Mass. Schools doubling down on education to protect boys from gambling problems

June 17, 2026

By Caralee Adams, The Hechinger Report

As Pete Hall kicked off a four-day unit on gambling prevention in April, he asked his high school health class what comes to mind when they hear “sports betting.”

Fantasy football. Money. Socially engaging. Power. Control. Students typed on their laptops as Hall read their answers aloud.

“Adrenaline. Excitement. That sounds like it comes from somebody who’s maybe gambled a little bit — if you know what that feels like,” said Hall, 40, a health and physical education teacher at Central High School in Springfield.

Hall then explained what gambling felt like for him — the rush of winning, the panic to recover after a loss — and how, eventually, it became compulsive.

“I grew up an athlete, played sports, thought I knew what I was doing,” said Hall, whose $5 and $10 bets grew into $5,000 and $10,000 bets, yet he never got ahead. “Every bet I won got me back to zero dollars.”

Hall said he could have gone down a path of “absolute destruction,” but fortunately, his family found out and he turned to Gamblers Anonymous for support.

When he heard Massachusetts was developing a new youth-focused program on preventing problem gambling, Hall told students he volunteered to help. “It was my way to give back,” said Hall, who hopes sharing his story will have an impact. “I don’t want to scare people. I just want to inform.”

In 2023, sports betting became legal in the commonwealth. It is now one of 39 states and the District of Columbia that allow some form of sports wagering. As the floodgates open up, it’s hard to escape the hype — and boys are often game. A recent survey of 11- to 17-year-old boys by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that offers resources for families navigating online media, found that around a third gambled in the last year.

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