Massachusetts State Senator Brendan Crighton is preparing to file a bill to legalize sports betting in the Bay State.
Crighton has been pushing such a bill for two years. The new bill updates previous bills but adds a higher tax rate of 15 percent and a jump in licensing fees from $1 million to $10 million. He says the leadership has warmed to the proposal in the intervening time.
Crighton’s bill would allow the state’s existing casinos, the Encore Boston Harbor, MGM Springfield and Plainridge Park slots parlor to have licenses, plus any entity that holds a horse racing license. Mobile suppliers such as DraftKings could operate either retail or mobile sportsbook. The Bay state lost its last racetrack several years ago. Crighton’s bill would make it possible for one to open under the umbrella of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.
It would also allow wagers on professional and collegiate teams except for colleges based in the state.
Senator Eric Lesser who was co-chairman of the Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies that was responsible for studying sports betting in the last legislative session—but determined it shouldn’t be part of the economic development bill, has now come around with his own bill.
Last week he told the News Service the “time has come” to join other New England states. What opened his eyes was New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s announcement that he wants sports betting in the Empire State to become mobile.
That Massachusetts could be left behind has been Crighton’s position from the first, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the federal ban and effectively ended Nevada’s monopoly. Two years ago eight states had legalized sportsbook. Now 19 states and D.C. have and three other states are on the verge of legalizing and just need to complete writing the regulations.
Lawmakers and Governor Charlie Baker, who originally had opposed any kind of sports wagers on college teams have been forced to accept it in some form because other states have. Crighton, who originally wanted to exclude college sports, recently said, “If we want people to leave their illegal marketplace and come into a regulated one we need to keep that attraction available to them.”
His bill does not include an “integrity fee” of the type that sports leagues like Major League Baseball have lobbied for in every state considering sports betting.
All in all Crighton thinks his bill finally has a chance of success. He told the Lowell Sun: “After Covid hit, everyone’s focus was on the immediate public health crisis. And that focus really continued up until a few weeks ago. I do think we would have had a debate in other times had we not been dealing with that and I’m confident this session the Senate will be taking a serious look at this and there will be an appetite for debate.”
