The Massachusetts Gaming Commission sent the legislature a suggested “omnibus” bill that would encompass all online gaming that it hopes lawmakers will pass.
Part of the commission’s job is to make recommendations to the legislature for laws that will make overseeing of the state’s gaming activities more effective. For the past two years the panel has hinted strongly that an omnibus bill that included online poker, casino, the lottery, daily fantasy sports, eSports and social casinos would be the way to go for the Bay State.
Last December Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby asked reporters rhetorically, “Would it make sense for the legislature to try to craft an omnibus regulatory bill for all of these new electronic gaming technologies—because there’s so many of them?”
He later stated, “If they could craft a bill, which incorporated regulatory priorities, fundamental values, whatever, that could be applied to all of these games – e-sports, [daily fantasy sports], online poker, whatever all the new ones are – maybe then they could give it to some agency to implement, and the agency does the grunt work every six months making it apply to whatever the new technology is.”
This year the legislature didn’t take the hint, although it created a commission to study the issue. September 8 the gaming commission voted to appoint Crosby to represent it on that panel. After the vote he said, “Hopefully, this will be an opportunity for us to continue the initiative that we’ve made about trying to come up with some omnibus legislation that will give the Legislature and then probably the Gaming Commission the tools to regulate all of online gaming.”
The panel will be co-chaired by the chairmen of the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, State Senator Eileen Donoghue and Rep. Joseph Wagner. The panel must hold its first meeting before November 1 and complete its findings by July 31, 2017.
The one online gaming activity that the committee has no authorization to address is the lottery, something that the legislature has so far failed to address. The legislature IS expected to take up that issue next year.
Crosby has criticized other states for taking a piecemeal approach to regulating DFS, online casinos and online poker, even though when they do pass bills addressing them they use very similar language. They all address creating tax revenue, providing consumer protections and trying to prevent harm to existing casinos and or the lottery. They all require protections to prevent minors from participating and to prevent money laundering—as well as third party audits and verification of fund segregation.
Crosby would like to address all of them at once.
After being appointed to the joint commission he commented, “Hopefully, this will be an opportunity for us to continue … the initiative that we’ve made about trying to come up with some omnibus legislation that will give the Legislature and then probably, the Gaming Commission the tools to regulate all of online gaming.”
The only online activity the legislature has so far addressed is DFS with a temporary bill that puts off actual regulation of the activity but noting that it is under the authority of the Attorney General as a legal activity.
When the commission was going through the process of selecting developers for the three casinos and one slots parlor authorized by the 2011 gaming expansion law, the commission advised: “Massachusetts shouldn’t do anything in online gambling until our bricks-and-mortar people are selected.” That would allow the companies to offer input during discussions of online gaming.
