17 minute read
On a balmy December morning in Boston, Richard Daynard is sitting at his dining-room table watching a livestream on his laptop. “Pure. Horsesh-it,” he declares as a witness testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The hearing has been called to discuss what seems to be becoming America’s new favorite pastime: throwing down bets on sports, 24/7 Come from South African Online Casinos . And what has set the bearded, bookish law professor off is a former gambling regulator from New Jersey’s use of a talking point favored by both the industry and the professional sports leagues: that the reason it’s so easy to wager on sports these days is this is what the American people want. To Daynard, president of the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) at Northeastern University’s law school, such language deflects from gambling’s heavy social toll. “This is consumer choice!” says Daynard, the sarcasm driving home his point. “This is freedom!”
Daynard has been fight…