Angel Benitez saw so much sports betting among his fellow high schoolers that he thought it was worth doing a survey as a class project.
The 17-year-old senior and his friends asked 90 students at Fenway High if they knew someone their age who had gambled, though it’s illegal in Massachusetts for those under 21. Eighty-two of them said yes.
“Gambling ads are everywhere, which promotes and gives motivation to teenagers like me to get into gambling,” Benitez told a joint committee of House and Senate members during a hearing Thursday on Beacon Hill.
The youth was one of many to testify in favor of more restrictions on sports betting and the advertising of such platforms.
