Massachusetts gambling official calls for stricter advertising rules
A senior gambling official in Massachusetts has warned about the pace of growth of the US gambling sector and called for stricter rules on gambling advertisements nationwide.
Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chair Jordan Maynard has urged lawmakers in Washington to consider placing restrictions on betting ads, as well as looking at the introduction of national self-exclusion lists for gambling addicts who want to control their access to gambling platforms.
Since the US Supreme Court repealed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 2018, sports betting has been legalized in 38 states.
However, gambling operators have recently been resisting proposals to amend existing regulations, including plans to ban betting on individual student-athletes and limit the availability of in-play betting.
In an interview with UK newspaper, The Guardian, Jordan Maynard said that the gambling industry needed regulators to step in.
“When I think about the industry right now, I see a highway without speed limits, cars without seatbelt dingers. Regulators are who put the seatbelt dingers in. I don’t think the car manufacturers just woke up one day and decided to annoy whoever’s driving the car until they put their seatbelt on,” Maynard told journalists.
Maynard also criticized the industry for using the prospect of gamblers being driven to illegal operators as a bargaining chip to avoid applying specific regulations or restrictions.
“I don’t like the unregulated market being used as the boogeyman to every operator for every reason. I don’t want the legal market to race to be the illegal market. I want the illegal market to either not exist, or if it does exist, it’s in a highly competitive space with what’s regulated,” he added.
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