Hidden Link

September 12, 2024

By Jennifer Smith

Gazing from Charlestown across the Mystic River, the curve of the Encore casino might catch golden sunset light or sit dully under a cloudy New England sky. Its promise of ringing slot machines, spinning roulette wheels, hopping poker tables, and walls of sportsbooks is ­– ostensibly – limited to those over the age of 21.

But for the young people living in the nearby Boston neighborhood, it could color their first exposure to gambling.

That is what the city hopes to probe through a request for proposals put out through the Mayor’s Office of Human Services this summer.

A year-long study paid for with casino mitigation funds would explore how 14- to 25-year-olds in Charlestown experience gambling, their feelings about the Encore, and make recommendations about how the city of Boston can protect youths “from being harmed or exploited by gambling.”

The majority of patrons who visit Encore Boston Harbor come from surrounding communities, including Charlestown, the RFP states, citing research funded by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. “As the casino works to make itself even more enticing and accessible to adults, the impact this will have on young people in Charlestown is not well known,” it reads.

The project is limited, as a Boston initiative, to neighborhoods within the city. Other reports looking at the broader impacts of Encore Boston Harbor have included Everett, Chelsea, Charlestown, Malden, and parts of Somerville. Those reports did not delve into particular risks for young people nearby, but a 2022 report said that community members “noted that exposure to casinos normalizes gambling behaviors for young people.”

Boston’s focus is also quite narrow, examining how young people in Charlestown feel about Encore, what their first exposures to and experiences with gambling were, and how existing community elements – like school education on gambling or safe after-school spaces – might protect young people from harmful gambling exposures or behaviors. 

“First exposures can take place as young as 10 years old, and might come in the form of seeing private betting happen between family members, helping parents scrape off film from scratch tickets, or choosing a horse for a family member to bet on,” the RFP reads. 

The state is often in a paradoxical position on vices like gambling, drugs, and alcohol – charged with both cheerleading and regulating legal enterprises known to have serious addictive risks. Lifelong gamblers may be a boon for the state’s tax rolls, but problem gambling resources are one of the small first links visible on the MassGaming website dominated by a glossy video featuring Massachusetts casinos.

Problem gamblers accounted for about 20 percent of the total gambling expenditure in Massachusetts in 2021, according to a gaming commission report on changes in Massachusetts since the start of casino legalization in 2013. Problem gamblers, the same report noted, are more likely to be men, non-White, have a high school diploma or less, and have an annual household income under $50,000

The focus on in-person exposure or exposure by proximity to a casino is somewhat of a departure from trends in examining young people’s gambling behavior. 

Recent research and initiatives from the gaming commission focused on youth gambling have, by and large, examined participation in online gambling like the booming sports betting industry. That focus squares with online sports betting’s quick adoption among most age groups.

Polling shows the state-regulated Lottery – legal for those over 18 ­– is the dominant gambling activity across age groups, including young people. A CommonWealth Beacon/GBH News poll conducted by the MassINC Polling Group in March found 54 percent of 18-29 year olds had played the Lottery in the last year, compared to 30 percent for newly legalized sports betting and 25 percent for casinos. 

The group frequenting casinos the most was 30- to 44-year olds, 34 percent of whom had gambled at a casino in the last year.

The gaming commission has released reports focused on Encore Boston Harbor’s economic status and its impact on public wellbeing. Massachusetts collected $401.9 million in tax revenues from Encore Boston Harbor from 2019 to 2022.

But gambling enterprises – state-run and private – are increasingly seeing online offerings as the way to reach new players. With the Lottery now green-lit to expand online in Massachusetts,  Gov. Maura Healey filed a supplemental budget bill on Wednesday that includes $2.5 million for iLottery start-up costs.

Worried advocates and officials have responded to the online gaming boom by pushing for stronger restrictions on advertising to young people. Proposals are due next week for the City of Boston project on Charlestown, which prods at a more analogue question – if a nearby casino itself may be the best advertising of all.