Massachusetts’ Senate Remains the Key to Legal Sports Betting

Dave Schwab Sports Betting Expert

3 minute read

As more and more states go live with legal sports betting, a few are keeping legalization on the backburner. Massachusetts falls somewhere in between.

Legislation has already been passed by state lawmakers in the House. Massachusetts’ Governor Charlie Barker has already come out in favor of legal sports betting. The hold up in the legalization process lies within the state’s Senate.

With Connecticut going live currently (with the full rollout of mobile expected on October 7th), the New England region is well represented in the marketplace. Sports betting is also legal in Rhode Island and New Hampshire.

Massachusetts sits as the crown jewel for legal sports betting in this region. It is home to seven million residents which is ranked 15th among the 50 states. It is home to professional sports franchises representing all four major US sports leagues.

With a supportive governor and a strong sports betting fan base, it is hard to understand why everything is at a standstill.

State Senator Brendan Crighton has been leading the charge as a strong advocate for legal sports betting. However, opposition within his own ranks remains equally strong.

Various studies have already shown that Massachusetts has the potential to generate $60 million in annual tax revenue. That is a low-end figure that would expand as the market matures. The fact that most neighboring states already offer legal sports betting is another driving factor.

Yet, the state Senate has failed to capitalize on this opportunity. They could have simply gone along with two pieces of legislation that were passed by the House. The latter chamber did all the heavy lifting by outlining the finer details of the plan.

Senate President Karen Spilka was recently quoted as saying that she is “not certain that there’s a need for even more money.” This was in reference to state and local budgets. When pressed on the matter, she added:

“We have to do redistricting, we have to close out the books and do a supplemental budget, we need to do a more permanent VOTES act, our temporary provisions end in December. Some of it will depend upon bandwidth and how it stands.”

Unfortunately, it appears that legalizing sports betting is not one of the priorities for the current Senate President.

The good news is that there is strong support for legal sports betting among the rest of the state government. This includes some important members of the state Senate.

The governor has already made it clear that he will support legislation legalizing sports betting. His main concern is lost revenue to neighboring states.

Pressure from the House on the Senate needs to mount. Rep. Michael Soter has been rather vocal in this effort. He recently stated that “the people we work for want this legislation.”

Written by Dave Schwab, our US Sports Betting Industry Expert. You can read up on our author's expertise here.

Dave Schwab

Dave Schwab has been covering the sports betting industry for the past 12 years as the main focus of his specialty marketing company for online content. This endeavor followed a previous career in the field of sales and marketing in the wholesaling sector.Most of his weekly pieces focus on the rapidly expanding legal US sports betting industry. However, he still does extensive work covering betting angles that can provide a competitive edge to avid players. Dave believes that it is always a challenge to take past results and current form to try and correctly determine a future result. Sports brings out the unpredictability in what should be a fairly predictable outcome based on the stats, facts and recent trends in a particular matchup. More from Dave Schwab