Foe warns fans will watch games differently
An anti-gambling advocate is warning that a massive influx of legal sports betting will fundamentally alter how Bay State sports fans watch games — and suck money from their pockets.
“Massachusetts is fanatic about our sports. This is going to encourage citizens to get fleeced,” said Les Bernal, the national director of activist group Stop Predatory Gambling. “Instead of people rooting for the Patriots and the Red Sox, a generation of kids will be growing up saying, ‘What are the odds on the game?’ It’s a huge transformation in getting young people hooked on gambling.”
A 6-3 Supreme Court decision yesterday overturned a decadesold ban and will allow states to legalize and regulate sports betting. While Massachusetts officials have not said whether they will support sports betting, they’re calling for consideration of the idea.
A spokeswoman for Attorney General Maura Healey said the AG would focus on consumer protection issues associated with gambling and sports betting.
Bernal said legal betting has wide effects, citing a recent study of British soccer broadcasts that found 95 percent of the advertising breaks contained at least one ad for gambling services.
“It makes money the center of the sporting experience. So much advertising and marketing comes with it that it changes the experience citizens have with sports,” Bernal said.
But Richard McGowan, an associate professor of economics at Boston College who tracks gambling, suggested legal betting would not change sports fans any more than illegal betting has already affected them.
“I’m not so sure we haven’t changed already,” McGowan said. “Some Monday Night Football games were such dogs, people would only watch because they had money on it.”