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Page F2From§Eachthe sunrise edition — 26 September 2026

Reporter poses as gambling addict, DraftKings makes them a VIP

By RuthThe Money Desk

“Sharon Stone urges Sydney Sweeney to ‘take responsibility’ for betting ad controversy”, 26 September 2026 (Photo via New York Post — the original report)

As it ran on the front

Start with the ledger. In late August, Connecticut's attorney general sued Kalshi, arguing the prediction-market company was running an unlicensed sports book by another name — a contract on a game's outcome, the state said, is a bet no matter what you call it. It is not, on its own, the industry defending a customer.

By September 15, the defense had a face. Sydney Sweeney's ad for the betting platform Novig — the actress in little clothing, covering herself with sports equipment — drew a formal warning from a British athlete who had just taken four golds at a world championship: the ad, she said, risked becoming a barrier for girls wanting to play sport at all.…

…(cont) A week later, on September 22, a CBS investigation quoted a bettor comparing the apps to crack in the 1980s, and reported that companies like FanDuel keep users wagering even as their losses accumulate. That's not a stray complaint.

Then, this week, the punch line arrived from the other direction. A ProPublica reporter set out to bet the way a problem gambler bets — compulsively, past the point of sense — specifically to see how DraftKings would respond. DraftKings responded by making them a VIP.

Reconcile the columns, hon. One says the behavior is a crisis serious enough to draw congressional-adjacent hand-wringing and a British athlete's public warning. One says a rival platform offering the same product without a license is a lawsuit-worthy threat to the public. And one, filed the same week as the other two, shows the flagship company's actual response to a customer behaving exactly like the crisis: promotion.

Sharon Stone told Sweeney to take responsibility for the ad. Nobody at DraftKings has been asked to take responsibility for the VIP list, and nobody has volunteered. The filing gap is the whole story: the industry's stated concern for the vulnerable bettor and its actual treatment of one turn out to be two different documents, kept in two different drawers, and the reporter who checked both drawers is the only reason we know it.

“They sue a competitor for running an unlicensed casino, then run a rewards program for people gambling like addicts — that's not two policies, that's one business model wearing two hats. The Sweeney ad, the Kalshi lawsuit, the VIP list — same math, different costumes: keep the losers betting, keep the license, keep the girl in the ad young enough to matter. You want to know who the "problem gambler" protections are actually for? Check whose name is on the VIP list versus whose name is on the lawsuit.”
Sal
“Look, VIP status isn't a red flag, it's a loyalty tier — the same industry standard every airline and casino uses, and frankly it's condescending to assume a customer can't handle their own action. The Sweeney ad is just marketing to adults about a legal product, and — okay, I see how "legal product covered in sports equipment aimed at a demographic that includes teenage girls" sounds. And the Kalshi suit isn't hypocrisy, it's regulatory consistency, we just also happen to consistently not sue ourselves.”
Chip

The receipts

· Connecticut sues Kalshi to block sports-related wagers from the morgue, 28 Aug 2026

· Hunt warns Sweeney betting ad sends wrong message to girls from the morgue, 15 Sep 2026

This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.