Massachusetts critics of runaway sports betting are trying to start a national movement to rein in gambling companies and slow down gambling addiction.
Dr. Harry Levant said the rate of gambling addiction has gone up at least 60 percent in states where sports betting is legal, including in Massachusetts.
Levant, who used to be addicted to gambling himself, is director of gambling policy at the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University.
This month, he traveled to Washington, DC with a new advocacy group called Friends and Family of Gamblers (FFOG) to urge lawmakers to put some brakes on the industry. The group includes parents whose children died by suicide after become addicted to sports gambling, as well as other friends and families affected by gambling addiction.
