statement opposes the defense that perhaps she was not pleased with her promotion to begin with. Prosperous individuals who can attain anything at the snap of their fingers are at odds with the idea of merely connecting with corporations to make ends meet, because unlike the poverty-stricken, they can live another day without worrying about their finances.
With the shift from traditional gambling methods to the online gambling industries, it is now more accessible; people of all ages from around the world can participate in it. All they need is a mobile device, and they are set. Personalities are playing a crucial role in endorsing these betting games.
Aside from Nadine, countless artists have also been the faces of gambling applications, with the likes of Kim Chiu for BingoPlus and Alden Richards for Casino Plus, whose towering billboards are displayed among highways frequented by citizens in urbanized cities.
In a statement, she highlighted that gambling is a choice—but the mere action of endorsing it is an act of encouraging people to be involved. Moreover, her platform is open for everyone to access—from children, to the elderly, and literally everyone around the globe. These young children whose brain functions are not yet fully developed may think that gambling is normal, hooking them on betting games.
More so, while downloading and engaging with these sites falls on the end of its users, arguing that gambling is merely a one-man choice is turning a blind eye to her impact in the advertising industry. Attesting their influence is a study conducted by professors and associates from Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania and University of Oxford in 2022, wherein the findings determined that celebrities' appearances in promotional campaigns increase the likelihood of consumers choosing a certain service or product; this goes to show their power in swaying the public’s judgment.
Lustre and other affluential personalities’ paid promotions could have led to someone’s devastation, their respective platforms establishing a gateway to regularizing gambling in the Philippines, a nation lacking financial literacy. This phenomenon is evident in a survey study of the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Global Ratings as cited by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), where the Philippines ranked at the bottom 30% out of the 144 countries in terms of financial literacy.
Our standing in financial literacy is not only the foreseeable threat, as gambling is sometimes no longer a decision but a mental condition, called compulsive gambling. It is the frenzied tendency to be compelled to keep on playing to recover the money they have lost; this circumstance is becoming more destructive as time goes by, with some people betting even their prized possessions or committing crimes such as theft or fraud. Therefore, the repercussions of endorsing gambling may result in an indirect involvement in someone's destruction.
For the well-to-do population, it may seem absurd that some bet away their hard-earned salaries for a meager chance to experience the luxury of acquiring more than what they bargained for. However, for individuals on the brink of desperation for a financial breakthrough, this last glint of hope may just be their ticket out of monetary misery.
The rise of celebrities in the promotion of the betting industry allows more and more individuals to be persuaded to join in on these wagers, ultimately leading to their demise. Public figures like Nadine are not being put on a pedestal, but rather are addressed to set a good example. With the extensive reach of their social media platforms, their influence is not something to be taken lightly.
Gambling is indeed a disease; it kills aspirations, passions, and self-preservation as it gradually destroys its prey—and promoting it speeds up the fatal process.
Article: Neferterie F. Deotoy
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