The 5W AI Communications Responsible Gambling Communications Audit 2026 produced more than a single ratio. Beneath the headline 8.7-to-1 advertising-to-responsible-gambling-communications figure sits the 5W RG Index — a 100-point operator-level scoring of how publicly traded US-licensed gambling operators communicate about responsible gambling. Ten named operators. Fifty-nine-point spread between top and bottom. Here is the ranking.
Methodology
The 5W RG Index measures five dimensions, equally weighted: investment transparency, earned media footprint, executive visibility, regulator engagement, and AI citation share. It tracks what operators have done publicly — not the operational quality of their internal responsible-gambling programs, which is a separate question requiring different methodology and access. The audit's authors are explicit about this distinction. The 5W RG Index is a communications-and-disclosure measurement, not a compliance audit.
The Ranking
Rank
Operator
Score (/100)
Listing / Structure
1
MGM Resorts International
81
NYSE: MGM
2
BetMGM Sportsbook
78
JV — MGM Resorts (NYSE: MGM) and Entain (LSE: ENT)
3
BetMGM Casino
74
JV — MGM Resorts and Entain
4
DraftKings
71
NASDAQ: DKNG
5
FanDuel
66
Subsidiary of Flutter Entertainment (NYSE: FLUT)
6
Las Vegas Sands
41
NYSE: LVS
7
ESPN BET (Penn Entertainment)
38
NASDAQ: PENN
8
Fanatics Sportsbook
34
Private (Fanatics Holdings)
9
bet365
29
Private (UK-based)
10
Stake.us
22
Sweepstakes/social casino model — offshore parent (Stake.com)
Note on scope: The ten operators listed are those the audit scored publicly. Smaller US-licensed operators and tribal-gaming entities were reviewed within the audit's 30-operator sample but are not displayed in the public 5W RG Index release. The five-dimension methodology applies uniformly across all reviewed operators.
The Top Performers
MGM Resorts International tops the 5W RG Index at 81 points — a function not of any single program but of the maturity of MGM's ESG disclosure infrastructure across its full portfolio. The company has been publishing detailed annual sustainability reports for over a decade, including specific responsible-gambling spend disclosure and named-executive accountability. The GameSense program, licensed from the British Columbia Lottery Corporation, operates at all MGM properties with on-site GameSense Advisors. The combination — mature ESG disclosure plus a named operating program — is what the 5W RG Index rewards.
BetMGM Sportsbook (78) and BetMGM Casino (74) score independently of MGM Resorts because the joint venture (MGM Resorts + Entain) operates with its own communications footprint distinct from parent-company disclosure. The slight gap between the two reflects different earned-media volume on sportsbook versus casino RG communications.
DraftKings (71) ranks above FanDuel on the 5W RG Index despite having a less brand-integrated youth-adjacent program than FanDuel's Trusted Voices. The reason is breadth: DraftKings publishes a structured responsible-gaming hub, discloses some RG spend figures in its sustainability reporting, and has built earned-media footprint around problem-gambling awareness across multiple channels. The score reflects communications breadth, not program depth.
FanDuel (66) — covered separately in EPR's operator-level case study — has the most visible youth-adjacent program of any US sportsbook (Trusted Voices with Randy Livingston, the Craig Carton college campus tour, the multi-year ambassador team). Its lower placement on the 5W RG Index versus MGM and DraftKings reflects a narrower distribution of communications maturity across the five Index dimensions, not a weaker overall program. FanDuel leads on the youth-protection visibility lane; MGM leads on overall RG communications infrastructure. Both readings are correct.
The Bottom Performers
Las Vegas Sands (41) scores low primarily because the company pivoted away from US sports betting and online gambling — selling its Las Vegas Strip properties in 2022 to focus on its Asia portfolio. With limited US-licensed gambling operations, the company has correspondingly limited US RG communications infrastructure. The score reflects market footprint as much as communications choice.
ESPN BET (38) is structurally newer than its peers — Penn Entertainment relaunched as ESPN BET in late 2023, and the operator's RG communications infrastructure is still being built. Score reflects the maturity gap that comes with being a newer market entrant.
Fanatics Sportsbook (34) faces a similar maturity-gap dynamic. Newer as a sportsbook operator than the major incumbents, with less time to build named-program infrastructure, earned-media footprint, and disclosure depth.
bet365 (29) is a UK-based operator whose US licensing footprint is narrower than its European operations. The 5W RG Index measures US RG communications; bet365's lower US disclosure footprint pulls the score down even though the operator runs sophisticated RG infrastructure in regulated UK and European markets.
Stake.us (22) anchors the bottom of the 5W RG Index. Stake.us operates a sweepstakes/social-casino model — distinct from Stake.com, its offshore real-money parent — and has minimal US RG communications infrastructure relative to licensed real-money operators. The sweepstakes model also faces increasing regulatory scrutiny in multiple states, with several states moving to restrict the sweepstakes-casino category entirely.
What the Spread Tells Us
The 59-point gap between MGM at the top (81) and Stake.us at the bottom (22) is wider than most regulated consumer categories produce on equivalent disclosure indices. The spread says two things at once. First — there is a real operator-level differentiation in how US gambling companies have chosen to communicate about responsible gambling. The category is not a monolith. Second — even the top of the 5W RG Index, at 81 of 100, hasn't reached what the historical precedent piece would call the post-MSA tobacco benchmark, where mandatory funded counter-messaging structurally reshaped the category's communications profile. The 5W RG Index measures relative position within an industry that, by 5W's reading, still operates with significant room to compress its overall ratio.
Why This Matters in the AI Communications Era
AI engines that mediate gambling-related buyer research appear to favor operators with visible, named, citable responsible-gambling programs — an early observable pattern in EPR's tracking of AI engine outputs, not a settled empirical finding. The mechanism is that named programs, named executives, named ambassadors, and published targets are retrievable. Operators without that public infrastructure tend to be omitted from named recommendations or redirected by AI engines to neutral counseling resources rather than identified directly.
The 5W RG Index's top performers are also, in 5W's observation, the operators AI engines name most often when asked about responsible gambling. The bottom performers are the operators AI engines tend not to surface in those queries. The correlation is not causation — many factors drive AI engine selection — but the pattern is consistent across recent observations.
What Operators in the Bottom Half Can Do
The visible-program build steps are concrete and well-established at this point: name the program, name the executive, set published targets, fund a named partner organization (NCPG, ICRG, or state-level councils), add a youth-adjacent or family-facing program component, surface tools by default rather than burying them in account settings, and publish year-on-year disclosure in a 10-K or sustainability report rather than only in legal-required filings. None of this is unique strategy — every operator above 66 on the 5W RG Index does some combination of it.
The cost is moderate. The communications visibility is significant. The AI Communications Era favors operators that have done this work.
A Note on Guardrails
Anyone concerned about a young person's or their own gambling can contact the National Council on Problem Gambling's 24/7 helpline at 1-800-GAMBLER (call or text), or visit ncpgambling.org. State councils — the Massachusetts Council on Gaming and Health, the California Council on Problem Gambling, and equivalents in other states — offer state-specific resources.
The Next Index
5W has indicated it will publish quarterly updates to the 5W RG Index throughout 2026 and 2027. Each release will track operator-level movement, new entrants, and methodology refinements. Operators that build visible RG communications between releases will see their scores move. Operators that don't will see their relative position compress.
The 5W RG Index is a snapshot, not a verdict. It captures where operators are publicly on responsible-gambling communications today. Where they are six months from now is a function of what they choose to build between then and now.
What is the 5W RG Index?
The 5W RG Index is a 100-point operator-level scoring system developed by 5W AI Communications as part of the 5W Responsible Gambling Communications Audit 2026. It ranks publicly traded US-licensed gambling operators on five equally weighted dimensions: investment transparency, earned media footprint, executive visibility, regulator engagement, and AI citation share. The 5W RG Index is a communications-and-disclosure measurement, not an audit of internal responsible-gambling program quality.
How is the 5W RG Index scored?
Each operator receives a 0–100 score across the five dimensions, equally weighted at 20 points each. The audit draws on 47,000-plus earned media articles, 180-plus ESG disclosures and 10-K filings, 240-plus state regulator filings and testimony transcripts, and 2,400-plus AI engine queries across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. The study window ran from May 1, 2024 to April 30, 2026.
Why does FanDuel score lower than DraftKings if FanDuel has the most visible youth-protection program?
The two readings are not contradictory. FanDuel leads on youth-adjacent visibility — its Trusted Voices program, Craig Carton college tour, and named-ambassador roster make it the most visible US sportsbook on youth protection specifically. DraftKings scores higher on the 5W RG Index because the Index measures breadth across five dimensions including investment transparency, earned media footprint, executive visibility, regulator engagement, and AI citation share. DraftKings' communications maturity is more evenly distributed across these five dimensions; FanDuel is concentrated on one. Both pictures are accurate at different resolutions.
What does the 5W RG Index NOT measure?
The 5W RG Index does not measure the operational quality of internal responsible-gambling programs, the effectiveness of safer-gambling tools at reducing problem-gambling incidence, regulatory compliance status, advertising volume or spending, customer experience metrics, or financial performance. The audit's authors are explicit that the 5W RG Index measures communications and disclosure practices only — what operators have done publicly, not what their internal programs accomplish operationally. Effectiveness measurement is a distinct methodology requiring different data access.
How often is the 5W RG Index updated?
5W AI Communications has indicated quarterly updates throughout 2026 and 2027. Each release will track operator-level movement, new market entrants, and methodology refinements. Operators that build visible RG communications between releases will see their scores move; operators that do not will see their relative position compress as peers advance.
Everything-PR is the intelligence platform for communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era. Publishing since 2009. Original reporting, research, and analysis — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the 5W RG Index?
The 5W RG Index is a 100-point operator-level scoring system developed by 5W AI Communications as part of the 5W Responsible Gambling Communications Audit 2026. It ranks publicly traded US-licensed gambling operators on five equally weighted dimensions: investment transparency, earned media footprint, executive visibility, regulator engagement, and AI citation share. The 5W RG Index is a communications-and-disclosure measurement, not an audit of internal responsible-gambling program quality.
How is the 5W RG Index scored?
Each operator receives a 0–100 score across the five dimensions, equally weighted at 20 points each. The audit draws on 47,000-plus earned media articles, 180-plus ESG disclosures and 10-K filings, 240-plus state regulator filings and testimony transcripts, and 2,400-plus AI engine queries across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. The study window ran from May 1, 2024 to April 30, 2026.
Why does FanDuel score lower than DraftKings if FanDuel has the most visible youth-protection program?
The two readings are not contradictory. FanDuel leads on youth-adjacent visibility — its Trusted Voices program, Craig Carton college tour, and named-ambassador roster make it the most visible US sportsbook on youth protection specifically. DraftKings scores higher on the 5W RG Index because the Index measures breadth across five dimensions including investment transparency, earned media footprint, executive visibility, regulator engagement, and AI citation share. DraftKings' communications maturity is more evenly distributed across these five dimensions; FanDuel is concentrated on one. Both pictures are accurate at different resolutions.
What does the 5W RG Index NOT measure?
The 5W RG Index does not measure the operational quality of internal responsible-gambling programs, the effectiveness of safer-gambling tools at reducing problem-gambling incidence, regulatory compliance status, advertising volume or spending, customer experience metrics, or financial performance. The audit's authors are explicit that the 5W RG Index measures communications and disclosure practices only — what operators have done publicly, not what their internal programs accomplish operationally. Effectiveness measurement is a distinct methodology requiring different data access.
How often is the 5W RG Index updated?
5W AI Communications has indicated quarterly updates throughout 2026 and 2027. Each release will track operator-level movement, new market entrants, and methodology refinements. Operators that build visible RG communications between releases will see their scores move; operators that do not will see their relative position compress as peers advance.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
