MA State Senator John Keenan joins! Keenan talks about the proposed new 'Bettor Health Law'.

Transcript

00:00law here in Massachusetts, which would, when it comes to those who are wagering on sports,

00:07it would raise the tax percentage when it comes to your winnings. It would ban advertisements

00:16from sports wagering platforms during games and would suggest that there should be some

00:23sort of a mechanism to determine whether or not you have the money to wager. And the senator who

00:31proposed it is joining us now on this show, State Senator John Keenan. Senator, good morning.

00:38Good morning. How are you?

00:39Thanks for being on.

00:41Thank you. I appreciate it.

00:42We had a lively back and forth on this yesterday, and I am wondering what the impetus was

00:50for this proposal from you. I know you mentioned, we played some audio yesterday where you mentioned

00:55that your constituents were complaining about ads that run during sporting events. What was

01:02the impetus for this?

01:05That was a couple of years ago when sports betting was first legalized,

01:09and then the advertisement started. It was on TV, social media, radio,

01:13crash barrels in downtown Boston, everywhere you had billboards, everywhere you went there

01:17was advertising. People constantly just came up to me and said, something is going to be done

01:23about this. Two years ago, we filed a bill that would address some of the advertising.

01:31Just quickly, there is advertising all over the place. There has been for 100 years.

01:38There is advertising for spirit products all over the place, advertising for food.

01:46Why is it this particular product that is being advertised that is bothering you?

01:53What I heard from people is just way too much.

01:56Then after the advertising, people-

01:58Way too much, meaning what do you mean? There should be a limit on,

02:03you feel like the government should control who can advertise what, how many times?

02:07Well, we limit advertising on tobacco products, which is really highly addictive. We legalize

02:12marijuana, and there's limits on advertising. You don't see the same type of advertising there.