Deborah Goldberg, state treasurer of Massachusetts, warned lawmakers that if they legalize online sports betting, they should legalize the ability of the lottery to sell online.
After a recent meeting of the Lottery Commission, she told reporters, “If sports betting is available online, the Lottery must be available online also,” adding, “That’s the issue moving forward.”
The Bay State has come close to legalizing online lottery sales, but the bills associated with it did not advance. The very lively discussion of online gaming could change that dynamic.
Goldberg says the lottery, one of the most successful in the nation, with $1 billion in annual sales, can’t maintain that success without access to the latest technology, and to be able to tap millennials, who do almost everything on their Smartphones.
She has been making this point since 2017 when she told reporters, “It’s interesting. You’re hearing about the Gaming Commission saying they want online gambling, and then the comment that I read in the paper was that there are only so many entertainment dollars. So literally … if they get online gambling and we do not get iLottery, they would be trying to capture our money that goes to cities and towns for the profit of a profitable entity, like Wynn or MGM.”
