Esteban Ruiz-Haynes, the 29-year-old pest control salesman from Virginia who was featured on CBS This Morning Sunday during a segment on sports betting, has been suspended from placing any more bets on FanDuel.
The segment — which took a dim view of how companies like FanDuel market their product to its customers — was helmed by Jim Axelrod, CBS’s chief correspondent, and claimed FanDuel was “pushing hard to keep bettors engaged — even in cases where gambling losses are mounting.”
FanDuel fought back against the claims, telling CBS in a statement that “any claim that we don’t aggressively take actions to monitor and curb problem behavior is completely false.”
Which brings us to Tuesday, some 48 hours later, where after watching the segment Sunday, FanDuel made the decision to block Ruiz-Haynes from placing any more wagers, as reported on the CBS Evening News.
“FanDuel told us it has sophisticated protections in place to spot problem gamblers,” Axelrod said on Tuesday’s broadcast update. “But the company only notified Ruiz-Haynes this past Sunday his account was being suspended, and only after he appeared in a story of ours.”
FanDuel had a statement at the ready.
“Whether it’s in a chat with our customer service team or on national television, if a customer raises concerns about their own behaviors, we will evaluate and take appropriate actions up to excluding the customer and directing them to resources including BetBlocker and a mental health assessment from Kindbridge Behavioral Health Services,” a spokesperson for FanDuel said.
Causes?
The spokesperson did not say what exactly caused the decision to kick Ruiz-Haynes off the platform, though toward the end of the interview on Sunday, Axelrod asked Ruiz-Haynes if he was an addict.
“I’m not gonna say no, but I’m not gonna say yes,” he said. “I know my limits, I can control myself.”
The above was repeated back to him by Axelrod, noting he’s heard similar things from people talking about drugs or alcohol.
“Yeah, gambling is like crack in the 80s,” Ruiz-Haynes responded.
“And that doesn’t stop you?” Axelrod asked.
“Nah, you get that fix, you gotta get it again,” Ruiz-Haynes said.
When asked if the crack cocaine comment and/or the “fix” comment was the cause of the ban, the FanDuel spokesman directed InGame back to an official statement from the company.
“When we identify harmful play, our Responsible Gaming Operations team will engage directly with customers or apply protective measures when appropriate, including placing limits or exclusion,” the statement read.
Attempts to reach Ruiz-Haynes via Instagram messaging were not returned as of publication.
