Massachusetts Gaming Commission head clarifies position on online gambling

Media reports from Massachusetts this week have highlighted some interesting developments in both online gambling legalisation and the state lottery’s attempts to get legislative permission to go online.

Our readers may recall that last year the Senate voted 22-17 to give the State Lottery the green light for online activity, but the measure was not taken up in the House, and earlier this year state Treasurer Deb Goldberg launched another attempt with House Bill 26, currently at committee stage.

Interestingly, the possibility of conflict between online gambling and lottery internet interests surfaced when State Lottery executive director Michael Sweeney talked about the critical importance of online lottery services and the relationship with online gambling legalisation attempts Tuesday, saying:

“If the Massachusetts Lottery is not allowed to take a significant step into that online world, we will never be able to compete with the advertising dollars that the private casino industry will pour into that effort, if they’re allowed to go online.”

Speaking about online gambling legalisation, Massachusetts Gaming Commission chairman Stephen Crosby said in a media interview this week that the Commission remains neutral on the issue, but has discussed how best to regulate the genre if legalisation is approved by state lawmakers.

“The Gaming Commission has been absolutely emphatic that there is a two-step process here,” Crosby said. “One is, should online gaming be legal in Massachusetts? That’s not up to us, that’s up to the Legislature, pure and simple. If it is legal, then we definitely have opinions on how it should be done and we’ve made recommendations. But we’re not lobbying in favor, nor are we against it. That’s not a decision for us to make.”

On Tuesday Crosby told the state’s special commission to investigate the implications of online gambling legalisation (see previous  reports) that online gambling has the potential to become “another modest but real economic engine” for Massachusetts, provided that there was clarity in the law and a stable legal environment, encouraging companies to set up development as well as operational activities in the state.

The head of the task force investigating the possibilities of online gambling, Sen. Eileen Donoghue, said Tuesday that she expects to use all of the allotted time (the report is due July 31) to thoroughly study a complicated industry that embraces fantasy sports, online gaming and eSports (the State Lottery is specifically excluded from the task force mandate).

“The more we get into it, I think the more we can appreciate how enormous this task is, to look at all three sectors — fantasy sports, online gaming and eSports — and any one of them could be daunting,” the senator said.

“But my sense is we have a ways to go in terms of our research, in hearing the information and then deciding what is the appropriate action to take. And it may not be one size fits all, that’s something…we’ll see as we go forward.”

State Comptroller Thomas Shack, who is also a member of the Lottery Commission, also entered the fray, saying that Massachusetts has the most successfully lottery in the United States, and withholding permission for it to go online is “knee-capping” it and giving advantage to “private industry”, in the process prejudicing lottery revenues.

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