The announcement follows a yearlong explosion in online sports betting and comes amid growing fears over a looming boom in gambling addiction. Massachusetts bettors have wagered more than $5 billion on sports betting platforms since mobile sports operators went live on March 10, 2023. It is illegal for anyone under 21 in Massachusetts to wager online. Yet increasingly, as the Globe has documented, tech-savvy adolescents are circumventing regulatory safeguards and gaining access to the new digital platforms, stoking worries that the gambling industry may be sowing the seeds of a future addiction crisis.
To attract more attention, state officials timed the announcement of the initiative within hours of the tipoff of the NCAA men’s college basketball semifinals, known as the Sweet 16, being held at the Garden. Along with the Super Bowl, the tournament is one of the biggest gambling events of the year and is expected to generate billions of dollars in wagers. Nearby, college players did warmup drills as officials warned of the proliferation of sports betting on college campuses.
“Sports gambling is everywhere. It is accessible, and because it is so accessible, it poses a serious public health risk, particularly for young people,” said Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell at the announcement. “We need to make sure that [sports betting] . . . does not ensnare young people into a cycle of problem gambling, law breaking, or addiction.”
Yet the initiative quickly drew skepticism from some gambling researchers and addiction treatment specialists for not addressing one of the most controversial aspects of the sports betting boom: the relentless barrage of ads that blanket the airwaves and downtown Boston billboards, garbage cans, public transit stops, and stadiums, including TD Garden. The ads feature some of Boston’s most prominent professional athletes, including former Red Sox slugger David Ortiz and Patriots legends Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski.
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