Weekly News – Weekly Roundup 8/12/2022

Chris Altman Sports Betting Expert

3 minute read

You're A Good Man, Charlie Baker; MA Gov Signs Sports Betting Into Law

As recently as this summer, there were four competing sports betting initiatives in Massachusetts. Early in August, however, legislators were able to get their acts together and push forward with H 5164, which will allow both retail and online betting in the state. On Wednesday, H 5164 became the Massachusetts Sports Wagering Act with the stroke of Governor Charlie Baker's pen.

Now that sports betting is officially legal in the Bay State, it's now up to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to set rules and issue licenses to the eager national sportsbooks looking to enter the MA market. DraftKings, especially, is incentivized here, as their HQ is right in Boston. Still, the MGC expects that it is going to take quite a bit of time to start offering legal online betting, which might not come to fruition until early next year.

When legal online sportsbooks are finally allowed to operate, they'll do so under the following regulations:

• Retail operations taxed at 15%
• Mobile operations taxed at 20%
• Up to 15 betting apps
• College betting only allowed on out of state teams; betting on MA-based teams allowed only during tournaments
• Licensing fee: $5 million / 5 years

Why Legal Betting Matters: LV Man Defrauds Clients out of $8.5 Million

In a very clear example of the value of legal, regulated betting, a Las Vegas man named Matthew J. Turnipseede (we're not sure if that's a real name) recently was convicted of defrauding clients to the tune of $8.5 million bucks in a sports betting scheme.

That's why VegasInsider always recommends that you spend your hard-earned cash on a legal betting website as opposed to going through back-alley channels: even offshore sportsbooks are best avoided. This is an egregious example of trusting the wrong people with your money: Turnipseede defrauded 72 investors for 6 years from 2015-2021, and was only recently caught.

The 49-year old Las Vegas resident reportedly ran a Ponzi-style scheme where investors were encouraged to bring in their friends, and promised returns as high as 35%. Only the best market managers in the world can pull of a 16% return on a stock, with the average investor with scruples pulling in about 10%.

Where were the majority of Turnipseede's victims located? Ohio, which will go live with legal, online sportsbooks at the beginning of 2023. Those 72 investors should have just waited or taken a trip to a state with legal sports betting: they would have saved quite a pretty penny.

Georgia Hopeful Stacey Abrams is Pro-Betting

Current Governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, has served since 2019, but will have to defend his seat against Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams.

Abrams has made a name for herself as the Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives for a decade before striking out on her own in gubernatorial bids. She's making another play at the governor's seat, and this time, she's appealing to a multitude of voters, including those who want legal sports betting in the state.

The writing was on the wall for this to happen: Representative Ron Stephens was reported as saying back in 2020:

Those on the other side are leaning toward holding these issues, and I mean all of these issues as far as gambling, until the next gubernatorial election so that they can serve it up on a silver platter for an enormous amount of votes...

Ron Stephens (R) Georgia

Written by Chris Altman, our US sports betting industry expert.

Chris Altman

Chris Altman is a sports betting writer and content expert with almost a decade of experience. He's covered everything, but his current focus is on reviewing sportsbooks and online casinos and keeping tabs on sports betting legislation. Chris has been with VegasInsider since 2019 and has freelanced in the sports betting content industry for years. More from Chris Altman