Are you and your kids overwhelmed by Mass. sports betting ads? You’re not alone

Sports betting advertisements are everywhere.

Seldom can someone turn on a TV or scroll through a social media app in the past month without seeing a celebrity promoting the use of one of the many sportsbooks operating within Massachusetts’ brand-new mobile and retail betting industry.

And the stream of promotional bets and advertisements has drawn concerns from lawyers in the state’s attorney general’s office and responsible gambling advocates only days into the launch of mobile betting, which kicked off on March 10.

Even as concerns are aired, many experts have acknowledged the Massachusetts Gaming Commission’s standing as a national leader in responsible gambling efforts. Regulators spent long hours crafting regulations on the topic, and the agency’s point person on the matter said in an interview they are paying attention to the role advertising plays in driving gambling behavior among high-risk groups.

But, some are worried the rise of sports betting and the use of local sports heroes like Rob Gronkowski and David Ortiz in promotions could further problematic habits.

“I think that it’s hard to separate these stars, these celebrities in the Boston sports market apart from them being influencers in sports wagering,” said Marlene Warner, executive director of the Massachusetts Council on Gaming and Health. “You have this idea that these are heroes, and you want to do just what they say and now they’re influencing you to gamble. It’s problematic.”

The Gaming Commission is looking to curtail sports betting advertising delivered specifically to at-risk groups, including young adults, said Mark Vander Linden, the agency’s director of research and responsible gambling, who pointed to a regulation on the topic.

That regulation bars advertising that contains “images, symbols, celebrity or entertainer endorsements or language designed to appeal primarily to individuals younger than 21 years of age.” And it prevents advertising on college campuses, grade schools, and on social media platforms used by individuals “primarily” under 21 years old.

But Vander Linden acknowledged the difficulties associated with the task.

“There are certainly measures that we’re trying to do that would limit the amount of advertising that’s being delivered there,” he said. “It’s legitimately challenging to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to limit that. But we’re trying.”

But sources at some of the largest sportsbooks in the country argued regulated advertising is necessary to attract new customers. And those industry executives say it is not in their best interest to target young adults with sports betting advertising because the demographic does not have disposable income to spend on gambling and the sportsbooks do not want to get shut down.

One source pushed back on the notion that advertisements are flooding Massachusetts unchecked. The source argued the state has stringent limitations in place, sports leagues have established standards on advertising, and many companies follow marketing guidelines laid out by the American Gaming Association, a national industry group.

In response to a MassLive inquiry, DraftKings spokesman James Chisholm said the regulated sportsbook views advertising as “critical” to success.

“The marketing of regulated sports wagering products in the commonwealth is critical to the success of transitioning bettors away from the dangerous illegal market and introducing them to legal operators like DraftKings that provide responsible gaming tools and consumer protections,” he said in a statement.

The flurry of advertisements and promotional offers from sports betting operators drew scrutiny last week from top prosecutors at Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office, who zeroed in on social media advertisements and promotional betting offerings.

First Assistant Attorney Pat Moore outlined his fear with a hypothetical dorm room full of upperclassmen at any one of the colleges or universities in the state.

“One student realizes a referral bonus is available,” he said. “Within hours, a dorm full of students have downloaded the apps, one benefiting from referring another. Now, the weekend’s activity is sports betting brought to you by referral bonuses with potentially habitual use thereafter. Is this the safe and responsible gambling that we intend to foster?”

State lawyers asked the commission to amend their regulations to “more directly address” social media and connected television platforms like YouTube TV and Hulu. Many companies can allow advertisers to exclude anyone under a certain age from their audience.

Moore said where that ability exists, operators should be required to use it.

“I watch the Celtics every night. I watch with my 10-year-old on connected TV,” Moore said. “He’s getting the message that to enjoy the Celtics game, he’s got to bet on it. That’s not the message that we should be leaving 10-year-olds in the commonwealth.”

Moore also criticized the use of TV broadcasters, who audience members may identify as an expert on a particular team, to promote betting during events. And there is a “rush hour” of promotions which regulators should review before they are offered, Moore said.

“It’s very difficult to listen to the radio or TV and certainly to go on social media without hearing one or more promotions from sometimes the same operator, sometimes multiple operators,” he said. “How those promotions are designed are each different. Are they actually aimed at the consumer, or are they aimed at behavior that sort of makes the app sticky?”

Warner said she has had similar experiences.

“This morning, driving my kids to school, I keep switching the radio station because I want to get away from those ads,” Warner said. “And that’s with a 17-year-old, a 15-year-old and an 8-year-old in the car. It’s overwhelming. It’s a lot. And so they’re hearing it as well and they’re not even at age.”

Vander Linden said the Gaming Commission is taking the feedback from the attorney general’s office into consideration as it continues to regulate sports betting.

But advocates say that sports betting has managed to launch within Massachusetts with less strict guidelines compared to other once-emerging markets like the cannabis industry.

“It was abundantly clear what cannabis could and couldn’t do. And I don’t know that that clear directive and line has been given to the gambling industry,” Warner said.

Vander Linden points to a lack of federal guidance, and the need for states to chart their own course on sports betting.

“The federal government has had very, very minimal involvement in anything related to gaming, it’s largely been left up to the states. There is no federal funding for research around gambling,” he said. “This is where Massachusetts is trying to say all right, we will be doing what we can.”

Warner, who often works closely with Vander Linden, said the Gaming Commission launched mobile sports betting with a “significant amount” of temporary regulations in place. The idea, she said, is regulators will “go back and continue to strengthen that safety net” for problem gambling.

“But they didn’t launch with the strongest safety net,” Warner said. “I’d say that it was pretty basic minimum. And my hope is, and my expectation is, that they will encourage and strengthen and lead again in this area.”

Part of bolstering the safety net in Warner’s view includes expanding options for people who want to “take a step away from gambling.” Many companies, she said, have limit-setting tools that people can use to set a budget for every day, week, or month.

But there are few guidelines and little alignment across all the sports betting operators, according to Warner.

“And then around advertising, I think the [commission] has done some things — the helpline, the websites for treatment. Those numbers and information are more prominent in ads in Massachusetts than they are elsewhere, for sure,” Warner said. “But I don’t know that we’ve done much around third-party affiliates, influencers. And I think all that will come down the road.”

Sportsbooks offer customers responsible gambling tools like limiting the number of deposits over a certain time limit, how much can be wagered in a given period, max bet sizes, and the maximum number of hours a person can spend on a sportsbook’s site or mobile app.

And they also feature “timeout” options and access to voluntary self-exclusion services like Gamban, which can block users from thousands of gambling sites on up to 15 devices.

Chisholm, the DraftKings spokesman, said the company takes a “systems-based” approach to responsible gaming.

That includes “ongoing optimization of our technology, detection, and intervention processes, as well as looking at the gaming environment as a whole and collaborating externally with scientific experts, advocacy groups, operators, or other parties to spur innovation in safe play,” he said.

“We view these efforts as critical to the success of our industry and in the best interest of our customers,” he said.

A recent study from a research cohort at UMass Amherst found that legalizing sports betting in Massachusetts had the potential to increase rates of gambling-related harm among sports bettors in the state “as well as the overall rates of problem gambling.”

But the magnitude of those impacts, the study said, “is expected to be modest” because many people have already been exposed to the activity. Residents have been able to cross into other states to legally gamble for years — and access to the illegal market has never been hard to find.

Those who want to gamble on sports have most likely already adapted and adjusted their behavior based on any initial difficulties that they might have encountered, said Dr. Rachel Volberg, a UMass Amherst professor and one of the lead authors of the study.

“We didn’t say that it wouldn’t increase,” Volberg said. “We definitely said that if there is an increase, that would represent significant economic and social harm in the commonwealth. But based on the behavior that we’ve seen population-wise, there are some vulnerable groups in the population.”

Overall, Volberg said, those groups represent relatively small proportions of the total population.

“So any uptick or increase in gambling problems would be difficult to detect because those subgroups in the population are relatively small,” she said. “And so the overall impact would be difficult to detect.”

The study said, “concerns remain about the potential for gambling-related harm in Massachusetts for risk groups not previously involved in sports betting, such as adolescents, young adults, women, immigrants, individuals in recovery from gambling problems, and college athletes.”

About 63% of adults in Massachusetts gamble recreationally, said Vander Linden, the head of responsible gambling at the Gaming Commission. Another 8% are considered to be at-risk gamblers or people who are starting “to lose control or they’re seeing negative consequences in their lives,” he said.

And only 2% of people — “a much smaller percentage,” Vander Linden said — are considered to be “problem gamblers,” or those that have lost all control and are having negative consequences in their lives.

As far as advertisements and promotional offers are concerned, Volberg said there has not been enough time in Massachusetts to study the connections between publicity and an increase in gambling-related harm.

In Great Britain and Australia, however, legalized sports betting has been around for decades. In those markets, Volberg said, there has been an increase in help-seeking, “which suggests that there’s an increase in the proportion of people that are experiencing difficulties.”

“But there’s also been a very interesting political reaction, which has been to severely restrict gambling advertising, and to hold the sports betting operators much more closely to a duty of care,” said Volberg, referring to a legal phrase in which a provider of a good or service has a responsibility to keep customers’ safety in mind as they’re developing and marketing products.

State officials have money to respond to problem gambling.

Both the state’s casino and sports betting laws shuttle money to a public health trust fund that backs the Department of Public Health’s Office of Problem Gambling Services and Vander Linden’s research.

Commission officials utilize GameSense, which encourages gamblers to maintain “positive behaviors and attitudes” that reduce the risk of gambling-related harm. Regulators promote PlyMyWay, a budget-setting tool for slot machines available at Plainridge Park Casino and MGM Springfield.

And Vander Linden said 1,300 people are on a voluntary self-exclusion list for casino gambling. A separate self-exclusion program for sports betting launched a month ago and is “growing, especially over the past weekend,” he said.