For a year and a half, supporters of sports betting in Massachusetts have been impatient with the lag the Bay State has shown as other New England states, such as New Hampshire and Rhode Island, beat it to the punch.
But when it comes to gaming laws, there’s the fast way, the slow way and the Massachusetts way, which is about as thorough a vetting process as you’re likely to get.
Probably the most powerful fan of sports betting to weigh in on the issue is Governor Charlie Baker, who a year ago filed his own version of a sports betting bill. Though nothing’s happened with it yet, Baker was optimistic enough to include $35 million in anticipated state revenue from sports betting in his 2021 budget, filed with the legislature in January.
Several sports betting bills have been under the microscope of the state’s Committee on Economic Development, chaired by Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante and Senator Eric Lesser. The two have been studying the issue since last May, in a through and plodding manner. They appear to be near the end of that process.
Last week, the various active sports betting bills were included in an extension order the committee filed last week so it could continue working until February 28.
Rep. Michael Soter—that rarest of all birds in the Massachusetts legislature, a Republican—has been serving on that committee, and had nothing but praise for the joint chairs when he appeared on a sports radio show on WEEL. He declared, “We are putting all the necessary steps in place to effectively roll out the best product.”
GGB News caught up with Soter last week. “My thing is, we’re looking at all the other states that have brought in online gaming, whether phone or brick and mortar,” he said. “Just because the other states rushed it out doesn’t mean that’s the right way to do it. We’re trying to get it right.”
He said Ferrante and Lesser “are doing a great job. There’s a lot to learn, and safeguards you have to think about. Such as if we have NCAA betting, how do we insulate the young players. We’re looking at how Las Vegas is doing it.”
Addiction is also a concern, he said. “We also have a lottery system that, if we allow online for sports betting, do we also need to get that up to 21st century standards? And we have to make sure there are taxpayer safeguards.”
Soter said he believes something will happen this year. “When it does, it will be a great product that the taxpayers will be proud of.”
The representative doesn’t want to limit sports betting to commercial gaming halls. “If I could wave a magic wand, I wouldn’t want to leave it to the casinos. If we limit it to one segment, we could leave out a huge economic boom for those small business owners, the folks who make the economy run.”
He envisions customers sitting at local establishments, watching the games and betting online. “I think there’s a way that online gambling and casinos could coexist,” he said. One thing that many don’t include in their calculations is the added meal and income taxes that “mom-and-pop operations will generate from this,” he said.
“Most online gaming pieces are owned by MGM and Wynn, and the only one that isn’t is DraftKings, and they’re headquartered here. There’s a component that we could have throughout that could make everything work.”
Rhode Island’s mistake, said Soter, was trying to run sports betting itself, without partnering with such a provider. “I want the taxpayers protected, so we don’t put our own tax money into a system that should be self-sustaining.” He believes that Rhode Island rushed things, “and it could have been better.”
On the other hand, he approves of how New Jersey introduced sports betting, which included NCAA wagering. “The success they had was including NCAA. Revenues will drop dramatically if you don’t have that. But we have to insulate NCAA players and provide safeguards and make sure the technology we have in place can monitor that.”
He said the committee chairs “aren’t listening to the noise to just put something out there. I respect wholeheartedly how they’re going through the process. I also support our governor. As a state we have to catch up to the 21st century. That includes the lottery—to do things to compete in a virtual world. The governor’s said he’d like to see a cashless system put forward for the lottery as well.”
Meanwhile, MGM Springfield is also lobbying the legislature for sports betting. It’s no coincidence that the casino reported less than ecstatic revenues in 2019, and that former President Michael Mathis and CFO Courtney Wenlender were reassigned last month after those figures were released.
The new casino president, Chris Kelley, is taking steps to fight flatlining gaming revenues, reflected in the fact that that the casino employs 2,500 people, 500 fewer than MGM promised when it petitioned for a gaming license from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.
