Massachusetts’s casinos would be able to offer online gambling under a bill introduced in the state Senate by Republican leader state Senator Bruce Tarr.
The exact form of the online gambling would be determined by the state Gaming Commission under the bill.
“Our state has chosen to pursue casino gaming, and is licensing operators to enter a fiercely competitive national market that is much more fully developed in other states,” Tarr said in a press statement. “Allowing those we are counting on to produce revenue for Massachusetts and our cities and towns to conduct online gaming will give them a competitive advantage, and increase their chances of success. That success, in turn, can deliver substantial benefits through funding for our spending priorities and our budgets.”
Currently, the state has only one operating gambling facility, Plainridge. It has 1,250 slot machines and harness horse racing, according to the Sun Chronicle newspaper.
The Gaming Commission has also issued licenses for resort-style casinos for Springfield and Everett, but construction has not yet begun.
Penn National Gaming, the owners of Plainridge, told the paper that they might be interested in online gambling.
“We support the authorization of Internet gaming to the extent it protects the economic investment the brick-and-mortar casinos have made in the state and the jobs we’ve created. Other states have addressed this through legislation that would restrict Internet gaming to only those existing licensed casino operators in the state,” Penn National spokesman Eric Schippers said.
The bill, however, has seen little movement in the state legislature, the Sun Chronicle reported.
