By Jaime Suarez Del Valle
Boston University News Service
Angel Benitez has the same worries as any other high schooler. His grades, his social life, and his future career are all thoughts that run through Benitez’s mind. Now, Benitez has another issue to juggle in his young life: the risk of developing a gambling addiction through sports betting before graduating high school.
Benitez knew about sports betting in passing, but a school project with friends led them to uncover just how many of his classmates at Fenway High School were involved in the practice. Benitez and his research team created an online survey to poll their peers, and their results indicated that online sports gambling was more widespread than they realized.
When asked if they knew anyone their age that has gambled, 91% percent of the 120 respondents answered “Yes.” Another finding of Benitez’s study was the significant presence of gambling ads in every facet of their lives.
“You can go to the gas station, and next to a trash can, there’ll be a DraftKings slogan saying ‘Bet $5 and get $300 in bonus bets,’” Benitez said during a November 2025 hearing at the Massachusetts State House with the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies.
Benitez testified in favor of the “Bettor Health Act,” a bill proposed by Sen. John F. Keenan, D-Mass., developed in collaboration with the Public Health Advocacy Initiative, a group based at Northeastern University. As Keenan described, the bill seeks to place “guardrails” and address the worst practices of the sports betting industry, which skyrocketed into a billion-dollar industry after the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 was struck down in 2018. After Massachusetts legalized sports betting in 2022, the advertisements spread like wildfire, and so did the concerns.
Sports gambling ads are everywhere. People see them on billboards, on the radio and TV, and most importantly, while scrolling through social media on their smartphone. One of Keenan’s biggest concerns about these advertisements’ massive reach is their effectiveness not only in drawing consumers in with perks like Benitez described, but also in getting some hooked on the product. Sports betting apps like Fanduel and DraftKings track user data and betting activity, which enables them to push even more targeted ads and notifications to keep you betting — and thus make money.
“It’s no different than Purdue Pharma making money off of Oxycontin addiction, the alcohol industry making money off of heavy drinkers and the tobacco industry making money off of chronic smokers…one of the big differences is this (sports betting) industry has so much data that they are more effective than any other in targeting individuals and, I think, pulling them down the path to the problem of gambling and addiction,” said Keenan.“… when they find out they have a customer for life, they will do anything they can to keep that customer for life.”
The advertisements broadcast a fun and simple experience that is easily accessible and can net users up to millions in wins. Celebrities, especially athletes like LeBron James, Marshawn Lynch, and Rob Gronkowski, partner up with companies like Fanduel, DraftKings, and BetMGM and star in commercials selling this same idea of seamless and entertaining profit. These same companies link up with sports teams, leagues, media companies, and content creators to further advertise their product at sporting events, televised sports shows, and online streaming. The constant presence of betting ads, both physically and online, not only affects adults, but, as Benitez, Keenan, and the PHAI suggest, also the younger generation.
“It’s marketed implicitly and explicitly at youth,” said Mark Gottlieb, executive director of the PHAI.
Children and teens are targets of influencers and media personalities who are paid by the sportsbooks — because of this, they are learning about parlays, over/unders and prop bets earlier than they can legally drink alcohol or even drive a car, according to Harry Levant, a gambling therapist and colleague of Gottlieb’s at the PHAI who encountered these revelations on a visit to Thayer Academy while talking to middle and high schoolers.
Gottlieb is unaware of current studies that reveal how much underage teens are gambling online in the state of Massachusetts, citing the novelty of the situation and comments from clinicians that their patients’ average age is decreasing. Even without the studies, problematic points have been identified, particularly the paper-thin age restriction of sports betting apps. Similar to alcohol, players need to be 21 years or older to gamble, but the wall between the bets and the user is usually a notification affirming they are of age and an adult’s information, like their address and credit card number. These factors do not matter when it comes to “social casinos,” as Gottlieb describes them. Social casinos are online platforms that utilize in-app currency for their bets and offer plenty of log-in bonuses, granting users ample resources without requiring them to spend their own money to get started. The legal loophole that allows this is a “sweepstakes exception” embedded in gambling laws, making these sites difficult to regulate, in turn enabling practices that risk trapping young people into sports betting at a time when their brains are not ready to assess risk and handle addiction.
“We do know that the younger someone is when they experience addiction, the more challenging a journey they’ll have ahead of them in terms of recovery,” said Gottlieb.
The phenomenon of social casinos is not isolated. Children are learning about gambling as young as under 10 years old, according to Benitez’s study, and are also experiencing it much earlier through features called loot boxes and gambling minigames within video games. According to EBSCO, a loot box:
“…is a method by which virtual items are commonly distributed in video games. They refer to blindly purchasing packs of virtual items, hoping to secure rare or valuable pieces. In most cases, players purchase loot boxes with real money. The practice has been declared gambling and banned in some countries.”
Video game loot boxes adopt and digitalize a similar concept of blind purchases with high rewards from the trading card game industry, a lucrative business venture after its recent boom during the COVID-19 pandemic, per Mike Sullivan at CBS Boston. The most relevant aspect of this conversation is that these, alongside social casinos, are completely accessible to users of any age, with more than 77% respondents to Benitez’s study answering that it is at least somewhat easy to enter and use sports betting apps.
The biggest concern of many, like Keenan and Benitez, is how these products and apps are marketed towards children. While Pokémon cards have been a coveted recess trading item since the 90s, social casino apps like Fliff are designed to retain users of any age consistently gambling on real sports betting lines and cashing their earnings into prizes or even money.
“ If I’m 16, 17, 18 years old and I gain access to this platform, I’m being conditioned that when I’m 21, I get to sign up on a platform and bet legally,” said Keenan. “…and I know exactly what to expect now because I was participating in that behavior for a long period of time.”
While sports betting apps and other gambling products are ever-present in everyday life now, there is positive news. Many people, including Keenan and Benitez, believe there must be a change and are working at both a legislative and developmental level. Keenan is working diligently on gathering enough support for the bill with hopes that it gets passed to the next stage and ultimately becomes law.
“I think there’s a growing awareness of it,” said Keenan. “I think the legislature’s becoming more aware of it, and hopefully we’ll make everybody aware of these problems and bring this bill to the top.”
On Benitez’s end, he is committed to continuing his work with Senator Keenan and other organizations like the PHAI to spread awareness of these issues and advocate for better restrictions for both the betting apps and the consumer. Benitez also said it is important to be able to spot the warning signs early with the help of an official Massachusetts article titled “Teen Gambling. It’s a Risk,” which lists more aggressive and competitive attitudes, disinterest in school and hobbies, and hidden money stashes. Parents identifying red flags and also reflecting on their own behavior with gambling and sports betting can go a long way in mitigating their kids’ interest in sports gambling.
Ultimately, Benitez is proud of what his work has contributed to the conversation around youth sports gambling, adding another layer that the work is far from done. He hopes to model how younger generations can step up and draw attention to issues affecting them and their futures in hopes of finding a solution that improves the lives of others.
