Sports betting has taken off like a rocket in the state of Massachusetts. Not only are bets being placed at a record pace, but advertising for the newly legal mobile books is everywhere. That annoys Dan Shaughnessy, and his frustration is to the delight of Toucher & Rich.
“Shaughnessy’s got a pretty funny article,” Fred Toucher said Tuesday morning on 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston. “He’s sick of the commercials for sports gambling and Rich and I are talking about it off the air like ‘What do you want? More Burger King commercials?’”.
“It’s not like if they took all that off, we’d get to see more of the game,” Rich Shertenlieb added.
In a column published on Tuesday, Shaughnessy wrote that the state could use a break from the relentless television advertising, which he says makes gambling look like a carefree, fun endeavor.
Shertenlieb began to riff on what commercials showing the bad side of gambling could look like and how it may lead to commercials for other industries showing the worst possible outcome of using their products.
“Every fast food commercial shows somebody puking in a toilet and then Brendan Frasier from The Whale,” he said.
He also noted that Shaughnessy turned to some fairly out-of-touch experts for their opinion on the matter. One of them was Faye Vincent, the octogenarian former commissioner of Major League Baseball, who complained about legalized gambling leading to fixing games.
Toucher and Rich mocked how out of touch with the realities of sports gambling in 2023 all of the concerns expressed in the column are. Fred Toucher joked that every complaint and concern in the piece was said while old men were shouting at clouds.
“He’s sick of the commercial and the commercials make it seem like the product’s fun,” he said of Shaughnessy’s complaint. “As opposed to every other commercial? That’s why they did the Schlitz Gay commercial on SNL with Sandler and Farley. I mean, Spuds McKenzie was always with chicks.”
