Massachusetts Gaming Commish Says Sports Betting Launch will take “Longer than Anticipated”

• MA Gaming Commissioner Brad Hill Warns Launch Could Take Longer than Expected
• Massachusetts Gamblers Are Hoping to Bet on the NFL Season, NE Patriots
• Up Next: Gov. Charlie Baker Must Sign Bill into Law, then Regulatory Process

Some time ago, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow warned us that it takes less time to do a thing right, than it does to explain why you did it wrong but tell that to the Massachusetts gamblers who are expecting to start placing legal sports wagers as soon as this upcoming fall.

It’s the Massachusetts Gaming Commission’s (MGC) job to get the launch of that state’s legal sports betting market right, a duty its commissioner Brad Hill takes seriously, as evidenced by this recent statement he gave to the media regarding the expected fall start:

I’ve seen some quotes in the newspaper from the public, that they hope to have this up and running in a very, very short amount of time … from my point of view, this is going to take a little longer than people probably anticipate.

Tough to be patient when the finish line is so close but given that Governor Charlie Baker has promised to sign that sports betting bill into law before he leaves office, this is a matter of ‘when’ and not ‘if,’ but with the NFL season so close to starting it would be helpful to get this moving.

Massachusetts Gamblers Are Hoping to Bet on the NFL Season, NE Patriots

MGC Chairman Hill is pushing back on the expectations that the Bay State legal sports betting market will launch in time for the upcoming NFL season which starts on Thursday September 8, with MA bettors excited to start placing bets on the New England Patriot’s next 17 games.

Those “by the start of the 2022 NFL season” expectations were fueled by Senate Ways and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues, who has said publicly that if they could issue temporary licenses to operators that market could launch sometime in the fall.

Gaming analyst and industry insider Brendan Bussmann has told the media he expects this market to launch in the winter and warns that until then resident punters will mostly likely resort to their old ways and make bets using bookies and unregulated offshore sportsbooks.

But first, that bill must become a law.

Up Next: Gov. Charlie Baker Must Sign Bill into Law, then Regulatory Process

At the end of last year, MA Governor Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito announced that they won’t seek reelection in 2022, so that means that they have until this November to sign that sports betting legislation into law.

Once that happens, it will still take some time for the MGC to set up the regulatory portion of that MA sports betting market and implementing what’s written in the legislation, including:

•       20% tax rate on mobile sportsbook betting revenue
•       15% tax rate on in-person sportsbook revenue
•       A block on players wagering on Massachusetts college teams

It does take time to do the sports betting market launch “thing” right as has been demonstrated over thirty times in other states where that activity has already been made legal, so don’t expect regulators to rush the job just to get it done, this billion dollar market is worth getting right.