Sports Betting Not Coming To Massachusetts This Year – Sports Handle

While Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island all offer legal mobile sports betting, New England peer Massachusetts wont have it in 2021.

Massachusetts is one of just nine states with a year-round state legislative session, and while over a dozen sports betting related bills are floating around Beacon Hill, coming to a consensus has proven to be an issue.The state, home to DraftKings, has politicians pushing for legal sports betting, but theres still a bit of a holdup, according to a recent report from MassLive.com.

This has absolutely been a top-tier issue, Sen. Eric Lesser, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, said in a recent virtual meeting. Its been something many of us have been working on, on almost a daily basis. And there are very active conversations going on.

Even with frequent dialogue, theres disagreement between members of the committee about whether or not to allow bettors to wager on collegiate sports. Lessers proposed legislation excludes college sports betting entirely, while other bills only prohibit wagering on in-state schools . The issue has been one of the key roadblocks to passing legislation for the last several years.

Why dont we get started where theres a consensus? Lesser said.

Rep. Jared Parisella, Lessers co-chair, shared concern about the idea of leaving out collegiate sports betting. Parisella fears that consumers will travel across state lines to place wagers if they arent able to bet on collegiate teams.

Besides losing money to New Hampshire or Connecticut, the latter of which launched statewide mobile wagering last week, stakeholders have long contended that banning any kind of wagering leaves the door open for the black market to thrive.

GeoComply, which provides geofencing across the U.S. and tracks where bets are being placed from, recently found a cluster of mobile wagers being placed from a Connecticut shopping center just off I-91 near the Connecticut-Massachusetts border.

Mobile sports betting isnt yet legal in Maine or Vermont.

In addition to consumers traveling across state lines to wager, Parisella worried about potential revenue losses should Massachusetts only allow gambling on professional sports. MassLive reported that annual tax revenue estimates for legal sports betting in Massachusetts could hover around $60 million. A 2020 estimate from research firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming suggests a potential 25% loss of revenue if the state doesnt allow consumers to legally bet on college sports.

I personally think its time to do something, Lesser said. The goal is to get it right.

Read more:

Sports Betting Not Coming To Massachusetts This Year - Sports Handle