The Patriots' last Super Bowl victory parade, in 2019, rolls down Tremont Street. Plenty of people are betting it will happen again this year. (Photo by Bruce Mohl)

WITH THE PATRIOTS heading back to the Super Bowl this Sunday after an improbable turnaround following two straight losing seasons, excitement across New England is reaching fever pitch. But the Super Bowl isn’t just the biggest football game of the year; it’s also the biggest single‑day betting event in American sports. That surge in wagering is part of the atmosphere young people now grow up in.

Among the highlights of the Patriots’ playoff run was wide receiver Kayshon Boutte’s otherworldly, one‑handed touchdown catch in the divisional round victory over the Texans — a moment that showcased his extraordinary talent on the field. But off the field, the 23‑year‑old has been forthright about his vulnerable, all‑too‑human descent into gambling addiction.

Last month, Boutte told his story in an essay in The Players’ Tribune titled “How the Hell Did I Get Here?”

“I’d wake up early in the morning, and the first thing I’d do was bet,” he wrote of his time as a college player at LSU. “I’d stay up late and bet. All day. All night.”

“I knew I was addicted,” Boutte said.

“I’d wake up early in the morning, and the first thing I’d do was bet. I’d stay up late and bet. All day. All night,” Kayshon Boutte wrote in his essay in The Players’ Tribune.

His experience should serve as a wake‑up call — and a reminder that Massachusetts must redouble its efforts to protect young people from gambling‑related harm.

Massachusetts has anticipated the need for a safer gambling environment for years, reflected through the principles outlined in the longstanding Responsible Gaming Framework. More recently, the attorney general’s office has added a critical dimension of protection by launching a statewide, pilot Youth Sports Betting Curriculum & Program that recognizes the potential and actual harm occurring among Massachusetts’s youth.

Through participating schools, athletic departments, and youth‑serving organizations, hundreds of young people are already learning how sports betting works, how to see through persuasive gambling advertisements, why young adults are uniquely vulnerable, and where to get help. It’s an important early step — and one the state should expand.

Massachusetts is not alone in confronting these protective challenges; other countries have already taken significant steps Massachusetts should also consider: limiting gambling ads during sports broadcasts, requiring gambling literacy in schools, and tightening ID verification to keep minors off betting apps. These evidence‑based measures recognize that young people cannot be expected to navigate a high‑pressure gambling environment on their own.

Meanwhile, the rapid, digital expansion of the industry continues to outpace longstanding safeguards. Without stronger structural interventions, education alone cannot keep up, and we cannot expect the industry to fill that gap.

As Danny Funt notes in an excerpt from his forthcoming book Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Betting, parts of the industry still view stronger consumer protection measures to promote responsible gambling as potential “competitive disadvantages.” That reality underscores why robust, responsive policies are critically needed.

Massachusetts has an opportunity to deepen and advance its work on responsible gambling. Senate Bill 302, “An act addressing economic, health and social harms caused by sports betting,” would strengthen youth protections by banning sports‑betting ads during televised games, restricting promotions, tightening rules on high‑risk bets (including rapid, in‑play wagers that are especially risky for young people), and increasing operator responsibility for marketing. These measures mirror evidence-based protections already in place abroad: the kind of structural supports that match the scale of the problem.

And the risks are not theoretical. In Massachusetts, 70 percent of college students report betting on sports, and young adults, still developing the parts of the brain responsible for impulse control and decision‑making, are more likely to use gambling to manage stress and to overestimate their chances of winning.

Without clear information about odds, limits, or the reality that gambling involves far more losing than winning, the risks can escalate quickly. Boutte’s experience reflects what is happening on campuses across the country, where many young men are betting, experiencing harm, and encountering gambling long before they understand how it works.

For today’s young people, gambling isn’t presented as an activity with risk; it’s embedded in the sports experience. Betting odds sit alongside game analysis, ads run throughout every broadcast, and wagering is framed as part of being a fan. That normalization creates a sense that gambling is simply another element of sports, making it harder for young people to recognize risk or understand where entertainment ends and gambling risk begins.

That normalization is reinforced by the barrage of betting advertisements that surround every game — on TV, in stadiums, and across influencer-content social media — amplifying youth vulnerability by exposing them to marketing and enticing promotions they are not equipped to critically interpret.

Without information that cuts through that noise and glamour, young people are left to navigate a landscape designed for constant engagement and the manufactured allure of an easy win. They need preventive supports that explain the true nature of gambling, why it can become harmful, and what early signs of problem gambling look like.

Considering Massachusetts is now consistently seeing between $800 and $900 million wagered on games every month, sports betting is set to remain popular and all too available. We need tougher protections, stronger laws such as The Bettor Health Act, and even more gambling education now.

In a culture where gambling is ever‑present, Massachusetts is leading the way in giving young people the tools Kayshon Boutte never had. But more work remains.

Boutte’s question — “How the hell did I get here?” — should not be the point at which support finally arrives. With the right protections and policies, young people can confront an intense gambling landscape — and avoid the spiral Boutte so bravely described.

Marlene Warner is the CEO of the Massachusetts Council on Gaming and Health, a nonprofit advocacy organization focused on gambler protections and recovery supports.